The solution is not more money. In fact, numerous studies have shown that evidence-based prevention programs reduce the overall long-term costs – not to mention the immeasurable human costs – associated with crime and violence.  What criminal justice reform really asks of us is to look at a bigger picture and to collaborate  more creatively across institutional and social boundaries.
 
The pursuit of public safety should be a community-building process that engages all stakeholder groups (members of law enforcement, crime victims and their families, incarcerated people and their families, mental health advocates, teachers, social workers, policy makers, and community members at large) in their common desire to protect human beings and human values where threatened by violence, injustice, and/or institutional indifference and neglect. Values of tolerance, inclusiveness, respect and good will must be embedded not only in the desired outcomes but also in the means for achieving them. Optimal responses should generate healing and empowerment for victims of violence, and also provide opportunities for those who have inflicted harm to gain self awareness and to take responsibility for their actions.
 
We’ve coasted too long in a mind-set that thinks of violence as someone else’s problem and someone else’s responsibility. It’s a problem that affects us all in one way or another. It can’t be solved with most of us sitting on the sidelines.