Everyone seems to have an opinion on prisons and jails. But a recent, groundbreaking study dared to ask, and answer, the question: “What do victims of violent crimes really want?”
First, only 30% of survivors in the U.S. report feeling very safe in their community. That already tells us whatever solutions and systems we currently have are not working. So it only makes sense that fully 82% of survivors would rather invest in crime PREVENTION instead of incarceration.
But here’s the kicker.
The most marginalized victims in the study believe in prisons the LEAST! Women, for example, are more anti-prison than men.
And while Black people are nearly 33% more likely to experience violence than white people, we are most likely to prefer rehabilitation and prevention measures instead of punishment in prisons. And that checks out.
The majority of white, higher-income men report feeling safe, while the majority of us DON’T. So when we’re talking about public safety measures, who do you think prisons and policing are actually intended to create safety for?
And who would you rather listen to: proponents of a system that benefits from criminalizing and brutalizing us, or Black survivors of violence whose needs go far beyond what we've been told? There is power in deciding to imagine and choose for ourselves the world we want to see. Let's join them.