Crime, punishment, safety

In the most recent episode of the Neighborhood Matters podcast, I talked to Jessica Brand, the Austin-based executive director of the Wren Collective, a group of former public defenders who advocate for more holistic approaches to crime prevention. In their words:

"Our North Star is replacing ineffective and often disingenuous approaches to crime and safety with those that support victims, keep people healthy and safe, and help everyone thrive and live with dignity."

I’m often frustrated by how imprecise our debates about criminal justice are. There is a lot of discourse from the right about cracking down on crime and a lot of discourse from the left about the cruelty of the carceral state, but I find very few instances of people describing their ideal balance of punishment and rehabilitation. 

Hence my conversation with Jessica! I pressed her on what she thinks the appropriate sentence is for a given crime, whether it is wise for criminal justice advocates to place such an emphasis on race, and why it's so hard for prosecutors to admit they've got the wrong guy. We agreed on some things and disagreed on others. I appreciated her complimenting the lego of my cat sitting behind me.

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