Findings and Insights

Public health alternatives to policing and incarceration

Aggressive policing practices — such as persistent neighborhood surveillance, invasive engagement with residents like “stop-and-frisk” and arrests for low-level offenses — negatively impact individuals and communities. This type of policing can cause chronic stress, which accelerates aging and harms health, even for residents not in direct contact with police. Black and brown segregated neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to aggressive policing approaches. In this webinar, we discussed how public health and community-based organizations can partner to recommend policies that restore justice, promote community safety and advance equity. We heard from Christine Mitchell, a program director at Human Impact Partners, who discussed public health alternatives to policing. Mark Rice, the transformational justice campaign coordinator at WISDOM, shared how his experience with the criminal justice system has informed his work around incarceration alternatives that center healing for those who have suffered from trauma, addiction or mental health crises.