"THE UNTOUCHABLES" : New Approaches To Change Entrenched Political Patronage

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Many communities across the United States are considering new approaches to public safety that go beyond traditional policing, and the federal American Rescue Plan has given them a unique opportunity to make progress.

As states and localities grapple with the best ways to create safe communities, considering both the role of police and alternatives to traditional policing, the Rescue Plan offers resources that can help make new approaches possible. The Rescue Plan provides funds targeted for specific purposes, as well as flexible State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds intended to help states and localities rebound from the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan, enacted in March 2021, includes additional federal Medicaid funds for

- Mobile mental health intervention services;

- Education funds that can be used to replace school police and reform punitive discipline policies;

- Housing funds that can be used to reduce homelessness and create more stable communities; and

- Billions in flexible funding that states and localities can use to recover from the pandemic and to support communities hit hardest.

These resources can be used to invest in proven community-based approaches to public safety, shift some responsibilities from police to other government agencies, and make additional investments in their residents to foster stable communities.

Using Federal Relief Funds to Invest in Non-Police Approaches to Public Safety

November 18, 2021 | By Ed Lazere

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

 

Intro PLEASE NOTICE

 

These investments can improve public safety and public health.

Non-law enforcement approaches to issues such as mental health crises, substance use, traffic safety, or school safety — treating them as health, transportation, and education issues — have the potential to address them more effectively than law enforcement strategies and to achieve better outcomes.

> Shifting to policing alternatives also can address racial and other inequities in the criminal legal system, reducing unnecessary police stops that too often escalate and result in arrests and incarceration that disproportionately target people of color and communities that have been marginalized.

> Limiting interactions with police also can reduce acts of police violence or other avoidable harm that also disproportionately fall upon people of color, particularly Black people, and on people from communities that have been marginalized.

[...] In most cases, states and localities have several years to spend their Rescue Plan funds. This gives states a long runway to use federal resources to initiate these transformative public safety approaches, and time to plan for maintaining these programs with their own resources when the federal funds are no longer available.

Cities and States Should Consider Non-Police Approaches to Public Safety

Many communities across the U.S. are engaged in debates about the best ways to keep residents safe amid broader awareness of the problems of policing, but also in response to concerns about recent increases in violent crime. These communities are evaluating the proper role of policing, possible reforms to hold police more accountable, and non-police approaches to some aspects of public safety.

American Rescue Plan Can Be Used to Support New Public Safety Approaches

Creating new approaches to public safety that go beyond traditional policing will require new resources. Transferring responsibilities from police to other entities requires money to plan and start those efforts. Community investments to create more stable and safer communities, such as affordable housing, require substantial funding to address these problems on a meaningful scale.

The American Rescue Plan, enacted in March 2021 to alleviate COVID-19-related hardship and support an equitable recovery, creates a historic opportunity for states and localities to implement new approaches to public safety. It includes several targeted funds — in behavioral health, education, and housing, for example — as well as $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF) that can be used flexibly. Interim guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department, which is administering the Fiscal Recovery Funds, encourages states to spend the funds in ways that help residents hit especially hard by the pandemic and to reduce long-standing economic and racial inequities. For instance, the guidance clarifies that FRF can be used to reduce health inequities across racial and economic lines, and any spending in a low-income Census tract is assumed allowable. Finally, states and localities can use FRF to replace revenues that fell as a result of the pandemic and can spend these dollars on any program or service.

These efforts will likely require greater state government involvement, even though policing is mostly a local responsibility. State governments can provide support, including Rescue Plan funds, to enable and encourage localities to fund police alternatives. State leaders have an interest in public safety reform because it could positively impact state policy, such as through improving state economies and reducing state prison costs.

States have three years or more to spend Rescue Plan funds, depending on the source, and they can use the time during which federal funds are available to plan to maintain those investments with their own resources.

Affordable Housing

The Rescue Plan provides several sources of funds that can be used to create affordable housing in ways that provide stability and that can reduce interactions with the criminal legal system. Targeted affordable housing can address one of the main challenges to stability that people returning from jail or prison face; a lack of housing options contributes to recidivism rates.

• The Rescue Plan provides $5 billion for housing vouchers for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence. These vouchers are distributed to and controlled by local housing agencies. Use of these vouchers will contribute to more stable communities and therefore support public safety. Housing agencies could further connect these vouchers to public safety by designating a share for people returning from jail or prison who were formerly homeless or are at risk of being homeless upon release.
• The Rescue Plan provides an additional $5 billion to states and localities to build affordable housing, provide tenant-based rental assistance, acquire buildings to use as non-congregate homeless shelters, and provide supportive services.
• State and local governments can use their Fiscal Recovery Funds for affordable housing, as noted in Treasury’s interim guidance.
• States and localities also can use their FRF to invest in homeless-outreach services, as an alternative to having police respond to homelessness-related calls. This would help connect residents experiencing homelessness to services and reduce their risk of arrest and incarceration.

States and localities also can create sustainable solutions to homelessness by reducing reliance on law enforcement to respond to homelessness.Some communities effectively criminalize homelessness by outlawing activities such as sleeping outside, sitting in public, living in cars, or panhandling, and by relying on law enforcement to respond to homelessness. This subjects people to fines or jail time for not being able to afford a place to live. It also makes it harder for people to access housing, in part because public housing agencies and landlords often screen out applicants for criminal records.

Shifting Responsibilities From Police to Other Entities

The State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds create opportunities for states to fund new entities to take over certain responsibilities from police or provide services that can reduce violence and interventions by police. For example, states can fund new non-police traffic management entities and violence interrupter services.

Non-police traffic management

Violence interruption services.

Other Investments in Stable Families and Communities

Investments in basic services that support family and community stability, such as affordable housing and job training, contribute to greater public safety, research confirms. These investments support strong communities and reduce stressors that can contribute to community strife and violence. Communities with strong institutions to address violence and promote community well-being have lower rates of violent crime. Increased spending on social services is correlated with substantially lower homicide rates.

More specifically, states that spend more on housing generally have lower incarceration rates, perhaps because affordable and supportive housing programs offer a stable foundation for education, employment, and access to services.

[...] Stronger communities, stronger economies. Investments in affordable housing, high-quality schools, and job training have tremendous benefits. Affordable housing that reduces the likelihood of frequent moves, eviction, or overcrowding helps adults find and keep jobs and supports children’s educational success. These and other investments to address poverty can improve educational and economic outcomes for children and improve health outcomes for children and adults. Stable affordable housing reduces incarceration rates among children when they become adults.

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MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Report

States Should Use Federal Relief Funds to Jumpstart Long-Term Investments in a Better, More Equitable Future

October 7, 2021

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End Notes

^[1] Ed Lazere, “States Should Use Federal Relief Funds to Jumpstart Long-Term Investments in a Better, More Equitable Future,” CBPP, October 7, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/states-should-use-federal-relief-funds-to-jumpstart-long-term.

^[2] Washington Post, “Fatal Force: 943 People Have Been Shot and Killed by Police In the Past Year,” updated September 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/.

^[3] Elizabeth Hinton, LeShae Henderson, and Cindy Reed, “An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System,” Vera Institute of Justice, May 2018, https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/for-the-record-unjust-burden-racial-disparities.pdf.

^[4] See, for example: NAACP, “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet,” https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet and Hinton, Henderson, and Reed, op. cit.

^[5] U.S. Department of Education, 2015-2016 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-2015-16.html.

^[6] Data on prisoners from Roy Walmsley, “World Prison Population List,” 12^th edition, Institute for Criminal Policy Research, https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_12.pdf. Data on population from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. and World Population Clock, https://www.census.gov/popclock/world.

^[7] These data come from the Urban Institute’s State and Local Finance Initiative and its information on “Criminal Justice Expenditures: Police, Corrections, and the Courts.” See https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/criminal-justice-police-corrections-courts-expenditures.

^[8] Vera Institute of Justice, “What Policing Costs: A Look at Spending in America’s Biggest Cities,” https://www.vera.org/publications/what-policing-costs-in-americas-biggest-cities.

^[9] Civilytics Consulting, “Pricing Policing in Your Community,” https://www.civilytics.com/policing/price_of_police/.

^[10] Research indicates that the rising spending was not the cause of the crime reductions. See Phillip Bump, “Over the Past 60 Years, More Spending on Police Hasn’t Necessarily Meant Less Crime,” Washington Post, June 7, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/07/over-past-60-years-more-spending-police-hasnt-necessarily-meant-less-crime/.

^[11] Interim final rules were issued as guidance from the Treasury Department in May 2021 to enable states and localities to start spending Fiscal Recovery Funds. As of the publication of this analysis, final rules were still being developed. The interim final rule on allowable uses of the Fiscal Recovery Funds is available at https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-and-tribalgovernments/state-and-local-fiscal-recovery-funds#main-content.

^[12] The interim final rule notes that a broad array of expenditures in qualified Census tracts are eligible uses of FRF. A qualified Census tract is one in which at least half of the households have income below 60 percent of the area median income or at least 25 percent of households have incomes below the federal poverty line.

^[13] Ashley Traube, Patricia Goozang, and Jocelyn Guyer, “American Rescue Plan Creates Opportunity for States to Invest in Equitable, Comprehensive and Integrated Crisis Services,” State Health and Value Strategies, April 30, 2021, https://www.shvs.org/american-rescue-plan-provides-a-new-opportunity-for-states-to-invest-in-equitable-comprehensive-and-integrated-crisis-services/; and Amam Saleh et al., “Deaths of people with mental illness during interactions with police,” National Library of Medicine, May-June 2018, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29853001/.

^[14] According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a law enforcement approach often means that “Frequently the quickest and easiest solution is arrest and incarceration of the individual,” where fewer than one-third receive treatment. See SAMHSA’s “Executive Order Safe Policing for Safe Communities: Addressing Mental Health, Homelessness, and Addiction Report,” https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/safe-policing-safe-communities-report.pdf.

^[15] The following states received planning grants: Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. See https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/behavioral-health-services/state-planning-grants-for-qualifying-community-based-mobile-crisis-intervention-services/index.html.

^[16] Traube, Goozang, and Guyer, op. cit.

^[17] See information on CAHOOTS at https://whitebirdclinic.org.

^[18] Jackson Beck, Melissa Reuland, and Lisa Pope, “Behavioral Health Crisis Alternatives Case Study: CAHOOTS,” Vera Institute of Justice, November 2020, https://www.vera.org/behavioral-health-crisis-alternatives/cahoots.

^[19] Vera Institute of Justice, “Investing in Evidence-Based Alternatives to Policing: Civilian Crisis Response,” August 2021, https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/alternatives-to-policing-civilian-crisis-response-fact-sheet.pdf.

^[20] Vera Institute of Justice, “After Weeks of Protest, a Look at Policy Changes in U.S. Policing,” July 22, 2020, https://www.vera.org/policy-changes-in-us-policing.

^[21] Nora D. Volkow, “Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Criminalized,” Health Affairs, April 27, 2021, https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210421.168499/full/.

^[22] Anna Bailey et al., “Medicaid Is Key to Building a System of Comprehensive Substance-Use Care for Low-Income People,” CBPP, March 18, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/medicaid-is-key-to-building-a-system-of-comprehensive-substance-use-care-for-low.

^[23] U.S. Department of Treasury, “FACT SHEET: The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Will Deliver $350 Billion for State, Local, Territorial, and Tribal Governments to Respond to the COVID-19 Emergency and Bring Back Jobs,” May 10, 2021, https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/SLFRP-Fact-Sheet-FINAL1-508A.pdf.

^[24] Ibid.

^[25] Michael Waldman and Adureh Onyekwere, “Ending Mass Incarceration: Ideas from Today’s Leaders,” Brennan Center for Justice, May 16, 2019, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/ending-mass-incarceration-ideas-todays-leaders.

^[26] Whitaker et al., op. cit.

^[27] Chicago Teachers Union, “Counselors, Not Cops: The Research behind the Call for Police-Free Schools,” July 15, 2020, https://www.ctulocal1.org/reports/counselors-not-cops-research-behind-the-call-for-police-free-schools/.

^[28] Chloe Latham Sykes, “Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools,” Intercultural Development Research Association, February 2020, https://www.idra.org/resource-center/racial-and-gender-disparities-in-dress-code-discipline-point-to-need-for-new-approaches-in-schools/.

^[29] National Housing Law Project, “The Important of Stable Housing for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals,” Housing Law Bulletin, Volume 40, June 2010, https://nhlp.org/files/Page%208%20Doc%201%20NHLP%20Bulletin%20Article%20Reentry.pdf.

^[30] Peggy Bailey, “Commentary: We Need Rental Assistance and Services, Not Punitive Policies, to End Homelessness,” CBPP, January 27, 2020, https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/commentary-we-need-rental-assistance-and-services-not-punitive-policies-to-end.

^[31] Elayne Weiss, “Housing Access for People with Criminal Records,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, March 2019, https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/AG-2019/06-07_Housing-Access-Criminal-Records.pdf.

^[32] Laura Bliss, “The Road to Removing Police From Traffic Enforcement,” Bloomberg CityLab + Equality, April 14, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-14/how-to-get-safer-streets-minus-the-police.

^[33] See Vera Institute for Justice, “Non-Police Responses to Traffic Safety,” August 2021, https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/alternatives-to-policing-traffic-enforcement-fact-sheet.pdf.

^[34] Peter Hermann, “He used to sell drugs on D.C. streets. Now he’s paid to make them safer,” Washington Post, December 14, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/he-used-to-sell-drugs-on-dc-streets-now-hes-paid-to-make-them-safer/2018/12/13/eea91b66-e12e-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html.

^[35] Cure Violence Global, “Our Impact,” https://cvg.org/impact/; and Cure Violence Global, We Can Cure Violence: Handout, 2019, 1, https://perma.cc/E79R-G56X.

^[36] Chelsea Thomson and Leah Sakala, “Investing in communities to promote public safety,” Urban Institute, November 28, 2019, https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/investing-communities-promote-public-safety.

^[37] Heather L. Simpsa et al., “Spending on social and public health services and its association with homicide in the USA: an ecological study,” BMJ Open, August 2017, https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/10/e016379.

^[38] Matthew Freedman and Emily G. Owens, “Low-income housing development and crime,” Journal of Urban Economics, September-November 2011, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094119011000301?via%3Dihub.

^[39] Steven Raphael and Rudolf Winter Ebmer, “Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on Crime,” Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 44, No. 1, April 2001, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/320275?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.

^[40] Jennifer Doleac, “New evidence that access to health care reduces crime,” Brookings Institution, January 3, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/01/03/new-evidence-that-access-to-health-care-reduces-crime/.

^[41] For a summary of research findings on the positive impacts of affordable housing programs, see Claire Zippel, “A Broken Foundation: Affordable Housing Crisis Threatens DC’s Lowest-Income Residents,” DC Fiscal Policy Institute, December 8, 2016, https://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DCFPI-Broken-Foundation-Housing-Report-12-8-16.pdf.