Government is tasked with a core function of protecting the safety of our communities while upholding each individual’s constitutionally protected rights.

We believe this can be accomplished with an effective criminal justice system that concerns itself with crimes that violate the rights of others and reforms individuals who have committed such crimes, so that upon exiting the justice system, they are changed for the better. Upon reformation, individuals should be less likely to re-offend, saving taxpayer dollars while also creating a safer society.

The principles to create such a system are as follows:

1. Incentivize and reward good behavior of officers and individuals within the system, payment of restitution, and participation in rehabilitative and restorative opportunities including community service, work, and treatment in order to promote personal responsibility and reduce the likelihood of re-offending.
2. Utilize community partnerships with religious groups, charitable organizations, and families to offer alternatives to traditional sentencing including community service, mentoring, rehabilitation, mental health services, and education.
3. Create an efficient and transparent justice system with clear and comprehensive data collection across each agency of the system, while protecting individual privacy, to hold the system accountable by identifying how it can improve and save taxpayer money.
4. Support community safety and save taxpayer dollars by prioritizing the enforcement of crimes that cause identifiable harm to individual members of our communities.
5. Regularly review and amend agency policies, state legislation, and local laws to reflect the principles of evidence-based safety measures and effective rehabilitation rather than a reliance on overly-punitive criminal laws.
6. Prioritize individuals’ relationships with their families with open communication and, when possible and safe, home confinement rather than incarceration, as strong familial relationships are often the support system that’s vital for successful rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.

We, the undersigned organizations, affirm these principles and encourage their consideration by elected officials to ensure safe communities and justice for all.