Today marks two years since the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (BOS) adopted the foundational recommendations of the Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup Final Report, a groundbreaking roadmap for decarceration and service expansion throughout the county. The model of the ATI Workgroup was unprecedented – not only in size and scope, but also in its inclusion of community decision-making power. Hundreds of community members were consulted and involved in the drafting of the report’s recommendations, including over 50 members of the JusticeLA coalition–several of whom were workgroup voting members and committee chairs. By adopting the foundational recommendations in the report, the BOS made a public commitment to invest county resources in developing a system based on care, not punishment. Two years later, we have not forgotten that promise and continue to hold the BOS to their commitment.
This visionary partnership between county and community produced a groundbreaking document rigorously developed through a consensus-based model. Through this collaborative process, community members worked side by side with the county, proving that when the community is allowed a seat at the table, government is more creative, holistic, efficient and effective. At the time of the adoption of the recommendations, Eunisses Hernandez, Co-Founder of La Defensa and a voting member of the county’s ATI Workgroup, called the report “a practical, yet powerful and visionary set of recommendations for how we could begin building out a decentralized community based system of care and housing first and foremost.” She uplifted the coalition’s demand to “stop the mass incarceration of our most vulnerable and unsupported community members in LA County.”
But our strong support was not without heavy concerns.
READ THE REST OF THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: