Tiffany Cabán

I’ll say it again - Where are the binding community investments? Our communities are in crisis. We can and should be investing billions into housing, healthcare, harm reduction & violence interruption. Investments that are *proven* to reduce harm and increase safety.

Incarceration has been a failure. It perpetuates harm and further destabilizes lives, ensuring that the same historically oppressed and marginalized folx continue to cycle into and out of our criminal punishment system.

We must demand more from electeds. Don’t be fooled by rhetoric that this plan is the best we can hope for. For ex., an argument repeatedly made- they have no control over how many people our judges & DAs send to jail, so this is as good as it gets. That’s simply not true. Ideas..

A commitment to appoint judges who will not circumvent the progress made in Albany by abusing their power to remand. Increased education and transparency around judicial elections so people have an opportunity to know who they are voting for when they step inside the ballot box.

A commitment to support legislation & policy that decriminalizes poverty, mental health & substance use disorder. Creating & supporting systems of first responders that aren’t police officers to reduce police violence & inappropriate arrests.

Protecting our communities from corporate bad actors, predatory lending, union busting, etc to reduce the widespread destabilization they cause that then drives other offenses. The list goes on and on. Enough with the creation of false binaries.