Prevention is Priority. Interventions that prevent harm, like those that prevent disease, enable individuals and communities to live well. We believe that the vast majority of harm stems from policies that manufacture vulnerability, encourage individualism, and enable exploitation. Much of this harm is preventable with different policy decisions.

Harm as Unit of Analysis. Harm, rather than the sociopolitical construct of "crime," better describes threats to safety and health. Centering harm requires a systems based approach that embraces structural determinism. It also allows us to see clearly how the punishment system inflicts tremendous interpersonal and structural harm.

Reject Carceral Humanism. We do not believe in building a better cage. Any form of carceral investment and expansion, including the development of “kinder, gentler” surveillance or policing, occurs at the expense of far superior alternatives. We support non-carceral, community investments coupled with diversion, decriminalization, and decarceration.

Justice Beyond Punishment. Justice and accountability involve repair. The criminal legal system relies on dehumanization and deprivation, rendering it incapable of delivering justice or safety. Justice requires transformation and seeks to ameliorate the conditions that give rise to harm.

All Carceral Deaths are Policy Failures. The unrelenting death toll at the hands of police and carceral institutions is amoral and untenable. These deaths result from a violent combination of organized abandonment and structural neglect.

Jail Care is Failed Care. No resource should be predicated on criminalization and incarceration. We do not celebrate the delivery of basic social or clinical services in a jail but view it as a reminder of the myriad of inadequate social systems that exist today.

Embrace Harm Reduction. Harm reduction offers a lens through which we can build meaningful connections, meet people where they are, and reduce preventable suffering. It empowers us to embrace the complexity of individuals, reject coercion, and celebrate positive change.

Public Safety Not Policing. Safety cannot come through a system premised on coercion and violence. There is an urgent need for investments that minimize crises, responses that are tailored to needs, and education that severs the ideological link between policing and public safety.