The New Jersey city is now home to an ecosystem of funded programs that reduce violence while tackling the factors that drive violence and criminalized behavior—and it’s working.

Our legal system has always been singularly focused on identifying who caused harm and punishing them to the full extent of the law. To that end, our country spends over $266 billion dollars attempting to address violence through policing, prosecutions, and prisons. And yet none of those do anything to address the root causes of violence. I joined the Washington, D.C., US Attorney’s office in 2006, after earning my law degree and working several years at a firm, with the belief that the “right” people in power could fix a “broken” system that was often harmful to Black and brown communities.

Twelve years as a prosecutor showed me that I was wrong—especially when it came to violent crime. The way we respond to violence in our society begets even more violence. There is no conclusive evidence that the tired approach of ever harsher punishment reduces violence and builds safety. In fact, there’s evidence that imprisoning people for low-level offenses increases the likelihood that they will continue to be entangled with the system. In the United States, we put more people in prison than in any other advanced nation on Earth. Relying on policing and mass incarceration has curtailed the economic development and political power of Black, brown, and Indigenous communities, contributing to the continuance of inequitable practices and policies that do not serve people of color.

So in 2018, I left in search of solutions. And I’m certain that I found it in the community, and one in particular.

Since 2015, Newark, N.J., has been one of several cities that are looking to their people and grassroots leaders to redefine and build public safety. Community-centered public safety is about shifting the focus to the root causes of violence. Newark is now home to an ecosystem of funded programs that reduce violence while also tackling issues of poverty, unemployment, lack of access to mental health services, and other issues—factors that feed the source of violence and criminalized behavior.

Read the article from The Nation.