Truth and Reinvestment: A Call for Reparations

Abstract

In a political climate where criminal justice reform has finally begun to gain traction among both the right and the left, the reinvestment of funds away from systems of punishment and toward community-based resources has also become politically possible. “Jobs, not jails” is a common rallying cry within the criminal justice reform movement, including at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, where we work to reinvest resources in jobs, education, health care, and housing for communities of color instead of wasting money on police and prisons. However, as long as political discussions about reforms and reinvestment continue to exist in a race-neutral sphere with no acknowledgment of the truth of this country’s long history of racial injustice, we move no closer to meaningful change and radical transformation of how the government cares for and is accountable to the people.