This Community Conversation is being presented free for social workers, their clients, and the general public. It is not CEU eligible.
Models of public safety that center police are premised on punishment and have far-reaching consequences, especially for young Black men. Beyond police brutality, which is the most life-threatening and visible failure of the current criminal justice system, frequent police interactions are linked to adverse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. These outcomes are exacerbated in communities of color. Due in part to a history of racial profiling, Black men in particular experience high levels of depression and anxiety over the very possibility of encounters with police. Taken together, these harms have prompted a widespread examination of the actions of law enforcement and a close evaluation of the role that budgets, which are a measure of municipalities’ values and priorities, play in funding ineffective and deadly practices that disproportionately target Black residents.
NASW-NJ is joined by Marleina Ubel, Policy Analyst and State Policy Fellow at NJ Policy Perspective, who will present the findings of her new report “To Protect and Serve: Investing in Public Safety Beyond Policing.” This report examines how New Jersey can create a safer, healthier, and more equitable state for all by reimagining public safety and exploring crisis response models that are not led by police.
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