We Envision an oregon

… in which safety and security are created not by policing, but through investment in community. That ensures all people and families have stable housing, income, education, and connection to our cultures and the land.

If harm does occur, we have systems and structures in place to care for people who are harmed, while also honoring the humanity of those who cause harm.

THE PATHWAY: Abolition + alternatives to policing →

… that has transformed justice by rooting accountability for harm in cultural and community practices, not criminal processes. That takes the long view, developing trauma-informed policies that prevent root causes of harm from occurring. That invests in robust systems of healing and repair rather than punishment and prison.

We create conditions for family, community, and regional abundance and interdependence.

THE PATHWAY: Transformative + Restorative Justice →

… in which safety is created through community development and social systems that prioritize care and inclusion of our most vulnerable peoples. That effectively prevents crime by eliminating conditions in which interpersonal violence and childhood and community trauma occur.

THE PATHWAY: Preventing childhood + community trauma →

Abolition + alternatives to policing

We embody justice

We (re)develop collective skills, mindsets, capacities, and practices that make police abolition possible and sustainable.

We learn…

• How to interrupt violence without violence

• Principles and practices of self-determination and self-governance

• Mediation and restorative justice practices

• How to create safety and security outside of criminal-legal systems

• Interdependence and connection

Police do not cause harm

We ensure that those empowered to protect us do not harm us.

Communities define accountability

We develop community-based systems of justice in which the community determines and defines accountability, restoration, repair, and healing.

We Cherish Each Other Unconditionally

Safety looks and feels like inherent dignity, calm, and peace. No one fears mental, physical, and racist harm. Black and Indigenous children, children with disabilities, and children with immigrant and refugee experiences are raised in circles of community care, free of violence. Human rights are unconditional, and all people experience equity, inclusion, and belonging.

We Reimagine stewardship

We fundamentally redefine how people become stewards of community safety, including their roles, training, power, and decision-making rights. 

Transformative + Restorative justice

(Re)prioritize harm reduction + healing

Oregon transforms our approach to repairing the impact of person-to-person and community harm by offering services and approaches that humanize and heal people who commit crimes. We (re)develop our systems to focus on healing childhood and community trauma and support people who have committed harm in processes of reconciliation and repair.

End Systems of Punishment

We shift from systems of punishment to cultures of accountability. That learns from Indigenous systems of accountability outside criminal-legal practices. We end punishment as our primary mechanism to restore personal and community safety.

End Systemic Racism + Oppression

We recognize preventing the pervasive and unjust violence of racism, poverty, and other forms of systemic oppression as our most important pathway to violence and crime prevention. We use robust cultural knowledge and public health research to develop systems that prevent adverse outcomes associated with childhood and community trauma.

Repair + Reparations

We create transformative and restorative communities through reparations that account and atone for the harms caused by racist systems of policing and criminal-legal practices and policies.

Cultivate Abundance + Interdependence

We create cultures of abundance and interdependence as a primary mechanism to prevent person-to-person harm and community violence. We redistribute funding to prioritize investments in communities of color, ensuring people with disabilities, LGBTQIA2+ peoples, Indigenous, and migrant communities are thriving.

Truth + Reconciliation

We implement a truth and reconciliation process that names the ways that state and federal government policies and practices have created harm, creating inequitable and disproportionate risk of violence between and among people. We tell the truth and name practices of exclusion, institutionalization, and incarceration as failed methods of justice, prevention, and rehabilitation that unfairly and inequitably harm Black and Indigenous people, people with disabilities, immigrant and refugee communities as well as LGBTQIA2+ communities. 

Community Self-Determination

We honor and promote community self-determination. We create systems of cultural governance, accountability, repair, and healing. We ensure communities are able to resource and sustain cultural centers of communion, wellness, and life-giving supports such as food, shelter, medical care, mental and behavioral health care, and spiritual and cultural healing.

Preventing Childhood
+ Community Trauma

We Protect + Respect Children

We recognize and prioritize children’s inherent need for care and inclusion, where children’s unique cultures, ways of learning, family structures, and lived experiences are honored and celebrated. We eliminate the criminalization of children.

Universal + unconditional stability + inclusion

We (re)develop systems, services, and policies to ensure all Oregonians are included in community and have access to stable housing, income, education, medical care, dental care, behavioral and mental health services, and robust social and cultural supports.

Anti-racist Decriminalization

Oregon immediately works to decriminalize

• International migration and being undocumented

• Sex work and survival sex

• Houselessness

• Addiction, substance use, and other forms of mental illness

• Poverty, by eliminating cash penalties and criminal charges for low-level offenses including pandering, property theft, non-violent robbery, and driving while suspended

End criminal prosecution of children

Oregon ends criminal prosecution of children. We have a system that mandates that children not be prosecuted for offenses committed while underage. That refuses to punish children for migration and crimes of survival. That understands and prevents the life-long developmental impacts of community exclusion and separation, and eliminates detention, incarceration, and any form of forced community removal for children.

End mandatory minimum sentencing

Oregon ends mandatory minimum sentencing. We have a system that understands the unjust impact mandatory minimum sentencing has on family and community stability. That recognizes our existing criminal-legal system has a disproportionate and inequitable impact on Black peoples, including children.