Law Office of the COOK COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER 69 W WASHINGTON • 16TH FLOOR • CHICAGO, IL 60602 • (312) 603-0600 Amy P. Campanelli • Public Defender April 15, 2019 Recommendations to the Public Safety and Accountability Transition Committee for Mayor-elect Lightfoot from the Public Defender Dear Mayor-elect Lightfoot: Thank you for the opportunity to serve on this transition committee. A few recommendations are provided below: Enhance Data Collection, Sharing and Transparency  Collect information on more data points, with emphasis on race, age, and residence of arrestees. For offenses where there is a victim, collect similar information on victims that can inform victim assistance and potentially reduce the risk that today’s victim will become my client tomorrow.  All data collected should be put on a public facing dashboard and also available in a raw, deidentified format. Increasing the amount of information available to the public increases transparency and increases trust. There is no reason to hide the data, since it can be obtained via FOIA. Be upfront with it: o The dashboard containing information should contain two levels – first level would put the data into context, while the second level would be the raw data. o Post the data on a public facing web site monthly, with a complete collection at year’s end in an annual report – there is an immediate opportunity to leverage the existing partnership that CPD has with the MacArthur Safety + Justice Challenge grant to request funding to supplement CPD’s current data sharing capacity. o Include among the data points positive interactions between police and the community. Keep track of positive interactions and publicize them to help regain community trust.  Utilize data to drive allocation of resources, as opposed to the allocation and assignment of officers being a political or personnel decision.  Replace all legacy computer systems with a unified and current computer system that would allow sharing of information between city departments – and eventually, county and state. There should be some strategic planning for a long-term implementation of such a system.  Leverage federal grant dollars for the continuation and expansion of Shotspotter.  Reform the Shakman hiring practices imposed on CPD to enable hiring within a shorter time frame. There should be an immediate review of the current hiring practices and long-term strategy to bring the city into substantial compliance. Accelerate reforms at CPD so all Chicagoans benefit from effective and accountable policing A lot of the groundwork for accelerating CPD reforms has already begun with the federal consent decree that was entered by Judge Robert Dow. This administration should prioritize supporting the work of the monitors and ensure that the CPD is doing everything in its power to not only comply with the provisions of the consent decree, but exceed them. While I commend the work that went into negotiating the final consent decree, I would encourage the city to consider going above and beyond to ensure that the following actions are included in the CPD reform work:  Clarify in CPD policy that as soon as possible upon arrival at a police station or other place of detainment, but no later than one hour after arrival, except where it is physically impossible for the officer to do so, a person who is detained or under arrest by law enforcement, must be given physical access to use a telephone via a land line or cellular phone to make up to three telephone calls and the ability to retrieve phone numbers contained in his or her contact list. The person’s right to have access to a phone renews at each new place of custody. This should be implemented immediately.  One thing that CPD is already doing, but can improve upon, is displaying posters with the phone number of the Cook County Public Defender and any other organization appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County in each and every room where persons are held in custody, except cells, and also notifying individuals of their rights upon arrest.  This administration should voluntarily work with community leaders to design, develop and implement a formal structure for civilian police oversight, which was recommended by the police accountability task force.  Examine non-law enforcement police co-responder models that can be implemented in Chicago to reduce the number of unnecessary arrests of individuals with severe mental health issues.  Incentivize police officers to live in (thereby invest in) the communities in which they police.  This administration should publicly acknowledge the code of silence that has persisted within the police department. Acknowledge it and then develop a plan to destroy it with CPD leaders who are also willing and able to publicly acknowledge it as well.  Expand the Bridging the Divide program within the police department as a mechanism for building positive relationships between police officers and the young people they encounter in their work on a daily basis. Respectfully submitted: Amy P. Campanelli Public Defender of Cook County Mayor-Elect Lightfoot Transition Committee Recommendations To: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot From: Ahmadou Dramé, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Legislative Affairs at Safer Foundation SUBJECT: Implementation and Priorities of the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services How the new administration can infuse the values of equity, transparency, accountability, diversity and inclusion and transformation in this initiative. In the Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services (or RISE, a less stigmatizing name of the proposed Mayor’s Office of Returning Citizens Affairs), the Lightfoot administration will infuse the Mayor’s elect’s values throughout city government as well as this office. RISE would bring a holistic approach to reducing crime and recidivism by developing opportunities for people with records to become employed and trained in high-demand industries, and eliminating barriers and creating opportunities in employment, housing, healthcare, education and stabilizing support services. Justification: The recidivism rate in Illinois is 39.1%, and one recidivism event costs 151,662.1 From a public safety perspective, law enforcement spends too much time and resources policing people who will not re-integrate successfully without proper assistance. Annually, over 11,000 people return to Chicago neighborhoods from the Illinois Department of Corrections.2 People with convictions have a higher unemployment rate, currently 27% which was the U.S. unemployment rate during the Great Depression.3 This population also experiences disproportionate rates of chronic health conditions, infectious diseases, mental health and substance use orders, and also is high risk for hospitalization and overdose upon release from incarceration.4,5,6,7,8,9 According to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, 1,200 individuals are released directly from prison to homeless shelters in Chicago annually, while as many as 48% of people in Chicago emergency shelters report having a felony conviction.10 Chicago’s affordable housing crisis is especially severe, with 48% of households being cost-burdened compared to 31% nationwide.11 Our taxpayer resources would be better spent if invested in human capital development, and programs and services that help mitigate violence, lower the rate of recidivism, improve public health, narrow the skills gap, and build economic mobility. The Opportunities: Employment: The current unemployment rate is 3.8%.12 The labor force participation is near a 50 year low - just below 63%. The ratio of job openings to job seekers is 2 to 1.13 The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that 50 million people will retire, twothirds from living wage jobs without a college education. Almost 30% of those released from incarceration are still unemployed a year later. Chicago’s local businesses need a new labor pool. The combined budget of the agencies for which the Mayor of Chicago has either direct authority or makes appointments totals approximately $20 billion.14 Medicaid Expansion and the Social Determinants of Health: Social determinants of health include, but are not limited to: housing, education, employment, transportation and justice system-involvement. The recent expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act presents an opportunity to reform the justice system by addressing the needs of people whose unmet health conditions drive their criminal behavior. Addressing these health conditions improves both justice outcomes, through lower recidivism rates, and health outcomes through fewer emergency room visits.15 With these rare forces aligned, there is a unique opportunity to transform how view and approach reentry as a city, and connect Chicagoans with records to a holistic set of supports. What is happening today that we need to keep? The Lightfoot administration should scale-up the following initiatives: 1. Scale-up the Chicago Transit Authority Apprenticeship Program. Apprentices receive a year’s worth of training and work experience. They are paid during the training period and must comply with program and not recidivate in order to receive: (1) a certificate of completion; (2) a letter of reference, (3) or to apply to CTA vacancies. 2. Make the Chicago Housing Authority Reentry Housing Pilot Program a permanent program and scale it up to meet the current need. Currently, participants must meet the following criteria: (1) be at least 18 years old and formerly incarcerated; (2) Agree to live with family members who agree to live in CHA or are participants in the Housing Voucher Program; (3) Agree to a 2-year commitment and comply with work requirements; (4) Obtain a recommendation from a partner organization. 3. Scale-up the REBUILD Construction Program. This program rehabs 50 houses in high violence neighborhoods, creating training and employment opportunities for 200 returning citizens. 4. Scale-up the Neighborhood Cleanup Program. Departments of Streets and Sanitation and Family Support Services (DSS, DFSS) provide transitional employment to residents with prior convictions. Participants learn how to operate gas-powered weeding devices; mowers; hand saws; pruners; loppers; edgers; de-weeding; and picks. The curriculum, employment and support services are designed to enhance entrance into maintenance and landscaping careers. 1 Mayor-Elect Lightfoot Transition Committee Recommendations 5. Increase the number of Reentry Employment Centers to meet the current need (there are only two in the entire city). There should be at least one in each of the city’s 7 highest reentry neighborhoods. 6. Scale-up the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership’s resources to meet the needs of people with records. 7. Promote the procurement ordinance that encourages city contractors to hire diverse management teams and workforces, and employ people from vulnerable populations in the city’s procurement process. 8. Continue and expand efforts under HealthyChicago 2.0 to address health equity including areas around employment/workforce development and a prioritization of the justice-involved population. What we need to implement in the next 100 days 1. Introduce and Pass an Ordinance Establishing the Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services (RISE), which would: a. Streamline and coordinate reentry services in Chicago. b. Advance policies and programs at the city, state, and federal level that remove barriers and create opportunities for people with records in employment, housing, accessing healthcare and supportive services. c. Support and scale up community-based social service programs to meet the city’s need. d. Represent the Mayor’s Office on councils and working groups addressing issues related to reentry and public safety. e. Partner with the county, state and federal government to pursue grants, coordinate resources, and improve policies. 2. Appoint a Director to lead RISE; hire and onboard staff. 3. Establish and convene a Chicago Reentry Council, led by the Director of RISE, to address recidivism by: a. Require all City of Chicago departments, World Business Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Chicago Transit Authority, and City Colleges to develop second chance apprenticeship programs; and identify opportunities to support the citywide annual goals related to the employment, housing, health and treatment services for people with records. b. Identify and support sound initiatives focused on the justice-population in the areas of justice reform, the opioid epidemic, behavioral health, housing and employment. c. Create a Second Chance hiring program modeled after Philadelphia. Identify city jobs that are not sensitive to having a record and end background checks for them, and establish hiring, contract and apprenticeship goals in every entity mentioned in subsection (a). 4. Bring Chicago Housing Authority policies into compliance with the Fair Housing Act and HUD’s 2016 Guidance. 5. Pass a Fair Chance Housing Ordinance that requires housing providers to consider an applicant’s income and credit score before inquiring solely about their adult conviction background, evidence of rehabilitation and mitigating circumstances. What we can plan for longer-term implementation. 6. Housing: (1) Identify housing barriers and current housing initiatives at the city and state level; Develop recommendations and an implementation plan. (2) Increase the availability of temporary and transitional housing for individuals released from jail and prison, including the repurposing of vacant buildings into reentry hubs. (3) Establish a partnership with the County Assessor to provide property tax incentives to employers and landlords that hire and rent to people with records. 7. Health: (1) Identify health issues affecting the justice population, current initiatives aimed at addressing this population’s health at the city, state, and community-based level, and develop recommendations and an implementation plan. Relevant areas include the opioid crisis, mental health, substance use, primary care, Medicaid, and social determinants of health. (2) Conduct an audit of all city programs to identify opportunities where Medicaid can be leveraged to free up city funding to address issues that Medicaid does not cover, such as housing, education, and transportation. 8. Employment: Partner with private sector employers to identify high demand living wage employment opportunities and hire people with records. The city can help by building a pipeline for people to get into green and white collar careers. 9. Transportation: Develop justice involved transportation hubs and resources, such as: Metra, Pace, and CTA passes, discounted ridesharing services, pick-up and drop-off hubs. What challenges we might encounter in executing this initiative. 1. Technical challenges implementing employment and housing best practices, but hiring and housing resources do exist. 2. Push back from those who do not believe that people with records deserve a second chance. 3. Internal conflicts; departments and agencies losing control over reentry programs and budgets. 2 Mayor-Elect Lightfoot Transition Committee Recommendations End Notes 1 State of Illinois, Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council. (2018). Illinois Results First: The High Cost of Recidivism. Retrieved from the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority website: http://www.icjia.state.il.us/spac/pdf/Illinois_Result_First-The_High_Cost_of_Recidivism_2018.pdf. 2 Business and Professional People for the Public Interest & Roosevelt University Policy Research Collaborative. (2018, September).No place to call home: Navigating reentry housing in Chicago. Retrieved from Business and Professional People f or the Public Interest website: https://www.bpichicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/No-Place-To-Call-Home.pdf. 3 Couloute, L., Kopf, D. (2018). Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people. Retrieved from: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html. 4 Karberg, J. and James, D. (2005). Substance Dependence, Abuse, and Treatment of Jail Inmates, 2002. (NCJ 209588). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics 5 Steadman, H. J., Osher, F. C., Robbins, P. C., et al. (2009). Prevalence of serious mental illness among jail inmates. Psychiatric Services, 60, 761–765. 6 Binswanger IA, Krueger PM, Steiner JF. Prevalence of chronic medical conditions among jail and prison inmates in the USA compared with the general population. J Epidemiol Community Health. Nov; 2009 63(11):912–919. [PubMed: 19648129] 7 L. Maruschak, M. Bersofsky, and J. Unangst. Medical Problems of State and Federal Prisoners and Jail Inmates. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report (NCJ 248491), U.S. Department of Justice, February 2015 8 Wang, E.A., Wang, Y.,F., Krumholz, H.M. (2013). A high risk of hospitalization following release from correctional facilities in Medicare beneficiaries: A retrospective matched cohort study, 2002 to 2010. JAMA Internal Medicine. 173(17), 1621-1628. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.9008. 9 Lim, S., Seligson, A. L., Parvez, F. M., Luther, C. W., Mavinkurve, M. P., Binswanger, I. A., and Kerker, B. D. (2012). Risks of Drug-Related Death, Suicide, and Homicide During the Immediate Post-Release Period Among People Released from New York City Jails, 2001-2005. American Journal of Epidemiology, 15;175(6). 10 Mayer, C. Reichert, J. (2018). The Intersection of Homelessness and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority: http://www.icjia.state.il.us/articles/the-intersection-of-homelessness-and-the-criminal-justice-system 11 Mayer, C. Reichert, J. (2018). The Intersection of Homelessness and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority: http://www.icjia.state.il.us/articles/the-intersection-of-homelessness-and-the-criminal-justice-system 12 United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 13 Korzenik, J. (2018). The Economy & Workforce: The Reentry Opportunity. PowerPoint presentation prepared for Safer Foundation’s 2018 CARRE Conference with data retrieved from the US Department of Labor. 14 Compiled by totaling the expenses listed in the most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports for the City of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Chicago Transit Authority, and City Colleges. 15 Guyer, J., Bachrach, D., and Shine, N. (2015). Medicaid expansion and criminal justice costs: Pre-expansion studiesand emerging practices point opportunities for states. Retrieved from https://www.shvs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/State-Network-Manatt-Medicaid-Expansion-andCriminal-Justice-Costs-November-2015.pdf 3 To: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot From: Andrew V. Papachristos, Ph.D. Topic: A City-wide Coordinated Gun Violence Reduction Initiative: Community Rapid Response and the Mayor’s Office for Gun Violence Prevention This memo outlines two ideas for the development of a city-wide effort at reducing gun violence that address two of Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s stated objectives: (1) to align city services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence, and (2) to implement coordinated community-based violence reduction strategies. These two objectives are ambitious and complicated and, yet, offer a new vision for how the city might usher in a bold agenda for addressing gun violence. Any serious, coordinated, city-wide plan to reduce gun violence must consider short-term, mid-range, and longterm dimensions of gun violence that often compete with one another for resources and public attention. Shortterm approaches to gun violence can be thought of as triage, an attempt to reach and save the lives of those at most immediate risk of victimization. Mid-range approaches extend beyond immediate periods of risk by focusing on trauma reduction and coordinating the social actions of local partners to address pressing neighborhood concerns. Long-term approaches must develop novel and sustainable initiatives aimed at improving the social, economic, and educational conditions associated with neighborhood vitality. A coordinated strategy must consider all three levels of action at the same time and include city, as well neighborhood, actors in coordinated responses. Below, I discuss an immediate response designed to jump-start such an effort within the first 100 days of Mayor-elect’s term and then describe the critical importance of developing a long-term strategy and management process. First 100 Days: Community Rapid Response Effort The Mayor-elect should coordinate and deploy a Community Rapid Response (CRR) effort to manage episodes and outbreaks of gun violence; a trial run of such a CRR must be accomplished within the first 100 days of the Mayor-elect’s term to lay the foundation for long-term, sustainable change efforts. Following similar practices in other public health sectors, CRR should entail a coordinated and data-informed deployment of a range of non-police resources and services towards populations, communities, and individuals at risk of, or in the immediate aftermath of, gun violence as well as communities experiencing outbreaks of gun violence. Centralized leadership within the Mayor’s office—in coordination with other offices and departments— should review and analyze data on outbreaks of gun violence on a real-time basis. This will set the stage for the longer-term development of a Community Strategic Decision Support Center (CSDSC), staffed by non-police data-analysts and violence-prevention experts who will provide actionable information to the CRR and support their efforts by directing appropriate services and supports to particular locations and individuals.1 The CSDSC will provide real-time review and analysis to direct gun violence responses towards those communities, hot-spots, and individuals most immediately in harm’s way; such information should also be used to stimulate localized social action and support community mobilization efforts. Such a CRR should include—but not be limited to— crisis intervention and support, direct outreach efforts, violence interruption, victim services, and emergency trauma responses. 1 This should be a community-oriented, non-law enforcement parallel to the Chicago Police Department’s Strategic Decision Support Centers. The launch of the CRR should engage and coordinate existing programs. Several groups, such as the Violence Reduction Working Group and Chicago CRED, have been actively engaged in asset mapping of existing gun violence reduction efforts to support on-the-ground violence prevention efforts. Street outreach and violence interruption organizations have recently expanded and coordinated their efforts through collaborations such as Communities Partnering 4 Peace. Several outreach organizations have developed or are developing a rapid response approach, for example, “Rapid Reduction” and the “<399 Strategy.” And, new initiatives including READI Chicago and the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago are using such outreach as a point of engagement and diversion into other immediate services that have been shown to reduce incidence of future violent events such as cognitive behavior therapy, transitional employment, victim services, and trauma care. Coordination and asset mapping should extend to other city departments and services, including housing, education, and public health which should coordinated with CRR efforts. If properly and expeditiously mobilized, the CRR could be launched for the Summer or 2019; its efforts should be tracked and evaluated to modify and guide future efforts. FIGURE 1. A Possible Model for a Community Rapid Response Effort Individuals most at risk Data Community Rapid Response Team Community Strategic Decision Support Center Analysis and Risk Assessment in centralized city-lead department Analysis Includes key partners from across city agencies, non-profits, neighborhood associations, etc. Area 1 Social Action Area Teams Short term: Focus on a small number of areas (and people within areas) most at risk Long term: have smaller area centers that mobilize on the ground. Must be neighborhoodbased Review, Evaluate, oversight, feedback, & adjustment Area 2 Area ... Long term Oversight / Transparency Develop mechanism of transparency that follows principles of procedural justice. People know how decisions/referrals are made—why Response Team went where they did, talked to whom they talked, etc. Trauma Reduction Outreach, Service, & Referrals Street Outreach Trauma-informed/health Emergency Medical/Health/Housing CBT Education Other Long-term: The Development of a Mayor’s Office for Gun Violence Prevention Drawing on the data, results, and experiences gathered through the CRR, a coordinated, centralized gun violence reduction effort should be developed within the proposed Mayor’s Office for Gun Violence Prevention. This office should be adequately funded and staffed, with a direct report to the Mayor, so as to plan and coordinate all related efforts across the city—including how such efforts will be translated into Chicago’s neighborhoods.2 While the Chicago Police Department will likely play a role, it is essential that this office be driven by non-law enforcement actors in The Mayor’s Office with the goal of being a truly collaborative city-wide and neighborhood-focused endeavor. One of the most important things the police can do to lead and rebuild its relationship with the community, is to learn how and when to engage. This Office should be charged with the development of a suite of intervention (short-term), prevention (midrange), and development (long-term) efforts with a sole and focused purpose of reducing gun violence and its associated harms and trauma. In addition to developing protocols and recommending “best practices,” this office will also coordinate efforts across city agencies (e.g., police, fire, public health, education, etc.) and construct a system that diffuses practices and programs into neighborhoods. The office should build an oversight and accountability structure aimed at reviewing practices and programs on a regular basis; this should include the publication of an annual report on office activities and established outcomes. 2 The city can and should look towards models taken in other cities, such as Los Angeles, Gang Violence and Youth Development (GRYD) Office. TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Beth Brown, Pastor of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church RE: Objective - Implement Coordinated Community-Based Violence Reduction Strategies Proposed Initiative: To require every Council member, Department Head or CEO employed by the City of Chicago to participate in data aggregation, listening, racial equity training and creating cross-department strategies for racial equity if they have not or are not already doing so. This initiative includes requiring every City of Chicago employee, including the entire Chicago Police Department, to go through at least the racial equity training and at most the entire 4 step process. In addition, this process should be in each job description and tied to performance reviews to ensure accountability. This is a macro-approach to community-based violence reduction rather than a micro-approach. The goal is for every person who is working on violence reduction to understand their work through the lens of racial equity. Rationale: There are as many conversations happening about violence and violence reduction strategies in the City of Chicago as there are shootings each year. Sometimes the conversations go as deep as to ask about the root causes of violence and sometimes they simply focus on how to stop the bleeding, figuratively and literally. More often than should be the case, the conversations include how to stop police officers from committing the violence. When the root causes of violence are discussed, the topics of poverty, trauma, lack of economic opportunity, the impact on whole communities of mass incarceration, the under-funded or closed schools contributing to inequitable education, and gangs being the largest employers, come up as causes of violence that need to be addressed. So often, though, what is missing from these conversations is a deep awareness and articulation of how racism (prejudice plus power) created each of these root causes and how racial equity work could be part of the solution. This is not for the purpose of navel gazing or self awareness, but to create teams of people who know how to use data that has already been collected to create strategies, to listen to what to what is actually going on in departments and in people’s experiences of those departments, to understand racism and how to transform systems for racial equity, and to strategize effectively within and across departments. If the people working on solutions to poverty don’t understand the racial equity issues that created the poverty in the first place, how will they know to do it differently? If the people working on enforcing the consent decree and the leadership of the police department don’t understand how racial equity issues have created officer violence, how will they know to do it differently? If we eliminate the gang database without realizing what led to it in the first place, how will we keep the next tool for racial profiling from being used? We continue to focus on schools or community centers or precincts without realizing that if we can get all of the leaders of these institutions to be trained and held accountable, not only will individuals be transformed, but so will their departments and eventually the whole institution. Infusing the Values: Equity: There is no path to equity unless we first do a deep dive into how things were set up to be inequitable and are still set up that way according to racial lines. Transparency: The Trump presidency has taken the lid off of pretending that racial inequity is a thing of the past. Imagine what would happen if the leader of the third largest City said that it’s past time to do our work as a City on becoming anti-racist and that includes the institutions. Accountability: There are some amazing people and groups in Chicago that have been doing this work for years and they know how to set up accountability for doing the hard work of creating racially equitable institutions. If you are training leaders of the various institutions and departments, they become accountable for creating change and transforming their area because it is tied to job performance. Diversity and Inclusion: There is not a single conversation about diversity and inclusion that can happen without a conversation about, and then deep dive into, racial equity. Transformation: Every person I know who has done this training has been transformed by their new awareness, knowledge and strategies. When we are transformed, we become those who are able to bring about transformation in others. What is happening today that we need to keep? I am unaware of any training that is happening city wide or at the city level in racial equity, but my guess is that where there have been complaints, there might be some departments doing some amount of work and it may or may not be enough. In specific terms of community based violence reduction, I think there are many organizations who are doing great work and who have done their own work on racial equity. One organization is IMAN - Inner-City Muslim Action Network. They have created a model that could be reproduced in many neighborhoods with wholeness in mind. They have a health center that includes behavioral health services, a housing program and job program for formerly incarcerated people to transition back into society (Green Re-Entry program), community organizing training and events, a ceramics studio, an arts and culture program, the Fresh Market stand as part of their food justice, and so much more. How can the city not only support IMAN, but also help them to reproduce their programs around the city by working with other organizations? Their model is working - let’s learn from it. What do we need to implement in the next 100 days? In the next 100 days, let’s get 100 of the top leaders employed by the City of Chicago to participate in the four step process toward racial equity and to agree to have it built into their job descriptions and job performance reviews for accountability. Every Council Member, CEO or Superintendent or Department Head who works for the City, as well as the Mayor-elect, should be included. What we can plan for longer term implementation? Longer term implementation can include spreading it throughout the rank and file of every city of Chicago employee. What challenges might we encounter in executing on this initiative? The three big ones would be money, time and motivation. The money would be well worth the result and I think there are some large foundations in Chicago that would be interested in funding this (for example, the Field Foundation and MacArthur Foundations recently launched a 5 million dollar program to help make Chicago more racially equitable) initiative. The time for the training part is initially not more than 3 days and would be time well spent and it can count as work. The motivation is the biggest obstacle. White people will resist doing work on racial equity because we benefit greatly from the systems that have long been in place. Is there anyone who wants to add accountability to their jobs? Not many. And building in the accountability is the key to this working. There will likely be a great deal of union pushback on a number of fronts. Great! Then we can really begin the work. Suggested Trainer: Xavier Ramey, CEO and Lead Strategist for Justice Informed, LLC MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Eddie Bocanegra, READI Chicago Transition Committee: Public Safety and Accountability RE: Mayor’s Office for Returning Citizens Recommendation: The Mayor’s Office for Returning Citizens can position Chicago as a national leader in integrating returning citizens into our community, our economy, and the fabric of our city by removing barriers to housing, creating access to jobs and education, and expanding social services. What We Need To Keep: There is growing evidence that employment is a deterrent of violence and recidivism. Programs like One Summer Chicago and CTA Second Chance are each showing promising results with the hiring and training of youth and adults, respectively, who have been involved in the justice system. In addition, the City Colleges are creating pathways to education for returning citizens, and organizations like Cara Chicago, Heartland Alliance, Safer Foundation, and St. Leonard’s are providing vital supports. The City should continue to support and expand access to effective efforts, including to individuals with Class X backgrounds (as they face particularly significant challenges). Where We Need To Invest: In Illinois, nearly five million adults (50%) have an arrest or conviction. This is the highest in the nation. These residents–most of whom call Chicago home–face persistent barriers to work, housing, and well-being. We are missing incredible economic opportunity and human potential by not engaging and supporting these individuals. Federal, state, and local laws restricting rights and opportunities for people with a criminal record create a tightly woven web of barriers, the collateral consequences of which can affect nearly every aspect of a person's life. In Illinois, there are nearly 1,500 constraints on rights, entitlements, and opportunities for individuals with a criminal record, many of which deny or restrict access to employment and housing among other things. Every year, nearly 12,000 people are paroled to Chicago and most are returned to just a handful of highly disadvantaged communities. In addition, approximately 10,000 annually exit probation in Chicago yet continue to face discrimination and marginalization because of their criminal background; in most cases, this is exacerbated by a cycle of violence, trauma, and poverty. An innovative strategy to integrate returning citizens will incorporate and bridge early release and reentry services and supports. It will bring to bear Chicago’s best leaders in social service, policy and the corporate sector—along with their expertise, creativity, and grit. And it will break down formidable barriers to housing for returning citizens, convening key stakeholders including the Chicago Housing Authority, affordable housing developers, the Chicago Low-Income Trust Fund, landlords, and social service providers to develop a sustainable continuum of housing solutions for returning citizens and, in many cases, their families. In leading this work, I encourage the Office for Returning Citizens to partner with the Re-entry Housing Task Force of the City’s Violence Reduction Working Group. Infusing Values: Equity and Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion, Transparency and Accountability The Office for Returning Citizens must reflect the inequitable representation of African American and Latino men in our prisons and jails. Nearly 90% of those returning from prison or jail to Chicago are minorities, predominantly Black and Brown. They are also disproportionally at a disadvantage for other basic standards of living, including housing and employment. I encourage the Office for Returning Citizens to represent the population it will serve. This means a radically inclusive approach – an office that is not only composed of African American and Latinx individuals, but one that is also composed of people with experience in prison and jail. This lived experience – combined with government, policy, and program expertise – has the potential to help this office become transformational. The Mayor-elect must change city hiring policies to encourage returning citizens to apply for positions across city departments and agencies. I encourage the Mayor-elect and her administration to set targets and monitor progress in recruiting, hiring, retaining, and promoting returning citizens. First 100 Days: • • • Form a task force composed of state and county government leaders, community leaders, law enforcement, nonprofit leaders, criminal justice advocates, policy experts, and mental health experts. The transition sub-committee developed to inform the Office for Returning Citizens could join the task force as founding members. In partnership with this new task force, the Mayor’s Office for Returning Citizens should embark upon a listening tour. During this tour, which would span other cities in the US and possibly around the globe, they should examine early release and re-entry models, conduct focus groups with individuals who are incarcerated and those who have returned to their communities, and leverage lessons learned from implementing effective practices. In addition, the Task Force and staff should conduct a needs analysis to assess gaps in existing services, systems, and policies. Following the listening tour and gap analysis, the Office should begin to develop a best-in-class strategy for integrating returning citizens into the city, with a targeted focus on removing barriers to housing, creating access to jobs and education, and expanding social services. This strategy should also begin to assess the differentiated needs of people coming in and out of jail versus those returning from longer stays in prison. Longer-Term Implementation: Over time, the strategy to support returning citizens must be strengthened in partnership with IDOC, Cook County Jail, and IDJJ. An effective strategy will begin while individuals are incarcerated, to ease their transition and provide a more viable path forward upon their return. Further, the Mayor-elect will need to use her political capital to advance city-wide hiring policies so that returning citizens can find meaningful, lasting employment with the City. In taking this step, Chicago will serve as a model and example for our corporations and nonprofits to follow. Importantly, other major cities, including Philadelphia and New York, have paved the way on this front. Finally, I encourage the Mayor’s Office for Returning Citizens to advocate for city and state policy reforms that will remove unjust and burdensome collateral consequences facing this population. Challenges: This is a controversial population to support; simply creating this Office will likely incur political backlash. Further, these recommendations will require significant effort across city and state bureaucracies, which can slow progress. MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Eddie Bocanegra, READI Chicago Transition Committee: Public Safety and Accountability RE: Mayor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention On behalf of Heartland Alliance and READI Chicago, our proposal is to expand the Office of Gun Violence Prevention’s mandate beyond traditional prevention to explicitly support and expand secondary and tertiary gun violence prevention efforts – in other words, to infuse a public health approach. What We Need to Keep: The City has invested in critical primary and secondary prevention efforts, including after school programs, summer jobs, and mentoring. Together these initiatives offer stability, skills, and support for thousands of youth; they have become a critical part of our city’s social fabric. We encourage you to maintain these efforts and more deeply infuse a public health approach – ensuring, for instance, that these initiatives address root causes and that staff deliver trauma-informed care. Where We Need to Invest: The Mayor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention will drive a significant, sustainable decrease in shootings and gun homicides by simultaneously investing in initiatives that reach youth and adults who are already justice-involved and/or acutely at risk of community violence. Since gun violence spiked in 2016, Chicago’s philanthropic community—led by the Chicago Sports Alliance, Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, and corporate leaders—has invested in collaborative efforts in communities hardest hit by violence. This includes secondary prevention like Communities Partnering for Peace and Chicago CRED, which offer street outreach, rapid employment, and case management, and tertiary prevention like READI Chicago, which targets individuals at highest risk of gun violence involvement and offers transitional employment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and coaching. This work is now primed for investment from the Mayor’s Office as part of a broader public safety agenda. Early indicators demonstrate that these secondary and tertiary prevention efforts are reaching Chicagoans traditionally disconnected from social services and positively impacting the lives not only of those most acutely at risk of gun violence involvement but also their children, partners, extended family, neighbors, and affiliates. Leading with Values: • Transformation and equity: Decisions made during your first term will determine whether and how we emerge from this public health crisis. Making the politically tough decision to expand the city’s investment in gun violence reduction by including individuals generally considered beyond reach or unworthy of investment and community-driven interventions on our South and West Sides will not only to reduce shootings and homicides but also put our entire city on more solid ground. • Diversity and inclusion: The Mayor-elect’s early efforts to engage residents from across the city show promise, and a decision to invest in secondary and tertiary intervention will unleash new opportunities. Bring community-based organizations and coalitions, leaders, returning citizens, and residents into design, planning and decision-making. Include youth and those who are reentering our neighborhoods. Recognize both the trauma and resilience in our communities. • Transparency and accountability: Make public the city’s investment in gun violence prevention, and the impact we anticipate seeing based on that investment. Create a community-driven Advisory Council that brings together Chicagoans from across the city; given the disproportionate impact of gun violence on the South and West Sides, reflect this in their representation. Ensure the Council has real voice and can inform the Mayor-elect’s decisions. First 100 Days: 1. Launch an action-oriented, partnership-driven Office of Violence Prevention that explicitly includes secondary and tertiary prevention in its mandate. More intentionally and visibly lead and direct the Violence Reduction Working Group with a focus on stemming the violence this summer, while assessing and improving the relatively new group’s effectiveness. 2. Learn about violence reduction strategies taking root in communities most impacted by gun violence. Engage with and listen to community residents and leaders, meet with staff and participants from new and innovative prevention programs (whose leadership is fundamentally collaborative and transparent) like Communities Partnering for Peace, Chicago CRED and READI Chicago, and align the Office of Violence Prevention’s objectives and plans with lessons learned. 3. Ensure Chicago’s FY2020 budget marks the beginning of a substantial, sustained commitment to preventing gun violence by investing in individuals and communities most impacted by its wrath. Make equitable investment decisions based on effectiveness, promise, and sustainability. For Longer-Term Implementation: • Lead the development of a public-private investment strategy to prevent gun violence in Chicago. Work in close partnership with state leadership, the private sector, and philanthropy to advance a cohesive strategy. Meaningfully engage communities and the nonprofit sector. • Fully fund a reliable, substantial line item in the city’s budget beginning in FY2020. Ensure funding is equitably distributed, with a focus on impactful secondary and tertiary prevention efforts focused on communities and individuals most impacted by gun violence. • Monitor and support the effective implementation of violence prevention strategies. Hold grantees accountable, but also identify ways the city can support those front-line workers who are engaged in what can be challenging and traumatic work—e.g., offer cross-sector training in trauma and healing (i.e., bring police officers, physicians and outreach workers together), leverage City Colleges and CDPH to support frontline staff and participants, and provide technical assistance to small community-based organizations. Challenges: Identifying and allocating a significant, ongoing funding source is a challenge we must overcome. Investing resources in communities and individuals who are largely without influence and resources is one that will demand political will. This will require that the Mayor-elect tackle deeprooted inequities and make a compelling case that investing in our most devastated communities will make a positive, lasting impact on all of our communities. Finally, violence prevention requires a longterm commitment. Right now, we are still in crisis mode. But when we turn this corner, intensive prevention efforts will still be essential—particularly in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be continuing to fund violence prevention once this storm passes. To: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot From: Jermaine Harris, Public Safety and Accountability Committee Focus Objective: Create the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Gun Violence Prevention. Public safety and violence prevention are community concerns. It is thereby imperative that the actions taken also be community efforts. I will share my ideas on addressing gun violence by the initiative to rebuild community relationships through a collaborative concept. Great expectations exist for Chicago law enforcement professionals. Policing and community/police relationships is often the center of attention in conversations. There must be an honest revelation in that the Chicago Police Department is not equipped to offer solutions to these problems on its own. A police officer carries various equipment devices on his or her belt of which none of those tools are designed to address the social ills that drive crime and violence. An arrest cannot repair a neighborhood. To live up to the expectations of the community, we must develop partnerships to fill the voids. The Department sits in an ideal position to leverage its influence to solicit the support of the many outstanding communitybased organizations operating within the City of Chicago. Building trust is often mentioned as a necessary step in addressing violence and encouraging cooperation. Unfortunately, the detailed steps required to accomplish that outcome are not mentioned at the same frequency. Accomplishing our trust and relationship goals can be achieved through collective impact. The focus areas of collaboration and community empowerment offer a means to repair relationships and simultaneously address violence. COLLABORATION While the fields of expertise between police and community organizations differ, the core principle of improving the quality of life of those in less fortunate circumstances is a mission that unites us. Before Districts can be expected to develop quality relationships, they must be afforded an opportunity to learn the best practices for doing such a thing. It is essential that these relationships be made on the district level. Emphasis on these partnerships should happen within the next 100 days. The people on the ground in the communities we seek to restore will be required to work together intimately. Establishing a sense of understanding and trust between the Executive Directors of organizations and the District command and supervisory staff will create buy in for joint efforts by staff and officers. As Districts begin to learn about non-profit organizations operating within their area it will quickly become apparent that many of these groups are equipped to address district concerns. By entering a partnership with several of these organizations, the District can in the long term develop a community-based alliance similar to the Austin Response Team operating in the 015th District that is designed to supplement all law enforcement efforts with community-based resource allocation. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT Our goals should always move us towards sustainability. Progress is fragile when it is not built by the people. Empowerment comes from inclusion; inclusion in the entire process: ideas, development, and resolutions. By actively moving towards empowering our residents, we concurrently create an environment where violence decreases. I have been a part of several initiatives in which CPD utilizes its influence to bring community organizations and employment agencies directly to people in most need of support. These vulnerable citizens are often the voice-less. The sight of Chicagoans huddled around a laptop on a street corner for an opportunity to apply for a job or receive educational assistance is evidence of the hunger that resides in our neglected communities. Within the next 100 days, we must take steps to lift up our neglected neighborhoods. It is essential that this just not be in the form of financial investments but also in a concentrated effort to shift the narrative and mentality. Give the senior citizen in the middle of the block a seat at the table, invite the police officer who spends more time patrolling west side streets than he does at home, extend a seat to the single mom on the 3rd floor of the apartment complex, pull up a chair for the young man who recently returned from prison. Remind residents of their power and help us realize that like our new mayor we too are agents of change. Sincerely, Jermaine Harris TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: John O’Malley- Public Safety and Accountability OBJECTIVE: Prioritize Reforms-Enhance Professionalism-Deploy Resources Effectively Issue #1: Accountability Too often we hear about holding officers accountable. What does this really mean? How can we get to the point so that the public understands what it means and what they should expect from those whose number one mission is to SERVE and protect? The proper setting of the accountability table begins at the top and should then belong in the hands of the front line supervisors. It has often been said that the backbone of any police department is the patrol unit. While true, that often gets overlooked and ignored. The reality in Chicago is that often times, Sergeants are left supervising way too many officers in addition to being accountable for officers they don’t really know. The patrol officers know this and don’t feel that they are properly supervised and therefore the level of accountability is watered down to a level of uncertainty. This is a recipe for unchecked behavior that leads to officer conduct that is destructive. As a member of the Chicago Police Board, and as a former law enforcement manager who oversaw and managed over 100 law enforcement officers, I found and find that most disciplinary cases stem from a lack of proper training and a lack of proper supervision and accountability prior to a bad act occurring. How to change this cycle:       Increase the level of front line supervision by identifying officers with strong leadership qualities and make them team leaders of patrol. Team leaders can help the front line supervisors manage the task of holding officers accountable and reduce their supervision workload so that more focus is put on evaluating the performance of the officers and dealing with members of the community to hear and address concerns. The team leader concept is not new and is in place on many law enforcement operations and can be implemented in every day patrol maximizing efficiency. Creating team leaders for all shifts will help professionalize the patrol units and that professional attitude will transfer into the community once they realize the beat officers are being supervised and being held accountable. Re-define tactical teams in the CPD. Get rid of the jeans and baseball caps concept and professionalize these units. Put them under the detective areas and dress them in professional tactical gear. They are not covert units. Everyone from 4 year olds to senior citizens knows they are the police. Make sure they are visible. Making them look and act professional translates to respect from the community and the respect goes two ways. Happening today that we can keep: Look at successful units like the bike unit and how they manage their mission. Adopt those positive concepts into patrol. Implement in the next 100 days: Prepare the guidelines and pilot the program in two districts. Longer term: If successful, the program can be implemented city wide. Challenges: Finding the right team leaders. Push back from patrol officers and the FOP. Demand for higher pay for TLs. Issue #2: Resources to fight violent crime and increase clearance levels The CPD is a large monster. New ideas try to blanket the entire agency and therefore get lost in the enormity of the task and lose focus on solving the problem the idea was intended on addressing. We have a resource problem in the Chicago PD. We will often saturate an area at the detriment of “slow districts”. We send way too many officers and resources to federal task forces with the notion it is helping a local problem. While many of these task forces are doing excellent work, they often become victims of their own success. Officers assigned to these task forces often lose their CPD identity and lose focus on the mission of the city and the CPD. Many of the task forces are duplicative focusing on gangs/drugs/guns and are led by federal agencies who supply the manpower multiplier and the financial resources. They are also led in theory by the sponsoring federal agency. FBI, DEA, ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service all have dedicated space, resources, training, equipment, and dedicated Chicago police officers assigned full time to the targeted mission. We need to look at the numbers and make a complete re-evaluation of these resources and determine what the return on investment truly is for the not only the Chicago Police Department but for the citizens who are on the receiving end of the violence. How to change this cycle:      Create a team to help identify exactly how many officers are dedicated to federal agencies. Exactly what problem are they solving for and what is the benefit to the community. How can these resources be better aligned and targeted to specific missions helping the communities in the most need. Create a CPD led task force with resources provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) not CPD providing resources to the Department of Justice. Look at existing DOJ programs such as Project Safe Neighborhoods and Project Exile to determine if these programs could be successful in targeted CPD districts. Happening today that we can keep: The foundation of the task force concept. There is much we can learn from some of the task forces that are having an impact. Implement in the next 100 days: A working group formed to create a detailed reporting of existing task forces and the benefits to the community. Longer term: Keep the task force funded, staffed and held accountable to the community they serve by showing the impact on reducing violent crime. Challenges: Getting everyone to play nicely in the sand box. Push back from the many task forces already in existence. Dealing with the many DOJ agencies that often times are in completion with each other and lose sight of the real mission of keeping everyone safe and reducing violence. To: Mayor-Elect Lightfoot From: Luis Gutierrez Date: April 15, 2019 Committee: Public Safety & Accountability Public safety is one of the most important issues facing Chicago today -- it is impossible to address public safety effectively without also addressing equity. As such, any public safety strategy needs to be directly connected to local economic development, housing, mental health, domestic violence, and education strategies. We must allocate the appropriate funding to the issue and adopt a community-centered approach if we expect to see results. Every plan should be translated in various languages to ensure accessibility to community members with limited English proficiency, with special emphasis on training related to immigrant individuals, who face a unique set of challenges. Working now​: ● ● ● In some neighborhoods, the Chicago Police Department has already begun to collaborate with neighborhood coalitions. Many neighborhoods throughout the City have community tables already actively working on issues of public safety; where police-community table collaboration is already happening, the City should invest more heavily into these efforts, and in other neighborhoods, the City should expand CPD presence into already existing community tables. Many organizations are already working to reduce community violence, whether it be through violence prevention programming in schools, recidivism reduction through services for individuals re-entering society, or violence interruption initiatives. The City should continue to support and invest in these efforts. Continue the practice of not sharing information with immigration enforcement. Chicago is already one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the country, and the assurance that immigrant families will not be outed to ICE increases community trust in law enforcement, making immigrants more likely to feel confident reporting crimes, sharing knowledge with law enforcement officers, and viewing law enforcement officers as allies. In the first 100 days: ● Create a Deputy Mayor position focused on coordinating all efforts surrounding public safety across sectors, including domestic violence efforts, with the responsibility to interface with community tables. As the City currently has many neighborhood-level violence prevention/interruption initiatives across different departments, it can be difficult for community members to access information about them or know who to contact. A ● ● ● ● ● Deputy Mayor that reports to the mayor and to the public will increase community members’ ability to access these initiatives and improve accountability and transparency. Create an independent oversight board comprised of community residents, law enforcement officers, and City officials to oversee and evaluate the City’s public safety and accountability work. Adopt a community-centered approach, creating a structure that brings public safety initiatives, forums, and round tables to each community and allows for learning between communities. Travel outside of one’s immediate neighborhood is a barrier for community members in neighborhoods with significant public safety challenges; in order to truly engage the individuals impacted most by community violence, the City’s initiatives must originate and take place within communities. Eliminate the Chicago Gang Database; the recent AG report points to the inaccuracy of the Database, which has the potential to penalize many innocent individuals and presents a significant barrier to creating positive public perception of law enforcement as an ally in public safety. Develop a Community Safety Plan centered on creating opportunity for at-risk and re-entering individuals, including initiatives in local economic development, education​, affordable housing, mental health services, violence interruption and response, domestic violence services, and workforce development for individuals re-entering society. Create a grants program that funds organizations working on matters of community safety, including recidivism reduction, interruption & response, and programs aimed at creating stronger relationships between community members and law enforcement. Grants should be allocated directly proportionately with violence statistics in each community, evaluated each year, but given on a three-year cycle to ensure sustainable change. In the first year: ● ● ● ● The City should advocate with the State for additional funding for public safety programs in the City. Create programming that connects law enforcement with community members to strengthen relationships; building off of the structure developed within the first 100 days, the City should analyze available data to pilot the community-based public safety strategy in high priority neighborhoods. Create a system where mental health is at the center of law enforcement’s responses to incidence of violent crime, where law enforcement officers are taught to prioritize provision of mental health services over prison time whenever it is safe and possible to do so, and where mental health providers are mobilized to respond to individuals and immediate communities directly impacted by violent crime within 24 hours of a report. Plan and execute a public summit on safety issues in Chicago, with workshops on relevant topics (such as community-police relations, mental health, domestic violence, and more) led by issue-area experts from impacted communities. @?m?thcgammum'ty of @4657?; 1210 West St. Sabina (78th) Place 0 Chicago. Illinois 60620 0 Phone (7 73) 483-4300 - Fax (773) 483-?583 53 ntsabinaorg April 8, 2019 Mayor Elect Li ghtfoot, Here are my initial suggestions and recommendations: 1. All City Departments must understand your commitment to equal the playing ?eld and enforce your vision. When street lights go out on the north side they are repaired/replaced immediately while on the south side that?s can take weeks. City services, lights, trees, garbage, etc. must be prioritized by areas where services have been neglected and violence is most likely. We must target south and west sides with services. Janice Jackson must prioritize schools in neighborhoods. Children should not have to go across the city to ?nd a good school. a. Every school must be given the resources needed and be held accountable to be a school of excellence. Therefore staff and teachers must be in place, be committed, and held accountable. Education should not depend on your zip code or race. b. Every school, private, public, or chatter should plan some ceremony and/or program between now and the end of the school year to teach our children tips for safety, how to be peace makers, and how to further reach out if they feel afraid or have information they wish to share. Our children must be taught they are not victims but partners in this peace making. c. Every school should have a ?peace club? that plans events and trainings for their school 3. Every police district must have a concrete plan to build relationships with community, especially the youth. It should not depend on whether the commander or CAPS person are motivated or not, but every district must have an aggressive and concrete plan now that they turn in to the superintendent! 4. The 14 or so neighborhoods where most violence happens has similar statistics: a. Double digit unemployment b. Underfunded and underperforrning schools ?0 ?An African American Catholic Communio/ of Faith, Education and Service? 10. 11. Lack of access to mental health care Most incarcerated returning without support or opportunities in place Lack of economic development Lack of opportunities and resources Neighborhoods look like 3rd world countries, the playing ?elds must be leveled There must be a city plan and strategy to eradicate these inequalities The Department of Planning, which has failed the west and south sides, must put together a plan and bring in businesses and development to abandoned areas. Chicago must be a strong voice for common sense gun legislation nationally, pushing for Federal and State Laws that make gun owners reSponsible. ?Title Guns Like Cars? For years, we have consistently heard that there are several thousand jobs available right now in the city, but peeple don?t have the necessary training to hold them. Why not ask companies, who have these jobs to join together, give them one of the closed public school buildings, and have them train individuals with the commitment to hire them at the end of the training. Corporations in the city and country have made a lot of money under Trump?s tax breaks, but no one has asked them to commit any of their pro?ts to investing in programs and developments on the south and west sides, it?s time for them to do just that. Convince each business in Chicago to commit to hiring 5 to 10 18-28 year olds from the most unemployed areas to address the high unemployment problems. A city plan to revive community?s residents to become engaged and involved in neighborhood plans engagement and responsibility. We must call the city residents to come alive again. Reach out to radio and TV station general managers to come up with a summer marketing plan to call for communities to become involved in summer safety, maybe a citywide campaign. carnage . A charge to churches, mosques, and synagogues to teach peacemaking in their pulpits and have peace maker trainings in their places of worship. And call on the religious institutions to reach out to the communities where they are. TITLE GUNS LIKE CARS GUNS ARE TOO EASY TO Gun violence has risen to epidemic level across America, from Oakland, CA. to Newark, NJ. The United States leads the world in firearm possession. As a result. ?rearms are used in l5.000 homicides, another 15,000 suicides, and 1,500 accidental deaths each year. Currently, there are a number of places where there are virtually no limits on gun ownership. Easy access to guns has caused the murder rate to rise in exceeding numbers, taking the lives of countless childreneliminate the easy access to guns, in order to prevent the senseless killing in our community. Solution: Require that guns be registered and licensed the way cars are. Rationale: Both guns and cars can be deadly. Ownership of a car requires registration. If guns are registered like cars, it would prevent unlawful citizens from easily acquiring a gun, thereby diminishing the number of gun-related deaths. It is often said, ?Guns don't kill people: people kill people." That mindset must be changed. People with guns kill people. It is also often said that criminals will always get guns. Not true! This is why we want to title guns iust like we do cars, right from the manufacturer. The owner of every car can be traced for the lifetime of the vehicle. In fact, it a person does not transfer the title and does not report it stolen, s/he is held responsible for any accident it may be involved in. If we title guns like_cars, law-abiding citizens can obtain a gun but they will also be responsible for every gun they purchase. How would it work: The titling of guns does not interfere with a person's second amendment rights, rather, it would stop the unlawful easy access to guns! Just as everyone must have a license to drive a car, everyone would be required to have a license to own a gun. The licensing exam would test gun safety knowledge to help reduce accidents, which are extremely common. The licensing process would also help officials weed out those who should not be allowed to purchase guns, such as felons and the mentally unstable. Like a driver's licenses, gun licenses would have to be renewed every few years, and could be suspended for violations. It the gun manufacturer, N.R.A. and gun control activists, all share a common desire to save lives and keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people, we should all agree that it?s time to save our children, st0p the violence, stop the easy access and title guns like cars. Rev. Michael L. P?eger, Pastor, The Faith Community of Saint Sabina 1210 West 78th Place, Chicago, Illinois 60620 773.483.4300 (Office), 773.483.7583 [Fax] Emergency Times Demand Emergency Response ALL HANDS ON DECK . Law enforcement. If we are spending $100 million on overtime and focusing on violent ridden communities, and yet homicides and shootings are spiking, we need to re-evaluate strategy and see what is not working. . Parents, adults, neighbors, teachers, pastors - must aggressively reach out at every opportunity to talk to youth about the violence and their decisions, company, knowledge of situations and focus on their ?iture. There should be directed discussions in all schools, alternative schools, churches - as to what they think should be done and can do. . Fed, State, County and City Law Enforcement must send out a strong clear message to anyone running guns. We need to put fear in individuals, stores, cars, homes, abandoned buildings, anyplace and anyone letting them know we are coming for you and will demand the hardest of sentencing. . Use Get-In Chicago money to help ?md "1 Steps" to rescue the youth on the street, reaching out to those not in school or work and provide options. A place for youth to come and get support for present situations and plug them into education and job opportunities. . We need to open up city parks during the day with sports and activities to get young people off the street and give them places to go and activities to be involved in and have a staff person there who would address each person with information as to what they are in need of GED, city college, job, etc. . Every resident in the community, elders, adults and teens must feel a responsibility to be engaged and involved in the block and neighborhood, be the safety net and interact with our youth, we need new blue lights, Human Blue Lights so that when a shooting takes place, it will be an expectation to report information. Until shooters fear an engaged community they will continue. We must create an atmosphere that the community will not tolerate it any longer and say, "Enough"! . We must actively build the bridge between law enforcement and community. The distrust is high and you will not solve crime divided - an aggressive action plan must be deveIOped in each district and must be activated as soon as possible. mama What Can I Do? - HOUSE We are calling on grandpar- ents, parents and all home owners and apart- ment renters to go through your place of resi- dence from the attic to the basement on a reg- ular basis in search of any hidden guns or drugs. If you ?nd any call 911 or call St. Sabina at 773-483-4300 to get them out. We cannot allow our homes to shelter crime. Come out of your house 81 talk to your neigh- bors. Be the blue light on your block. Talk to your children St the children on your block. They are not your enemies. They are our sons, our daughters. our future. Have your church, synagogues or mosques come out in their neighborhood and also offer programs for neighborhood youth. Call legislators and tell them to pass common sense gun laws in Spring?eld at (217) 782.2000. Also, call The White House at (202)456-1414 asking them to ban assault weapons, and title guns like cars. . Call 911 or St. Sabina at 773-483-4300, if you have any information on gun selling or criminal activities. Other Important Phone Numbers Emergencies 911 Non-Emergencies 8: City Agencies 311 Narcotics Hotline 1.800.CRACK.44 Saint Sabina Church 773.483.4300 Purpose Over Pain 773.234.8117 (Support group for parents who have fast chifdren to gun Violence.) BREAK TIIE 000E [If TEXT THE WORD Followed by your anonymous tip to CRIMES (274637) For more Information: Faith Community of Saint Sabina, 1210 W. 78th Chgo, IL. 60620 773.483.4300 (Church Of?ce) Rev. Dr. Mlchael L. P?eger, Pastor To: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot From: Maria Pike Align city services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence. We recognize that gun violence does not exist in a vacuum-- guns are trafficked or sold into Chicago through federal loopholes and neighboring cities and states. Thousands flood our streets, and we must deal with this at local, state and federal levels. We also recognize that Chicago’s urban gun violence root causes go deep and must be addressed. The recommendations below are only a part of a long list of needs that, if met, will have the effect of transforming the community into an all-inclusive stakeholder effort giving equity to areas who have suffered the most from disinvestment in its people and their communities through comprehensive provision of services. These services must address trauma, mental health in schools (SEL, counselors, etc.), citizens outreach, gun violence and violence survivor trauma-informed services, wrap-around services for returning citizens, and improved relations with CPD. We must recognize that not one organization has the answer, but all must work together. These efforts in our diverse communities must include residents who will hold providers accountable and transparent when coming up with their own unique solutions in their specific geographical areas in a multi-prong effort across the city with support of citizens and its leadership. A. We need to keep and invest in communities by providing UNINTERRUPTED support of violence prevention efforts across the City. They include organizations that utilize focused deterrence like Heartland Alliance and CRED (that have given rise to READI), IMAN and the Restorative Justice Hubs which provide a good example of localized investments in community relationship building, needs assessment, and service models that ultimately create higher functioning people that are less likely to engage in violence. We must also support Urban Farming, Dollar Lots, Community Housing Rehabilitation projects, Tiny Homes projects, One Summer Chicago, Lights in the Night, Positive Loitering and others. B. In the near-term we need to be committed to expanding the services listed above including trauma- responsive services such as outreach, job readiness, mental health provision, and quality education for people who are court-involved. We desperately need to address the results of several decades of hypercriminalization in communities. We need to develop a relationship with IDOC to demand more pre-release services for people that will be released back to Chicago neighborhoods. Additionally, we need to commit to spending public safety dollars that build healthy options, treatment, and development for people rather than systems that disable, criminalize, and dehumanize in the name of “accountability”. This starts with better relationships between youth and police, with the community and better policing practices. Trauma care for officers should be integrated, compulsory, and meaningful, as opposed to voluntary, sporadic, or negatively reinforced. There is a serious concern that untreated trauma/PTSD in a stress filled job can lead to unnecessary victimization of communities or self-hurt. Seven (7) suicides within the force have taken place in the past few months. This is unacceptable, tragic, hurtful and must be prevented at all costs. Commitment to addressing trauma in our first responders promotes better quality of services and relationships between CPD and the community. Victim Services should be strengthened with organizations like Chicago Survivors, that provides victim crisis response to families of all Chicago homicide victims. Social workers and counselors can be embedded to assist police officers to prevent and address trauma to promote better care for community. Trauma Recovery-Centers that are imbedded in community are very necessary for our survivors of violence/gun violence and community in general. We need to think about places like school facilities (servicing both school and community), re-purposing of closed schools or underutilized city owned spaces, field houses in park districts, or other places where those that are most burdened by trauma and institutionalized violence can easily access services by walking in and requesting them. We have a high number of survivors in need of trauma/grief counseling. Mental health services are needed. There is a lack of counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists in schools. Schools are often the path to criminalization for people that are highly traumatized. We need to create CPS curriculum that includes Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Civics, Ethics, address toxic stress utilizing proven data driven efforts like Quiet Time (QT) to improve learning, behavior and quality of life. Another longer-term commitment to public safety is to expand focused deterrence groups like Target, I.M.A.N, CeaseFire (on the field) and the National Network for Safer Communities (AKA Chicago VRS working in collaboration with CPD, wraparound service providers, law enforcement and community members on Call Ins and Custom Notifications). This way we help those coming from incarceration and at risk. Over time we must reduce incarceration and increase support of trauma healing (including mental illness) and restorative practices within community. In our longer-term planning it is important for the most vulnerable, the most marginalized people such as returning citizens, impoverished children, survivors of violence/gun violence and homeless families to be prioritized. Their health and wellness are the key to creating a tipping point into safety for our City. In the long run, an investment in restorative justice practices could improve public safety. If those who have been harmed and those who have caused harm both agree to meet to discuss and enter into a Repair of Harm agreement, this should be a process offered to all people that are involved in violence. An office of Restorative Resolution could be transformative for the City and the way in which we see and experience Pathways to Justice. C. The challenges we may face in executing these initiatives include: • Community involvement in the decision making. How to reach the citizens, how to get buy in. • Good faith cooperation and coordination among service providers. Promote “proximity” • All the above-mentioned services require a significant increase in staff and budgetary spending by non-profits and the City as well as long-term commitment of uninterrupted funding. • CPD buy-in regarding all districts participating and collaborating with Mental Health, Social Workers, crisis response and focused deterrence providers. • IDOC (Illinois Department of Corrections) pre-release services for people that will be released back to Chicago neighborhoods will require that IDOC agree to expand the in jail efforts of groups like C.A.V.E ( Community Anti Violence Education) and EJP (Education Justice Project),etc., To: From: Re: Mayor Lori Lightfoot Norman Livingston Kerr, Vice President, Violence Intervention & Prevention, UCAN Public Safety and Accountability Transition Committee Prompt: Implement coordinated community-based violence reduction strategies Increase and coordinate the numbers of street intervention workers to ensure that high-risk individuals are supported and connected to needed opportunities and services. The new administration can infuse the values of equity, transparency, accountability, diversity and inclusion, and transformation in this initiative by adopting the following methods. First and foremost, the acknowledgement of the field of violence intervention and the circumstances of high-risk individuals in our communities are extremely important. There have been many intervention programs in Chicago over the past few decades that have specifically worked with a population of individuals that have been violent and that have been victimized. Although there has been some appreciation for this work, the lack of high success rates of “program graduates”, confusion about what a programs’ relationships with police should be (share information v. do not share information), and inconsistent funding have caused many to dismiss the effectiveness of these programs and to endorse an increased (and sometimes only) response by law enforcement. Street intervention work and violence interruption have been evaluated and deemed effective through the work of Cure Violence in Chicago and in other national/international cities, and that work is being currently modeled (by several local organizations) in various communities throughout Chicago. This approach works if the investment is strategic and funded for the long-term. Second, street intervention efforts have been minimally implemented and only in the areas with severe need. Austin, West Garfield, Englewood, North Lawndale and other high violence areas are some examples where street intervention is currently happening. However, the level of implementation does not cover the entirety of these communities. The current funding only allows for a limited number of workers that essentially address small portions of those communities. More workers are needed to ensure that a larger number of high-risk individuals are being connected to services. In addition, this approach must also expand to include a minimum of thirty to thirty-five of Chicago’s seventy-seven communities. Finally, being intentional about including high-risk individuals in the conversations about violence prevention strategies. Often times decisions are made about what strategies are to be used to potentially engage them into services without actually having discussions with the target population. Regardless of the model that is being used, it is important to incorporate feedback from the community, as best as possible. The community needs to know that they are being listened to and that they are a valued partner. SHOULD BE KEPT Right now in Chicago there is a lot of synergy and momentum that’s been built with current efforts that include Community Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), READI and Chicago CRED. Each other these initiatives are focused on high-risk individuals for perpetrating violence and for being victimized and to provide this population with services to potentially alter their trajectories. UCAN has been focused heavily on the intersection between violence intervention and mental health, working to address trauma for high-risk individuals. All these efforts have been funded privately and are in need of public funds to ensure sustainability. Additionally, several other organizations are implementing this work as well and are being connected to these efforts to bring together a more coordinated endeavor citywide. There is a meeting scheduled in a few weeks to meet with all street intervention providers in Chicago to promote communication between groups, in lieu of summer approaching, and to help with legitimizing this work. FIRST 100 DAYS Over the next 100 days, which takes us into the heart of summer, we must work to maintain the current numbers of workers at a minimum. Also, to conduct more analyses as to the communities that need these efforts and those that need their current numbers of workers increased. Coordinate with current service provides to inventory what types pf services are currently available and able to work with this population. In addition, capacity building efforts for organizations that need it will be necessary for their service provision to be effective. LONGER-TERM IMPLEMENTATION A five to ten year strategic plan should be developed that identifies the numbers of high-risk individuals that must be engaged in the immediate years to come to contribute to reductions of violence in each community. This will also prompt us to identify the number of staff needed to accommodate the target population and all the services that are necessary to support their change. The public funding strategy has to be realized and engagement of the private sector will be paramount in supporting sustainability. We must also continue to gauge the successes in other major cities (Los Angeles, New York, etc.) to ensure that we are on a similar trajectory. POTENTIAL CHALLENGES • How the program is perceived – depending on the coordination by the city of this effort, the public may that it is strongly connected with law enforcement and will be an extension of policing efforts. There has to be intentionality to maintain this as a separate entity and clearly define its relationship with the city and in particular, with police. • Supportive services – ensuring that a comprehensive network of services are available to support high-risk individuals. These services should include viable resources that offer substance abuse treatment, job readiness and employment, and mental health services that address trauma and provide long-term clinical support. We may not have enough current resources to support those who request it. • Sustainable funding – not treating this effort like a “football’ or a “fly-by-night” effort. This is not an issue that one to two year funding cycles will effective impact. Instead, working to ensure that funding is calculated and allocated in a long-term fashion to address the generational cycle of violence and trauma. For example, The Los Angeles Mayor’s Office stated that it took their effort twenty years of investment to realize their current results. Memo TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Nina Vinik, Co-Chair, Public Safety and Accountability Committee DATE: April 14, 2019 __________________________________________________________________________ OBJECTIVE: Prioritize reforms at CPD so all Chicagoans benefit from effective and accountable policing INITIATIVE: Expand the Neighborhood Policing Initiative pilot citywide, to co-produce public safety by CPD and community members The Neighborhood Policing Initiative (NPI) is an intensive community policing approach that prioritizes relationship building and focusing on the top priorities of the community. Modeled on the Neighborhood Policing Structure in New York City, NPI is designed to create a true community policing structure that promotes accountability, problem-solving, and increased positive contact between police officers and neighborhood residents. Unlike CAPS, which has come to be seen as a community policing “program,” NPI aims to redesign policing at the district level so that the police and community members work together to “co-produce” public safety. The initiative is underway on a pilot basis in District 25, with technical assistance provided by NYU’s Policing Project, funded by the Joyce and MacArthur Foundations. In District 25, staffing has been restructured to shift expectations for how officers will use their time, and the nature of their interactions with the public. Specifically, patrol officers are assigned to and expected to remain in a defined geographic area, or sector, for which they will be accountable for the quality of the police-community relationship. A small group of other officers serve as rapid-response teams that help ensure that sector officers do not have to leave their assigned area when emergencies occur that would otherwise take officers away from their assigned beats. This reallocation of staff provides patrol officers with more time to engage directly with the community – and, indeed, with the same community in the same areas on an ongoing basis. Speciallytrained Neighborhood Coordinator Officers (NCOs) assigned to each sector help to coordinate and oversee this process and to ensure that officers have the resources and support they need to cultivate relationships and address community problems. With CPD restructuring staffing in the pilot districts to allow officers greater opportunities to engage with the community, NPI includes a parallel community engagement strategy to give community members a meaningful voice in how their neighborhoods are policed. Specifically, NPI is bringing community members who previously may not have been involved with CPD into discussions with the Department about the community’s concerns and the possible solutions. 1 The goal is to bring them together, so that the police and community are working in unison to address neighborhood problems in a way that the public believes is both efficacious and acceptable. As officers begin to interact with the community in a fundamentally new way, and more and different community members are prepared to interact with the police in a new context, police and community come together at the same “table” to figure out how to best address the problems that people living in the district are facing. In addition, the hope is that some of the solutions will involve the police helping to coordinate social service responses, which are better suited to address the long-standing conditions that give rise to violence and crime. NPI is wholly consistent with the provisions of the consent decree that call for improving community policing, by helping CPD engage with the community in fundamentally new and dynamic ways that are informed by the specific concerns, issues, goals, and community assets of its police districts. ALIGNMENT WITH VALUES: The values of equity, transparency, accountability, diversity and inclusion, and transformation are at the heart of NPI. By working hand in hand with community members to co-produce public safety at the district level, NPI builds trust with all members of the community – especially those who have not engaged with police in the past. Involving community members in solving problems alongside police creates transparency, and allows for holding all participants accountable for executing on those solutions. If successful, the NPI model will bring a transformational change to the relationship between the Chicago Police Department and its residents. Working collaboratively to solve problems will reduce crime, increase clearance rates, and ultimately improve the perception and reality of public safety. WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY THAT WE NEED TO KEEP: NPI is underway in District 25. That work should continue with full support of the administration. WHAT WE NEED TO IMPLEMENT IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS: CPD is ready to roll out NPI in a second district, District 15. The administration should prioritize the launch in District 15 and demonstrate its support to continued expansion. WHAT WE CAN PLAN FOR LONGER-TERM IMPLEMENTAION: Other districts can be brought onboard on a rolling basis, over the next year. By sharing the experiences of the pilot districts across the Department, CPD can build awareness of and support for NPI. WHAT CHALLENGES WE MIGHT ENCOUNTER IN EXECUTING ON THIS INITIATIVE: Under the consent decree, CPD has begun district community engagement meetings. These could create confusion with NPI (and with CAPS). It will be important for CPD to clarify its approach to community policing. It should also be noted that an evaluation of NPI is being conducted by Northwestern University, and results will be made available on an ongoing basis. 2 Date: April 15, 2019 To: Public Safety and Accountability Transition Committee From: Phil Andrew RE: Public Safety and Accountability Despite recent reductions from the historically high 2016 homicide rates in Chicago, year to date there have been 96 people killed and 429 wounded. The safety of every Chicagoan must be the highest priority of the Lightfoot Administration. Safe people thrive. The Mayor must be visibly engaged in every aspect of preventing, responding, listening and helping those traumatized by violence and bring her cabinet, administration and resources with her while inviting and challenging other community leaders to join her. More than anything, Chicago needs leadership and a clear, comprehensive, centrally coordinated strategy to flip the script to become the safest big city in the World. The hard work has begun but is fragile. Elements of this strategy include: A. Investment in evidenced-based and data-driven violence prevention funded by city, county, state, federal private/corporate sectors expanding the work of Communities Partnering 4 Peace CP4P, the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, Chicago Cred, and Heartland Alliance’s READI models already underway B. Police and criminal justice reforms, accountability, including the implementation of the Consent Decree, improved shooting and homicide resolution rates and community/police relationships C. Trauma counseling and mental health services for those affected by all kinds of violence D. Economic investment in targeted disinvested neighborhoods and populations E. Firearm policy reform at the state and federal level with effective enforcement 1. Aligning City services and integrate them with community programing to reduce violence KEEP: • The Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention adequately fund (@$100M beyond the private sector investment) and staffed with a deputy mayor to pursue expansion and implantation of data driven strategies with community coordination and accountability. • The CP4P, Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, Chicago CRED and READI programs already underway in 12 communities and READI active in 6 communities and expand them to 18 to 20 communities. • The City-wide Violence Reduction Working Group coordination table that has pulled together public/private leadership of intervention and social service agencies, religious organizations, heads of city services and private foundations to Summer plan, coordinate and solve problems around 15 neighborhoods. • The Westside/Southside Community Coordination efforts that have recently expanded to the Southside bringing together community organizations to listen, give-voice, structure, data and share services IIMMEDIATE: • Create a city-wide violence prevention strategy that is data-driven and focused on the most at risk in the highest homicide affected communities and present the plan to the city council, every agency head, the communities most affected and other civic, religious and corporate leaders with specific role or each • Create a city-wide crisis response team that responds to every homicide in Chicago with case management and social services for those affected and expand to every shooting victims and family within the next year • Inventory, asset-based map and convene ALL government and CBOs and resources in violence prevention – in all its forms (i.e. child abuse and domestic violence), community and mental health, emergency housing and crisis intervention to identify redundancy, gaps and collaborative opportunities 2. Prioritize CPD reforms so all Chicagoans and benefit from effective and accountable policing KEEP: • Efforts to fully implement the Consent Decree and professionalize CPD training by leveraging Chicago’s colleges and universities to produce state of the art curriculum and instruction, increased de-escalation and trauma informed practices, continued training and self-care for officers • 15th Police District model in which the CPD Commander works collaboratively with the intervention groups to share insights and strategies for prevention and response • Continue to leverage the use of Strategic Decision-Making Centers IMMEDIATE: • Professionalize the investigative capacity of COPA • Share as much data and insights as legally possible with communities and abandon the gang data base for more data-driven intervention-oriented information system • Implement local community safety planning meetings that utilize a compressive model of public safety: 1. Conduct community crisis planning and response training with police, schools and community stakeholders including listening session, table tops, training and drills that involve the community to build relationship, shared vision and collaborative safety efforts 2. Systematically incorporate social emotional learning, trauma informed practices and training into crisis plans, first responders, community leaders and create a work flow for access to mental health and other social support services 3. Incorporate nonviolence, conflict resolution, child and domestic abuse awareness, self-care, anti-bullying and restorative justice mindfulness training, practices and curriculum in school and community programs 4. Create and unitize safe spaces and opportunities for community listening, engagement including on social media 5. Educate and communicate with the community regarding safety, gun violence, mental health, suicide, social emotional learning, conflict resolution, restorative justice, and evidence-based safety information 3. Reduce availability of illegal guns KEEP: • Education and use of the new Firearm Restraining Order Law • Leveraging ATF trace data and collaborative work with Cook County State’s Attorney’s Gun Crimes Unit and US Attorney’s Office IMMEDIATE: • Create a Regional Firearm Intelligence and Trafficking Task Force based on the Denver Raven model/GUNSTAT with the FBI, AFT, CPD, ISP, CCSP, Illinois Attorney General, US Attorney, CCSA Gun Crimes Unit with the mandate of intelligence sharing, prioritized investigations and prosecution of trafficker in illegal firearms using criminal and civil remedies to reduce interstate trafficking • Convene or participate in a regional/multistate/downstate Summit on violence reduction including suicide, trafficking, safety education and firearm storage LaSalle Street Church Executive Pastor Memo To: Public Safety and Accountability Committee From: Randall K. Blakey CC: Eddie Bocanegra, Public Safety Co-Chair – Returning Citizens Date: April 15, 2019 Re: Civility 360: A Wholistic Reform Initiative to Returning Citizens, Potential Initiative: Civility 360 coordinates specific services rendered by government, civic and community based organizations for the purpose of minimizing the personal and social hindrances that plague returning citizens. Nothing cost less, nor is cheaper, than the compliments of civility. Miguel de Cervantes While there are numerous government, civic and community based organizations that assist returning citizens, those well-meaning efforts are generally not coordinated. This lack of 360-degree coordination becomes counterproductive to addressing cycles of behavior that feed recidivism and produce multitudes of false starts. Returning citizen reentry is a “journey,” not a procedure. Failure to view it as such will cause this “meandering” process to be aborted repeatedly. Many would argue that the very first form of civility administered to the returning citizen should be that of trauma screening, diagnosis and clinical treatment. Unfortunately, the majority of service providers to this demographic are not trauma informed and therefore, become bewildered and overwhelmed when Mr. or Mrs. Returning Citizen relapses based on the smallest misunderstanding or altercation. For example, the average incarcerated citizen lives life without ever being screened, diagnosed or treated for ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences). Any person living with undiagnosed or untreated ACES is the equivalent of a ticking time bomb awaiting its trigger to be tripped. The longer one is undiagnosed, the bigger boom when the trigger is tripped. When the City of Chicago allocates specific and budgeted resources to coordinate clinical, governmental and workforce development services on behalf of its returning citizens, then this demographic is likely to: develop self-actualization skills; immediately access necessary identity documents; obtain supportive housing and complete workforce and leadership development programs designed to integrate participants into the working class. Doing so, causes this new administration to infuse the values of equity, transparency, accountability, inclusion and transformation through the act of Civility 360. 1 What is happing today that we need to keep? Today there are a number of great organizations doing excellent work on behalf of returning citizens such as the Safer Foundation, CARA, CGLA, LAF & Adler, to name a very few. Supporting “boots on the ground” organizations such as the aforementioned and others with funding towards scaling is an imperative that must continue. What we need to implement in the next 100 days? In the next 100 days the data needed to coordinate a Civility 360 program can be researched and attained. What we can plan for longer-term implementation? A plan for longer term implementation includes the following: trauma informed training for every organization and or governmental entity that interacts with incarcerated or returning citizens; the creation of a succession plan whereby returning citizens become the trainers, case managers and employees within the agencies working with the population; a collection of best practices for global implementation. What are the challenges we might encounter in executing on this initiative? The primary challenge to be expected and encountered is a resistance from the penal system and governmental employees not willing to embrace a paradigm shift from business as usual to Civility 360.  Page 2 FROM: Rebecca Levin Executive Director, Strengthening Chicago’s Youth (SCY), Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago TO: Public Safety and Accountability Transition Committee I am pleased to submit an idea in support of the objective “Align city services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence.” I propose that Mayor-Elect Lightfoot develop a deflection/diversion initiative that reflects available research, takes an asset-based approach and emphasizes the importance of building relationships. As a health care provider for youth, at Lurie Children’s we know that young people will often live down to low expectations or live up to high expectations. When we predominantly focus on policing and incarcerating youth, we set low expectations and convey that we expect youth to become more deeply involved in a life of crime and violence. In contrast, research shows that alternatives that keep youth in their communities have produced positive results for youth, reducing their likelihood of offending again. We can give young people a chance and needed supports when they make mistakes and convey that we believe in the high expectations we have for them as the future of our City. Values Lurie Children’s shares Mayor-Elect Lightfoot’s values, and they have been infused throughout our work to improve the health of Chicago’s children. Transparency and accountability are ensured through our research and evaluation. We are undertaking ever broadening efforts to improve the diversity and inclusion of our workforce, including creating pipelines for youth of color to pursue health care careers. Through our Lurie Children’s Healthy Communities initiative, we are pursuing transformative program-based, clinically-informed strategies to ensure health equity for children and families in communities experiencing concentrated disadvantage. SCY provides leadership within Chicago on a public health approach to violence, in which these values are fundamental.  A public health approach entails using data to identify which groups are at highest risk of involvement in violence as victims or perpetrators and the risk and protective factors for their involvement. By applying an equity lens, we emphasize investment in violence prevention and intervention strategies that benefit the individuals, families and communities experiencing the highest levels of violence.  Transparency and accountability are ensured through use of data to characterize the violence problem and identify and measure the effectiveness of solutions and by sharing findings not just with researchers, but with policy makers, the media and the public.  A public health approach requires diversity and inclusion, with every individual, organization, neighborhood and sector playing its part to reduce violence. The responsibility for preventing violence cannot be assigned solely to law enforcement or the communities that experience the highest levels of violence.  A transformative approach to violence prevention must be firmly evidence-based, multifocal and deliberately longterm in its vision. For too long, violence prevention stakeholders in Chicago have been seeking a single magic solution to this complex problem. But we know that violence stems largely from generations of community disinvestment and oppressive policies—so solutions must also take a long-term view. The public health approach recommends sustained investment in effective strategies already in place in Chicago and bringing evidence-based strategies from other communities to Chicago. A comprehensive approach to monitoring success—measuring not just the number of people shot and killed but also whether people feel safer and communities are healthier and more connected—can identify opportunities to improve these strategies and the need to develop additional strategies. What is happening today that we need to keep In recent years, Chicago has been experiencing a culture shift away from an overly punitive and suppression-oriented approach to violence and toward an emphasis on prevention and alternatives to arrest and incarceration. While significant momentum has been established, more resources for deflection and diversion efforts are needed to fully realize the benefits of this culture change. For example, CPS has been a leader in reducing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, but the corollary increase in referrals to supportive services has not kept pace. Efforts to address this include a CPS Task Force staffed by SCY that is developing a less punitive approach to student substance use and identifying mechanisms to ensure at-risk students receive the intervention and treatment services they need. The CPS Task Force is being co-chaired by VOYCE (Voices of Youth in Chicago Education), and leadership by youth should be continued and expanded throughout violence prevention efforts. What we need to implement in the next 100 days The remarkable potential for expanding deflection/diversion programs is demonstrated by the Juvenile Justice Collaborative (JJC), overseen by SCY. The JJC applies a care coordination approach to supporting youth who have been arrested and referred for diversion by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Of the 211 youth who were enrolled in the JJC during 2017-2018, 161 were connected to services. Only 4 youth connected to services (2%) were re-arrested during their participation in the program. Within the first 100 days of the administration, an analysis of assets and gaps should be conducted regarding existing deflection/diversion efforts and how they connect to related services. The gaps analysis should include the following lines of inquiry:  How well is the Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC) functioning and is it improving outcomes for youth? The lack of transparency and accountability for the JISC is particularly concerning. (Stemming the Tide, Illinois Mental Health Opportunities for Youth Diversion Task Force Report)  Where are there opportunities to strengthen connections between deflection/diversion programs and youth employment programs? (This includes the successful One Summer Chicago and One Summer Chicago Plus programs, which should both be maintained.)  How well are deflection/diversion efforts building relationships? Both relationships between youth and caring adults and connections among service providers should be examined.  What funding streams could be immediately leveraged to support expansion of deflection/diversion efforts? Conversations with state agencies should be prioritized regarding Redeploy Illinois (Illinois Department of Human Services) and Victims of Crime Assistance (Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority) funding. What we can plan for longer-term implementation In the long term, we recommend three approaches for expanding deflection/diversion in Chicago:  Implement an approach that bridges deflection/diversion, street outreach and intervention, and community capacity building. For example, SCY and Lawrence Hall have been exploring the possibility of implementing the US Department of Justice’s OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. This evidence-based model was originally developed in Little Village and serves part of the basis for Communities Partnering 4 Peace, but it is not currently being fully implemented in Chicago.  Invest in infrastructure to allow Medicaid reimbursement for certain components of deflection/diversion programming to help ensure sustainability. For example, the JJC care coordination model has been developed to be Medicaid-reimbursable and the clinical behavioral health services are currently reimbursable.  Expand deflection/diversion to include populations such as women (as recommended by Chicago’s New Deal for All Women and Girls) and young adults experiencing mental health challenges. What challenges we might encounter in executing this initiative The sheer magnitude of Chicago’s violence problem and the desire for a “quick fix” will present challenges for the new administration. Moving from short-term projects to a transformative strategic approach will require a change in mindset. It will also require fundamental change in how violence prevention programs operate—we recommend a multi-year funding model that includes coordinated approaches among community-based organizations, capacity building and continuous quality improvement, implementation of evidence-based and trauma-informed services, and ongoing evaluation. NAACP Chicago Westside Branch Karl A. Brinson President Vera G. Davis Chairman 04/15/2019 President Karl A Brinson ________________ First Vice-President Phyllis Logan ________________ 2nd Vice President Remel Terry _________________ 3rd Vice President Carl Ellis _________________ Secretary Carolyn Hankins-Page _________________ Treasurer Annie Marie Ford _________________ Financial Secretary Constance Jackson _________________ Member at Large Steven Page Joyce Hardaway Joann Kern Debra A Kern Anissa Burrell-Butler Michelle Lucas Louverta Hurt Thelma Ware ____________________ Chairman of the Board Vera G Davis MEMO TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Rebecca Raines, Criminal Justice Chair Objective: Prioritize reforms at CPD so all Chicagoans benefit from effective and accountable policing The Chicago Westside Branch of the NAACP is deeply concerned with public safety and has been working diligently to address it. First 100 Days Block Club Engagement The City should place resources in the creation, reactivation and support of Block Clubs in high minority, high crime neighborhoods on the West and South sides. Building stronger relationships block by block among the block clubs creates respect and responsibility among neighbors to create a neighbor network. This network will inherently lower violence while encouraging civic engagement. City officials and police officers who build a rapport with these groups will have firsthand knowledge of how to better serve and protect neighborhoods. The values of inclusion, community accountability, and transformation are highlighted in this initiative. The magnitude of this effort will require additional resources such as neighborhood natives, dollars, and community development planners. The acquisition and management of these resources will likely prove itself a challenge to the new administration. This initiative should be piloted in a single neighborhood within the first 100 days. The longer implementation strategy should stretch across the entire city and be guided by a written engagement plan. Software Streamlining For the first 100 days, the administration should focus on software streamlining for the police department. This process should eradicate the various software systems being currently used that cripple the department’s ability to disseminate data accurately. The department should declare a cutoff date to stop making entries into all other systems. The old systems should be kept alive until all data can be converted to the new system. A sole system creates greater transparency, transformation, and accountability for CPD and its data outputs. The department will be challenged to train its massive staff on a new software system. This process will likely need to be contracted out and refined over time. In long-term implementation CPD should hire interns and data entry specialists tasked with converting data as it is currently needed, moving backwards to relic data. 5820 West Chicago Avenue, Suite #1 Chicago, Illinois 60651 Phone (773) 261-5890 Fax (773) 261-5893 Email westsidenaacp@gmail.com A Member of the NAACP Metropolitan Council NAACP Chicago Westside Branch Karl A. Brinson President Vera G. Davis Chairman Other Factors to consider Chicago Consent Decree Public Safety and trust building most assuredly relate to community/police relations. Follow-through and full support of the letter and spirit of the Consent Decree is critical. The Department is currently carrying out provisions of the consent decree, i.e. the community cafes, in a pseudo manner that will incur apathy in residents. The department must discontinue practices that allow them to simply check a box and communicate with the community as they want the community to communicate with them. To that end, those who are tasked with engaging with the community must first be trained on the provisions of the consent decree. The City should consider hiring professional facilitators to carry out the community engagement provisions of the consent decree vs. uniformed officers. CPD must better regulate/reduce the use of tactical teams in majority-minority neighborhoods. Over policing will inherently produce more arrests, but not necessarily because there is more crime. Officers must undergo debriefing with a trained clinical professional after traumatic situations that include violence. Officers on street duty must submit to an annual psychological evaluation to ascertain if the officer is still fit for street duty. The city council must negotiate collective bargaining agreements/contracts that remove unjust policies that make room for collusion and protect above the law behaviors. Since most police shootings occur as a result of foot pursuits, CPD needed a policy on foot pursuits yesterday. Foot pursuits are dangerous both to the officer and suspect and should be regarded carefully. Respectfully submitted, Rebecca Raines, Criminal Justice Chair Chicago Westside Branch NAACP 5820 West Chicago Avenue, Suite #1 Chicago, Illinois 60651 Phone (773) 261-5890 Fax (773) 261-5893 Email westsidenaacp@gmail.com A Member of the NAACP Metropolitan Council CHICAGO SURVIVORS 1010 W. 35th St., Suite 510 Chicago, IL 60609 telephone 312.488.9222 www.chicagosurvivors.org To: Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot From: Susan Johnson, Executive Director susan@chicagosurvivors.org; sbwjohsnon1@gmail.com Date: 15 April 2019 Re: Alignment/Integration of City Services with Community Programs in Violence Reduction Initiative: A well-coordinated, equitable and robust citywide response to all victims of violence that includes police accountability is an essential part of any Violence Reduction program. When victims’ rights and needs are addressed, victims have higher levels of trust in law enforcement and public institutions, have a greater capacity to cooperate to the criminal justice process, and are more successful in returning to daily functioning – self-care, parenting, work and school. Where victims’ rights and needs are not addressed, a cycle of victimization replaces recovery, negatively impacting individual health and welfare, intergenerational family wellness, children’s educational achievement, community safety and participation in the local economy. Where attention is paid, it is noticed. Cultures and behaviors change. It is not reasonable to expect a reduction in violence without robust victim services. Immediate and Collaborative Victims Services. Victim services are specifically designed to maximize the recovery of victims of violence by integrating best practices in Crisis Intervention and Victim Support into law enforcements responses, medical interventions, and the criminal justice system. Victims of violence encounter unfamiliar systems that were not designed with their care or wellbeing in mind; systems that can re-traumatize, stigmatize, or alienate victims at the moment they need, want and are legally entitled to help. Reforming systems that may re-injure victims or discriminate against classes of victims is also essential to violence reduction. Protocols must continue to be examined and training enhanced to maximize the effectiveness of the public-private partnerships that comprise Victim Services. Networked Paths to Recovery. After initial needs are met, victims of violence must be connected to facilitated paths of timely, accessible, trauma-informed, culturally appropriate, follow up services and community-based peer support. The path to recovery for victims of violence depends upon a durable network of trauma-informed services. Victims of violence, especially low-income victims, benefit from home outreach and in situ care that leads into community-based follow up. Victims of violence are less likely to leave their community for services due to fear, cost of transportation and unfamiliarity with other areas of the city. What We Need to Keep. Current victims service organizations in Chicago serve people following sexual assault, child sexual abuse, domestic violence and homicide through collaborative responses involving law enforcement and other partners. Some nonfatal shootings are also addressed. Most victims service organizations are also involved in police training. These partners should be strengthened based on models in other major cities. Chicago is insular, and its partnerships are often fragile and uncoordinated. What We Need to Implement Immediately. More coordinated collaboration between victim service organizations and law enforcement would raise the clearance rate for violent crime. The partnership between police and victim services in Cleveland, Ohio, where the homicide clearance rate is over 50%, is exemplary. Chicago Survivors is organizing a Chicago delegation to Cleveland in June 2019 with the Office of Victims of Crime (DOJ) and the National Center for Victims of Crime, and have invited representatives from CPD and the Mayor’s Office to attend. If Chicago does have an emergency protocol for a mass shooting, neither the Red Cross nor Chicago Survivors (which responds to all homicides across the city in partnership with CPD and CDPH) has been read into or trained in it. After the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, FL that city came together quickly and readily because most of the service providers knew each other, were known by the City, and had working collaborations. Chicago is a much larger city with a wider variety of larger and smaller agencies, who represent the diversity of Chicago, as well as community-based services, where trust levels among organizations is often low and inconsistent funding has created unhealthy partnerships and a lack of coordination. Within the Next 100 Days. Chicago needs to expand comprehensive victim services for nonfatal shooting victims. Programs like the Violence Recovery Program at the UChicago Medical Center and Healing Hurt People at Comer Children’s Hospital and CCHHS Stroger Hospital need to be replicated at the other Level I Trauma Centers. In all victim services, an emphasis on culturally-sensitive trained paraprofessionals and care that does not “medical-ize” victimization will increase trust and effectiveness of services and keep costs lower. All victims need access to free trauma-informed culturally appropriate and accessible therapeutic services within a time frame that coordinates with the pace of their recovery. There are gaps and waiting lists in therapeutic services, as well as eligibility hurdles. Longer-Term Implementation. Investment in low- and moderate-income housing is crucial. There are valid and important reasons for victims of violent to relocate following violence, e.g., continued psychological impact living near crime scene; concerns for safety; threats or intimidation; risk reduction for children and youth; discrimination by landlords against victims of violence. With occupancy rates so high in both private and public housing in Chicago, and little low- and moderate-income housing, victims of violence often feel trapped in locations that seem and are unsafe for them. Those with means often leave our city. Illinois needs to reform the award process for Crime Victim Compensation. Victims of violence are bankrupted through a corrupt and byzantine application process that reimburses victims for expenses only after 18-24 months, appears to reimburse service providers faster than individuals; has no system to address fraud, and lacks a complaint process. Memorandum April 15, 2019 Name: Susan K. Lee, Senior Director Chicago CRED Transition Committee: Public Safety & Accountability Chicago CRED believes that two of the four objectives represented in the invitation letter are closely related and therefore should be considered as part of a singular objective. These are: • Align city services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence • Implement coordinated community-based violence reduction strategies What is Happening Today Since 2017, several complementary community-based violence reduction strategies have been implemented. With the aligned funding by the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC), a group of more than 40 funders, two initiatives have targeted interventions for those at highest risk of violence in communities most impacted by violence. These are the Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), a network of eight street outreach agencies in nine communities under the leadership of Metropolitan Family Services, and READI Chicago, a network of six organizations in five communities under the leadership of Heartland Alliance. The first establishes a robust street outreach network that includes case management, crisis intervention and creation of safe public spaces. The latter is a service model undergoing a rigorous RCT study that targets those at highest risk of violence and offers them 18 months of transitional jobs, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other support services. Aside from these PSPC invested projects, Chicago CRED is also investing in outreach, programming, mental health, support services, and employment for those at highest risk of violence in six communities. Between these three initiatives, 12 communities most impacted by violence already have some level of safety infrastructure with a combination of jobs, street outreach, CBT, safe public spaces and coordination with local police districts. All three are entirely privately funded. In early 2018, these initiatives came together with the Mayor’s Office, CPD, DFSS, CDPH, CPS, Cook County President’s Office, PSPC, and other community and faith-based organizations to demonstrate the value of coordination, specifically to reduce violence during summer months. This group, the Citywide Violence Reduction Working Group (VRWG), has had success with data sharing, developing asset and needs maps of the 15 communities most impacted by violence, and creating structures for coordination and service provision. Most notably, the group developed and implemented: 1. Rapid Reduction: deployment of nearly 140 high risk individuals to hot spots in two police districts (7 and 15) to keep peace while also offering them an income opportunity during summer months. This initiative saw clear reductions in homicides and shootings on those hot spots when the workers were deployed. 2. Westside and Southside Coordination: regional meetings between CPD district leadership (West: 10, 11, 15 and South: 6, 5, 7), City agencies (including Parks, DFSS, CDPH, Business Affairs), and community-based providers with emphasis on those providing street outreach services. The coordination efforts have led to city agencies being more responsive and prioritizing safety related requests from CPD and community-based organizations, as well as sustained meetings at district levels between CPD and community providers to tackle specific causes of violence (e.g. open-air drug market). 3. PSPC Summer Fund: prioritization of grants to organizations in the communities most impacted by violence as identified by VRWG. With individual grants of up to $10,000, these funds enabled over 130 grassroots organizations to implement community engagement events and activities (i.e. basketball tournaments, block parties) designed to reclaim public spaces and build relationships with CPD. 1 4. <399 strategy: achieving this ambitious goal of less than 400 homicides in 2019 would lower the number of homicides to levels Chicago hasn’t seen since 1965. The strategy relies on coordinating and amplifying existing violence reduction initiatives to intentionally strengthen collaboration, accelerate impact and build a citywide mechanism to reach defined violence reduction goals. What we need to implement in the next 100 days • Stand up the Office of Violence Prevention with robust staffing, including a Deputy Mayor who is a direct report to the Mayor, to tackle summer violence reduction strategies in partnership with the VRWG, CPD, city agencies, CP4P, and READI Chicago. • Strengthen the Mayor’s Office and city agencies’ participation in VRWG and specifically in the <399 strategy. The Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention needs to drive the implementation of all components of the <399 strategy. This includes developing a citywide street outreach infrastructure, implementing Rapid Reduction in 9 communities, facilitating South and West Side coordination, developing a citywide approach to triggers for victimization, and scaling a social media strategy. While the current Mayor’s Office has been involved, there has to be more intentional leadership and high-level direction to city agencies to prioritize violence reduction through the VRWG as well as South/West Side Coordination efforts. • Strengthen the Mayor’s Office and city agencies’ understanding of CP4P, READI and Chicago CRED and align objectives and outcomes with City’s resources and investments. • Prioritize state support of these initiatives as the Illinois legislative session closes and focus on 25% of cannabis revenues being targeted to rebuild communities impacted by concentrated violence. What we plan for longer term implementation • Develop a strategy with PSPC on joint investment to support citywide violence reduction infrastructure to ensure sustainability beyond 2019. Importantly this means to dedicate a substantial and sustainable City stream of resources beginning in the 2020 budget to fund violence reduction efforts such as CP4P and READI Chicago. Fully funding these efforts will also require accessing State resources. • Develop intentional strategies on creating data sharing and cooperation between CPD, street outreach organizations, and other violence reduction efforts (e.g. community shooting review). • Develop a policy initiative to enhance access to victim services and advocacy for those who are at highest risk of violence and living in communities most impacted by violence. What challenges we might encounter • City and State budget challenges make locating a sustainable funding source for violence reduction challenging. • The pace of CPD reform under the consent decree around building trust with community and improving clearance rates can hamper violence reduction efforts. • City processes can slow down nimble and transparent communication and collaboration to facilitate cross-sector coordination. • Delays may affect timely disbursement of state funds that support street outreach, which may result in critical service gaps during summer months. High need communities supported by these funds are underserved or lack coverage via existing violence reduction outreach efforts. • Targeting resources to the highest risk individuals in the communities most impacted by violence communities is the only way to sustainably reduce violence. But, it requires a long-term view, the ability to weather inevitable political controversies about isolated incidents, and the desire to address broader-based issues of merit in these neighborhoods. 2 To: From: Date: Mayor-Elect Lori E. Lightfoot Thomas Abt, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Monday, April 15, 2019 This memorandum is submitted in response to your request for recommendations pertaining to the public safety objectives outlined in your April 6th letter to your Public Safety and Accountability Transition Committee, namely: implementing community programming to reduce urban gun violence; aligning and integrating such programming with existing city services; ensuring effective and accountable policing by accelerating reforms at the Chicago Police Department; and reducing the availability of illegal firearms. Finally, you asked for insights into how this work can be infused with our commonly-held values of equity, transparency, accountability, diversity and inclusion, and transformation. I have recently written a book entitled Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence – and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Street that addresses these issues directly. Summarizing the results of over 1,400 individual impact evaluations, the book identifies numerous strategies to reduce urban gun violence that are proven to work, currently available, and do not require new legislation or big budgets. The book will be published by Basic Books on June 25th, but I have provided advance copies to you and your transition team. Rather than outline the individual strategies that are described in Bleeding Out, I will recommend here a few overarching principles to guide the work of the transition and administration efforts in this critically important policy area. First, it is essential that Chicago’s anti-violence efforts are evidenceand community-informed. Being evidence-informed means developing policies that are informed by the best evidence and data currently available. Being community-informed means giving voice to those most impacted by urban violence and meaningfully including them in the policymaking process. To be truly evidence-informed, all those participating in Chicago’s anti-violence planning efforts should agree to be guided not by what feels good or seems politically expedient at the time, but instead by what solid evidence and hard data says will save lives. This might sound unrealistic or even naïve at first, but successful anti-violence efforts inevitably cause shifts in focus, activities, and ultimately resources, creating winners and losers among stakeholders. Change is never easy, but agreeing in advance to make these difficult decisions in a transparent and unbiased manner makes them easier to understand and accept. Relatedly, more than three decades of rigorous research confirms that urban gun violence is a highly concentrated phenomenon, clustering in and among small numbers of people and places. Not surprisingly, this research demonstrates that the most successful anti-violence strategies focus relentlessly on those people and places driving the vast majority of shootings and killings. Chicago is no exception to this rule: a 2015 study found that 70 percent of all victims of non-fatal gunshot injuries in Chicago could be located in co-offending networks that comprised less than 6 percent of the city’s population.1 To ensure Chicago’s anti-violence efforts are properly focused, your administration should commission an independent, in-depth analysis to be released to the public within the first one hundred Papachristos, Andrew V., Christopher Wildeman and Elizabeth Roberto. “Tragic, but Not Random: The Social Contagion of Nonfatal Gunshot Injuries.” Social Science & Medicine 125 (2015): 139-150. 1 days of your term. This analysis should answer four simple but specific questions: (1) what are the costs of urban violence to the City of Chicago, (2) who is committing such violence, (3) where are they committing it, and (4) why. Whatever the specific analytic tools might be, they should combine reliable data and human intelligence to understand the underlying dynamics of Chicago’s violence with an emphasis on proximate, not root, causes. Once released, the administration should publicly discuss this analysis with stakeholders. Doing so in an open and transparent manner will help stakeholders better understand the concentrated nature of urban violence in Chicago and increase support for appropriately tailored solutions. Following the evidence and data is not enough. Being community-informed means giving voice to those most impacted by urban violence by listening to them carefully according to the principles of procedural fairness. What does this mean in practice? Most people want to be treated with dignity and with respect. Furthermore, they want to believe that the decisions that affect their lives are made fairly – that is, with justification and without bias. They also want a say in what happens to them – a chance to tell their side of the story – even if ultimately decisions do not go their way. Finally, they want to believe that the authorities are acting in their best interest. When people believe they have been treated fairly by governmental authorities, they tend to see those authorities as legitimate and will cooperate with them. 2 The entire anti-violence planning process should be infused with the principles of procedural fairness: showing respect, creating transparency, giving those impacted an opportunity to be heard, and demonstrating trustworthy motives. These principles can also play a critical role in adapting evidenceinformed strategies to local circumstances. Too often, evidence-based strategies are picked up “off the shelf” and implemented without making certain they meet the specific needs of a jurisdiction. This is problematic because what works in one city or state may not work in another. By making anti-violence strategies community- as well as evidence-informed, the principles of procedural fairness provide an important means of ensuring that evidence-based strategies are appropriately tailored to the local needs and circumstances of those living in Chicago. Finally, while it may seem surprising or even objectionable to some, law enforcement should be included in the city’s definition of “community.” When surveying the evidence on gun violence reduction, it quickly becomes clear that law enforcement is an essential partner in any realistic antiviolence effort. Many of the most effective strategies depend heavily on the active involvement of the police. If advocates and activists cannot overcome a certain amount of their suspicion and resentment of law enforcement, the safety of Chicago’s most disadvantaged will be jeopardized. Sustainable public safety in Chicago depends on cops and communities working together. Thank you for the opportunity to share these recommendations with you. I firmly believe that with your leadership, we can save hundreds, even thousands of lives. Peace in Chicago is entirely possible. I stand ready and willing to offer you and your administration further information and assistance at your request. Thomas Abt Meares, Tracey and Peter Neyroud. “Rightful Policing.” New Perspectives in Policing, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, February 2015. 2 2 MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot FROM: Tracey L. Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor, Yale Law School PROMPT: Aligning City Services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence Initiative: The new Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Gun Violence Prevention should carry out its business understanding that we cannot achieve safety WITHOUT justice. To that end, the office’s development and work should be consciously designed and carried out consistent with the principles of procedural justice in order to promote legitimacy. _______________________________________________________ Research is clear that people are more likely to accord legitimacy to authorities—cooperate with them, engage with them, and voluntarily agree to do what authorities ask them to do when authorities act in ways that people think are procedurally fair. To carry out the work of the new Office Of Public Safety and Gun Violence Prevention consistent with idea of procedural justice, leaders must give the public—especially stakeholders who bear the costs of both violence as well as the City’s response to that problem—a say and role in developing strategies to combat violence. Leaders must also show members of the public respect, be transparent and neutral and act in ways that allow members of the public to perceive that leaders have trustworthy motives. For more on these ideas, see Tracey L. Meares, The Path Forward: Improving the Dynamics of Community-Police Relationships to Achieve Effective Law enforcement Policies. Developing initiatives through this process is just as important as the substance of the policy itself. Carrying out initiatives consistent with procedural justice approaches clearly is connected to equity, transparency, accountability and inclusion. Fairness is the foundation of equity and research demonstrates that procedural justice one approach to achieve perceptions of fairness. Transparency is an aspect of one of fair decision-making, which is one the four factors of procedural justice. Inclusion is carried out through a commitment to voice, and accountability, hopefully, is an outcome of commitment to all of the principles of procedural justice. In the next 100 days the team should consider the particulars of process as well as substantive approach when carrying out the work of creating the new office and developing initiatives. To remind the leaders and the public of all of the office’s goals, perhaps the administration could consider including “ACCOUNTABILITY” in the title of the new office. My worry is that by highlighting only “violence prevention and public safety” the office sets up a “both and” dynamic in which there is a demand for more safety and more accountability and justice separately and independent of each other. The teachings of the research support a broader notion that we cannot achieve real safety without justice. In the longer term a commitment to these principles should suffuse the reforms of CPD. This will likely require a complete training overhaul, but that suggestion was made several years ago during the training review. The primary challenge to implementing the process in the way I suggest here is that there are not many existing models for the governance structure implied here. Los Angeles and Seattle provide a template, but Chicago should do more. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the police agency is an AGENT of the public it serves. To do that the agency must recognize its principal – the public. Currently, CPD and policing agencies generally operate as if they are principals and members of the public are agents. It will take a while to reverse the roles. But, it must be done to achieve equity Memorandum April 15, 2019 Name: Vaughn Bryant, Executive Director Metropolitan Family Services Transition Committee: Public Safety & Accountability Metropolitan Family Services believes that three of the four objectives represented in the invitation letter are closely aligned with the work we are leading, Communities Partnering 4 Peace. These are:  Align city services and integrate them with community programming to reduce violence  Accelerate reform at CPD so all Chicagoans benefit from effective and accountable policing  Implement coordinated community-based violence reduction strategies What is Happening Today Since 2017, Metropolitan Family Services has led a network of eight street outreach agencies in nine communities implement a community-based violence reduction strategy called Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P). CP4P establishes a robust street outreach network that includes case management, crisis intervention, creation of safe public spaces (Light in the Night) and the launch of the Metropolitan Peace Academy (MPA). The goal of MPA is to professionalize street outreach work and train violence reduction professionals to work better with victims/perpetrators of gun violence. With the aligned funding by the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC), a group of more than 40 funders, CP4P collaborates and coordinates with both and READI Chicago and Chicago CRED, both of which have had participants in the MPA. The MPA has graduated two cohorts totaling 48 participants who completed a 144 hour curriculum meeting twice per week for 18 weeks. The participants represent 20 organizations and 15 communities across the city of Chicago. Facilitators from the MPA will also trained the high risk individual deployed in the Rapid Reduction Initiative in collaboration with Chicago Cred. Rapid Reduction is deployment of high risk individuals to hot spots in various police districts to keep peace while also offering them an income opportunity during summer months. This initiative saw clear reductions in homicides and shootings on those hot spots when the workers were deployed. In the fall of 2018, Metropolitan Family Services hired a team of professionals to develop programming for GED attainment and job readiness training. The goal being to build a bridge between the street involved and returning citizens we serve and existing education and training resources available to them. Similarly, we are hiring a behavioral health team to offer group and short term behavioral health services at our partner sites. The intention being to breakdown the stigma attached to addressing mental and engaging community-based mental health providers in the work to address strengthen the referral and linkage system. For the period of July 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018, the following results have been achieved: 1) Reduce Shootings and Homicides a. Since 2017: There has been a 25% decrease in shootings, with decreases in 7 of the 9 CP4P communities b. Since 2017: Homicides are down 33%, with decreases in 8 of the 9 CP4P communities 2) Provide proactive prevention services a. Since 2017: CP4P has served 1,865 participants in proactive prevention services 3) Create and Reclaim Safe Community Spaces – a. 138,693 people have attended 2,356 Light in the Night events. b. Of those participants surveyed on their perception of neighborhood violence over the last two years, 24% Agree and strongly agree that they feel safer. c. There have been no critical incidents at Light in the Night events. 1 What we need to implement in the next 100 days  Stand up the Office of Violence Prevention with robust staffing to tackle summer violence reduction strategies in partnership with the VRWG, CPD, city agencies, CP4P, and READI Chicago.  Strengthen the Mayor’s Office and city agencies’ participation in VRWG and specifically in the <399 strategy. The <399 strategy seeks to achieve the ambitious goal of less than 400 homicides in 2019 which would lower the number of homicides to levels Chicago hasn’t seen since 1965. The strategy relies on coordinating and amplifying existing violence reduction initiatives to intentionally strengthen collaboration, accelerate impact and build a citywide mechanism to reach defined violence reduction goals. The Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention needs to drive the implementation of all components of the <399 strategy. This includes developing a citywide street outreach infrastructure, implementing Rapid Reduction in 9 communities, facilitating South and West Side coordination, developing a citywide approach to triggers for victimization, and scaling a social media strategy. While the current Mayor’s Office has been involved, there has to be more intentional leadership and high-level direction to city agencies to prioritize violence reduction through the VRWG as well as South/West Side Coordination efforts.  Strengthen the Mayor’s Office and city agencies’ understanding of CP4P, READI and Chicago CRED and align objectives and outcomes with City’s resources and investments.  Prioritize state support of these initiatives as the Illinois legislative session closes and focus on 25% of cannabis revenues being targeted to rebuild communities impacted by extreme, concentrated violence. What we plan for longer term implementation  Develop a strategy with PSPC on joint investment to support citywide violence reduction infrastructure to ensure sustainability beyond 2019. Importantly this means to dedicate a substantial and sustainable City stream of resources beginning in the 2020 budget to fund violence reduction efforts such as CP4P and READI Chicago. Fully funding these efforts will also require accessing State resources.  Develop intentional strategies on creating greater data sharing and cooperation between CPD, street outreach organizations, and other violence reduction efforts (e.g. community shooting review).  Develop a policy initiative to enhance access to victim services and advocacy for those who are at highest risk of violence and living in communities most impacted by violence.  Consistent with your intention to have CPD recruits’ orientation before they start in their assigned district, The MPA would like to serve as the training partner to train select community members from each police district to host the police orientation within their respective communities. We have visited with the leadership at the Center for NULeadership on Urban Solutions, the entity responsible for NYPD’s training. What challenges we might encounter  City and State budget challenges make locating a sustainable funding source for violence reduction challenging.  The pace of CPD reform under the consent decree around building trust with community and improving clearance rates can hamper violence reduction efforts.  City processes can slow down nimble and transparent communication and collaboration to facilitate cross-sector coordination.  Delays may affect timely disbursement of state funds that support street outreach, which may result in critical service gaps during summer months. High need communities supported by these funds are underserved or lack coverage via existing violence reduction outreach efforts.  Targeting resources to the highest risk individuals in the communities most impacted by violence communities is the only way to sustainably reduce violence. But, it requires a long-term view, the ability to weather inevitable political controversies about isolated incidents, and the desire to address broaderbased issues of merit in these neighborhoods. 2