Increasingly, politicians, “both liberal and conservative”, are realizing that mass incarceration has tremendous costs, both monetary and social. Our communities suffer, our children suffer, our state budgets suffer, and we still aren’t safer. We need to focus our attention on healing our communities. Many programs have been shown to proactively prevent crime and dramatically reduce justice system costs.

Some very exciting news out of California. Thanks to our CA Peace Alliance organizers and other key supporters, the CA Democratic party recently endorsed legislation to establish a U.S. Department of Peacebuilding and a peacebuilding platform. This is a very meaningful development. CA Democratic party (CDP) only endorses a handful of bills each session — and it’s some of the most comprehensive peacebuilding support in any party platform in the nation. This could be real trend setter.