Throughout history, Black communities in the United States have faced aggressive and heightened policing, criminalization, and incarceration compared with their peers. At the same time, Black people have been denied equal accessto safe and affordable housing. Together, the criminal legal system and the housing sector create a reinforcing feedback loop that traps people in a cycle of criminalization and homelessness, with disproportionate impacts on Black communities.The Thurgood Marshall Institute advocates for the redirection of resources and investments away from a punitive, criminalization-centered approach to safety and toward a supportive, community-centered approach. Therefore, this Report recommends the following actions:
Housing sector:
Reduce criminal history restrictions in housing: State and local governments, as well as private landlords, should adopt less-restrictive housing policies and follow best practices for non-discriminatory tenant screening.
Adopt Housing First: State and local governments should address homelessness by helping people obtain permanent housing as quickly as possible, with access to voluntary behavioral health services as needed.
Invest in safe shelters and support services: State and local governments must prioritize investments in safe, low-barrier shelter capacity over investments in increased jail capacity.
Criminal legal system:
Decriminalize poverty and homelessness: State and local governments should repeal laws that criminalize acts tied to survival—such as laws banning vagrancy, loitering, and panhandling—and refocus their attention on the root causes of poverty and homelessness.
Reduce pretrial incarceration: Local courts should end the practice of issuing warrants for unpaid fines related to quality-of-life offenses, and local legislators should end the use of cash bail to detain people simply because of their inability to pay. Furthermore, state lawmakers should pass laws that increase accommodations for people who face barriers to appearing in court.
Eliminate overly restrictive community supervision conditions: State lawmakers should work with judges and supervision agencies to make compliance with community supervision conditions more feasible, such as by shortening term lengths and reducing the number of conditions, and they should also eliminate incarceration as a sanction for technical violations.
Invest in reentry services: State and local governments must establish adequate and permanent funding for reentry programming, including safe and affordable housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated people that are accessible to job centers.
