Moral Budget: Spending Cash On Community Instead Of Jail
By: Chanté Griffin
Tags: Politics, Society, Measure J, Los Angeles, Justice

Moral Budget: Spending Cash On Community Instead Of Jail

Photo: Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the unexpected can happen in a flash. Your life can be taken by a callous police officer on a summer day; protests can erupt in response to a state killing captured on video; the world you live in can suddenly flip due to mandatory shelter-in-place orders that isolate you from those you love the most. But 2020 also taught us that race-related innovation is possible. Los Angeles County’s Measure J is that innovation.

Measure J, or the Budget Allocation for Alternatives to Incarceration Charter Amendment, is the best kind of legal looting. It’s a cornering and voter-forced reallocation of at least 10% of the billions collected annually by the county; a move that shifts money to community care instead of jail maintenance. Los Angeles County voters approved this measure in response to a racial pandemic at least 400 years in the making that was punctuated this year by George Floyd’s killing and the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black (and Brown) bodies.

The measure amends L.A. County’s charter so that a minimum of 10% of unrestricted funds of the annual revenue — an amount estimated to be between $360 million and $900 million — is earmarked to fund community programs and alternatives to incarceration, including health services, mental health services, and youth and job development programs.

Measure J, or the Budget Allocation for Alternatives to Incarceration Charter Amendment, is the best kind of legal looting. It’s the pillage of the county’s coffers — of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Measure J also prohibits the designated funding from being used to finance anything related to policing or incarceration.

“This is a mandate, a statement of our values now and forever,” says Isaac Bryan, who co-chaired the campaign for Measure J. Bryan, who serves as the executive director of the UCLA Black Policy Project, hopes the measure diverts LA County’s $280,000 per person, per year jail spend.

Hopes for the measure’s impact are broad and ambitious, as it seeks to address a juggernaut of interconnected issues — racism in the criminal justice system, health services, housing, and others — that contribute to alarming incarceration rates, particularly within the Black community. The Race Counts study, published by the Advancement Project California in 2017, found that African Americans in L.A. County are incarcerated at 13 times the rate of White residents. Citing the study, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that “per capita, Blacks in L.A. County died at the hands of police more than four times than that of Whites in 2015.”

Just as alarming, according to Bryan, 70% of those incarcerated within the county suffer from some sort of physical or mental health issue. NPR reports that the L.A. County jail is the biggest mental health facility in the country, followed by Chicago’s Cook County jail and New York City’s Rikers Island. Measure J will provide additional funding for mental health services in the county, so those who critically need mental health services will receive care not handcuffs.

Measure J also seeks to counteract the county’s rising housing crisis. African Americans make up 34% of the homeless population in the county, although they make up only 8% of the population, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This “care first, jail last” approach pushes for funds previously allotted to jails and prisons to be invested into community care programs like low-income housing. Brian Kaneda, the Los Angeles coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, says a complete overhaul of how local and state governments invest their resources is in order.

“We need a complete transformation of how we understand our investment in Black and Brown communities in L.A. County and across the country,” says Kaneda. “There needs to be an unprecedented transfer of wealth into these communities.”

Kaneda believes that Measure J is just one step toward this type of transfer. “It [the 10%] is the floor, not the ceiling,” he says.

The county is creating a 17-person advisory and implementation committee, which activists hope will include abundant community leaders. According to Bryan, the committee will include five seats appointed by the County Board of Supervisors; five seats from those who have lived experiences with the criminal justice system; five seats for organizations already implementing community services in the county; and two seats for labor workers. The committee will work in partnership with the county’s alternatives to incarceration initiative, which was established by the county board of supervisors in early 2019.

Bryan says the county is creating an implementation strategy that is responsive, adaptive, and effective.

“Every year the way these funds are used is going to be evaluated, measured for effectiveness,” Bryan says. “So it’s not [that] decisions get made today that last forever. It’s decisions get made today that lay the foundation for continued conversations because the needs of our community rapidly change.”

Measure J will help ensure that programs that effectively reduce incarceration and recidivism finally have the long-term financial support they need to be effective over time. Programs that benefit the Black community won’t have to fight for funding every single year. Knowing that county funding is secure, organizations can focus on building lasting infrastructures that deliver their constituents the care they deserve. If Measure J works, it will serve as a national model because L.A. County — with an annual budget of $36 billion—could lead the way for others.

If the measure proceeds as intended, it will deliver a gut punch to a justice system whose actions say Black folks deserve to be housed in prison but not in homes. It will be an indicator that community care is cheaper than handcuffs and cells, and that care is a universal right — one that Floyd and others were never afforded. If Measure J is successful, it will be part of turning Los Angeles County — and eventually other parts of the country — right side up.