Prison Policy Initiative supports Safety Bound’s bold new platform to reimagine the sheriff

One out of every three people behind bars is being held in a local jail, yet the 3,000+ sheriffs that control them operate with little to no oversight — and the consequences are deadly. Hundreds of people, many of whom are held pretrial and have not been convicted of a crime, die each year in local jails from suicide, overdoses, violence, and neglect.

Safety Bound, an organization that works to reimagine the role of sheriffs, has created a policy platform with seven demands that advocates can use to curb the unchecked power of sheriffs, reduce jail populations, and improve conditions inside these facilities. We helped to support this effort by providing insights and research on the health harms of incarceration and ways communities can avoid costly and ineffective jail construction projects.

The seven demands are listed below, and are explained in more depth on Safety Bound’s website.

1. Towards Accountability — Sheriffs should improve jail operations and conditions to prevent injuries and deaths.
   • People in jails have high rates of mental illness, chronic health conditions, and substance use, which jails are not equipped to provide care for.
2. Towards Freedom — Sheriffs should reduce jail populations and oppose jail expansions
   • Investing in jail construction is not a solution to social problems but rather doubles down on old policies that caused these problems to begin with.
3. Towards Immigrant Justice — Sheriffs should end all voluntary cooperation with any and all immigration enforcement.
   • Local jails play an important role in enabling federal agencies like ICE and the U.S. Marshals to detain people for immigration reasons.
4. Towards Racial Justice — Sheriffs should end pretextual traffic stops.
   • Traffic stops are not only the most common type of police-initiated contact, but are common sites of police violence, impacting Black drivers more than any other racial group.
5. Towards Health — Sheriffs should advocate for alternative emergency response for mental health and substance use crises.
   • Despite how sheriffs repackage incarceration as care to justify jail expansion or budget increases, jails are not a substitute for treatment. A better solution is community-based support systems that address challenges before they become crises that result in incarceration.
6. Towards Democracy — Sheriffs should not take campaign donations from jail contractors.
   • Nationwide, sheriffs have received countless dollars in campaign donations from security and investigative companies, construction firms, medical services providers, telecom and tech companies, bail bonding companies, and even apparel and uniform manufacturers.
7. Towards Election Integrity — Sheriffs should act to protect election officials and voters from threats and violence that undermine the right to vote.
   • Elected officials, particularly at the local and state level, significantly shape the criminal legal system and elections are an important tool in the fight against mass incarceration.

Learn more

You can learn more about Safety Bound’s 7 Demands to Reimagine the Sheriff at: https://www.safetybound.org/demands

The organization is also hosting a webinar on Thursday, August 14th, to explore each demand in depth. The organization’s partners — including our Policy & Advocacy team — will discuss how we can build a movement rooted in care and accountability.