Funding Alert: JustReinvest Grant Applications are available now. Deadline to apply is 9/30/2024

→ JustReinvest.org

Join our team!

We’re hiring:

Community Justice Reinvestment Program Manager

Apply by 11/25/24
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Every person has inherent dignity
We can create new models for safety and justice
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Every community has immeasurable worth
We can focus on healing, not retribution
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Together, we can build something better
We can imagine new models of community safety
Get involved
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Justice Reinvestment

Grants for Community-Based Nonprofits in Maricopa County

Punitive drug sentencing laws do more than lock people up. They also funnel resources and funding out of communities and concentrate them in punishment institutions–police departments, courts, jails and prisons.

Justice Reinvestment is a data-driven approach to improve public safety, reduce corrections and related criminal justice spending, and reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and reduce recidivism.

When Arizonans voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2020, they also approved the creation of a statewide Justice Reinvestment Fund. A portion of the tax money collected by the state on the sale of cannabis is now set aside to distribute via grants to qualified nonprofit organizations that provide justice reinvestment programs in this state, such as behavioral health, reentry, job training, jail diversion, and prevention programs.

Just Communities Arizona serves as the Fiscal Agent for Maricopa County Health Department, assisting with the distribution of Justice Reinvestment funds. JCA developed the JustReinvest Grant program to provide a more equitable allocation process that allows small and grassroots organizations a pathway to funding.

In 2024, JCA will award $600,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations serving Maricopa County communities!

Learn more about the JustReinvest Grant program and how your nonprofit can apply for funding!

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Community Safety Incubator Projects

We know that communities know how to keep themselves safe–they always have. Especially those communities that are under-resourced and marginalized.

What if communities had the resources and support they need to create safety for themselves?

What if neighborhoods could enact their own vision of safety without having to petition the government or raise a bunch of money?

That’s what Community Safety Incubator Projects are designed to do–we provide support and resources to small groups of neighbors to envision and enact a project to make their community safer and more connected.

Imagine cleaner, more beautiful streets and alleyways…free resource sharing sites like book banks…fiestas that bring people together to get to know their neighbors better…safer playgrounds where kids can play without scraping up knees and elbows…community murals that demonstrate creativity and beauty. Those are just a few examples of what Tucson neighbors have done so far. What’s your vision?

Learn more about Community Safety Incubator Projects and how YOU can request one for your neighborhood.

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Our Impact

The punishment system sends the constant message that we are unsafe because dangerous criminals are everywhere, seeking to harm us or our families. In reality, it is this very system that creates the most harm.  

Incarceration rate
50 th

Despite having average crime rates, Arizona is the 5th highest incarcerator in the US.

Personally Impacted
1 %

1 in 13 Arizonans are personally impacted by the system.

Violent crime
-4 %

You are more likely to be caught up in the punishment system than you are to be a victim of violent crime.*

*Source: (455 per 100,000)  https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2021-annual-report/state-summaries-arizona

The antidote to this failed system lies in our own communities.

We know what we need to keep us safe. Join us and help create the communities we all want to be part of. Join our newsletter mailing list today to learn more about how you can be part of the solution

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FAQ

The highlights

We are an organization of abolitionists that affirms the inherent and undeniable dignity of every person and the immeasurable worth of every community.

We are creating new models for justice and safety outside of Arizona’s punishment system.

For decades, the conversation around community safety, meant surveillance, policing, and criminalization with arrest or incarceration as the go-to solutions.

But when affected communities are asked directly what makes them safe, they refer to things that exist entirely outside the criminal justice system: conditions that bring people together, build relationships and trust, attend to the needs of children and families, and support both physical and emotional health.

We serve those directly impacted by the punishment system: people with convictions, formerly incarcerated people, and their communities.

Community reviews

What does Community Safety Look Like?

Over a 2-year community action research project on safety, we asked members of the Barrio Centro community, in southeast Tucson, Arizona, what community safety feels like.

Notably, although the community has it’s average share of reported crime, no respondents name traditional carceral safety, including police, policing, border patrol, or jails, as resources that community members feel contribute to healthy, thriving, and safe-looking or safe-feeling communities.

A just community is a place where there is connection, fairness, support, compromise, nature, love, purpose, and meaningful jobs.
Emily Flores
Barrio Centro
Just communities are places that are compassionate, inclusive, open, supportive, forgiving, and foward thinking.
Lucas Grant
Barrio Centro