Rethinking Jails, Reframing Public Defense:
Making the Case for the System-Wide Benefits of Effective Defenders
The Safety and Justice Challenge is a $100 million initial investment by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce over-incarceration and address racial disparities by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. In 40 jurisdictions, local stakeholders are developing and modeling alternatives to incarceration as usual, creating models for reducing unnecessary jail use to make communities healthier, fairer, and safer.
Public defenders play a critical role in preventing unnecessary, unjust and expensive incarceration. NLADA developed this communications toolkit for defenders in the Safety and Justice Challenge so that they may articulate what effective public defense systems uniquely offer to pretrial reform.
Learn more about defenders' role in the Challenge.