A common assumption shapes American crime policy: that the people most exposed to crime — victims, and the officers who respond to it — want the harshest punishment in return. 

The evidence says otherwise. 

Crime victims, in survey after survey, favor rehabilitation over punishment, roughly two to one. And now officers are saying something similar. In a new survey from the Alliance for Safety and Justice, 8 in 10 officers said things like community violence intervention would make their jobs safer. 

Officers want neighborhood programs. They want clinicians on certain 911 calls. They want job training, therapy, and addiction treatment instead of long prison sentences. Why is that the view from inside law enforcement? And if it is, why haven’t we built the systems to match?

Harvey Santana is the Michigan director for the Alliance for Safety and Justice. He’s based in Detroit. He spoke about all this with The Metro’s Robyn Vincent.

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