On Safety and Justice: A year-end message from our executive director

Dear Friend,

Safety and Justice.

Safety and justice are inseparable and mutually dependent. Neither can truly thrive without the other. That belief is a common thread that connects all of our work at Partnership for Safety and Justice. It drives our focus on solutions-based reform and our commitment to eliminating disparate treatment based on race, gender, or other forms of discrimination within the criminal justice system.

Our belief in the interconnection between safety and justice is also why we challenge points of view that define safety narrowly or that imagine justice simply as something “done to” people who commit crimes.

This year marks our 25th anniversary and my 10th year as Partnership for Safety and Justice’s executive director. I am proud of the influence PSJ has had in Oregon, across the nation, and even internationally. But, above all else, I am grateful that we have a staff, board members, and supporting community that think critically, work creatively, and move ahead with a deep commitment to our mission.

This milestone year has been tough, though. The amount of inaccurate or intentionally misleading information circulating about crime rates, addiction, unhoused people, immigrant communities, among other public concerns is staggering. And the traumas and dislocations of the COVID pandemic years added another thick layer of complexity.

For those of us who can look back on a long history working in and around these issues, it has felt as if we were transported back to the 1980s or 1990s, when “tough-on-crime” rhetoric was enough to smother proposed criminal justice reforms.

But Partnership for Safety and Justice has seen this before, and we know that our work rarely follows a straight line. In fact, we’re on track to advance a number of powerful reforms in 2025.

Over the coming year, we are leading on proposals that will have positive, real-world impacts on people’s lives. And the reforms we’re leading on center the values that Oregonians care about most.

• Keeping more families together — Expanding the Family Sentencing Alternative Program to help more adults be accountable for harm at home, where they continue raising their children while getting the community supervision, treatment, and services they need to succeed.
• Fighting for racial equity — Increasing investments in the Justice Reinvestment Equity Program to fund local programs that reduce incarceration, support healing after trauma, and serve communities across Oregon that have been disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system.
• Investing in lifesaving addiction services — Protecting harm reduction and drug treatment programs in local communities, which reduce the risk of incarceration among people who use drugs or struggle with addiction.

As has been true for the last 25 years, we remain dedicated to our vision of a criminal justice system that promotes true accountability, racial justice, and crime victims’ healing. And we continue to build a new generation of justice advocates who are prepared to continue our work over the next 25 years.

We cannot do this work without your support. Please help us continue to ensure that we are a strong voice in Oregon for true community safety across the state.

Please join me by making a tax-deductible contribution to Partnership for Safety and Justice today.

In solidarity,
Andy Ko
Executive Director