Together with advocates like you, Partnership for Safety and Justice is building public safety and criminal justice systems that better serve survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families and communities of both.
We envision a public safety system that values…
Healing over handcuffs
Oregonians deserve stable housing, addiction treatment, and mental health care. Instead of arresting and jailing people who are suffering, we fight for real solutions like housing and healing services.
Accountability for harm
Crime survivors deserve meaningful accountability — not punishment-only approaches that don’t create true community safety. We advocate for programs that prevent violence, repair harm, and help people heal.
Racial justice and equity
Black, Brown, and Indigenous people have been most harmed and least helped by the system. The solutions we advance are rooted in racial justice to ensure that all of our communities feel safe.
Crime survivors’ voices
Many victims don’t turn to the criminal justice system for help, especially Black and Brown victims whose communities are disproportionately targeted by the system. We ensure that survivors have greater access to restoration and healing.
Keeping families together
Most Oregonians who are incarcerated are parents, which causes childhood trauma that reverberates into adulthood. By investing in solutions that keep families together, we foster bonds that make our communities safer.
How We Drive Change
We’re transforming Oregon’s response to harm and violence with innovative solutions that ensure accountability, racial equity, and healing for survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families of both.
Building Power
Leadership from grassroots to grasstops
Transforming the System
Advancing and implementing state and local reforms
We’re guided by a shrink-and-invest approach to reform. The policies we advance reduce mass incarceration. And our work has invested nearly $500 million into services for crime survivors, treatment, and restoration.
Dive deeper into the policies that are reforming our systems.
“Partnership for Safety and Justice really opened my eyes to the ways in which our criminal justice system works and doesn’t work — the ways in which so many people affected by the criminal justice system are both survivors of crime and folks who might commit crime as well.”
Tips for Talking about Reform
It can be emotional to disagree with people, especially when talking about sensitive issues like trauma and violence. Here are a few tips for how to discuss the public safety and criminal justice systems.
Listen to understand, not to respond.
Disconnection and distance can only be bridged with respect for other perspectives.
Connect with shared values.
There is always common ground that we can agree on.
Share personal experiences with the issue.
If you’re comfortable, talk about how the issue has affected you, and ask about their experiences.
Explain concerns you have with the system.
Draw connections between the problems you see and the values you share, including racial equity and second chances.
It is okay to not have all the answers.
Just questioning the status quo is powerful, too.
Don’t expect to change minds.
Sharing your perspectives can make meaningful shifts in future conversations.
As a reminder, there is a difference between disagreements on policy and offensive or damaging speech. Set boundaries and remove yourself from harmful conversations as needed.
Deepen your advocacy skills
Discover information and research to support your advocacy and reform work in your community.
Oregonians overwhelmingly share core beliefs about community safety:
Everyone deserves to feel safe and live a life free of harm.
Anyone who is suffering should have what they need to heal.
After taking responsibility for causing harm, people deserve a second chance.
Our public safety and criminal justice systems should be guided by these values. Instead the default response to crime is incarceration, punishment, and isolation from loved ones.
Our movement is transforming safety and justice for all Oregonians.