Last Wednesday three candidates for Providence City Council, Corey Jones (Ward 3), Jackie Goldman (Ward 5,) and Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6) introduced a plan called Providence’s Pathway to End Gun Violence, in collaboration with the Black Lives Matter Rhode Island PAC, to tackle the problem of gun violence in the city.

You can read the plan at the bottom of the page.

The plan is primarily preventative, and seeks to target existing funds for violence reduction where it can do the most good. The focus is on jobs, especially on providing job training to the formerly incarcerated by utilizing existing programs like Real Jobs Rhode Island. Significantly, the plan seeks to get ahead of gun violence by focusing on people “vulnerable to crime before they become incarcerated.”

This means creating youth employment opportunities by raising awareness of programs like One Providence for Youth and the Providence Youth Summer Jobs program.

Another aspect of the program seeks to tackle the state’s extremely harsh licensing restrictions which prevents formerly incarcerated people from getting licenses to hold certain jobs. Job training is valueless if you cannot legally be licensed after you complete your training.

Alternative responses to policing, giving first responders the opportunity to intervene and offer these programs to offenders before arrests are made is also recommended. Providing opportunities to folks on parole or probation, to help curb recidivism and incarceration that can mess up a person’s ability to get back on track.

Uprise RI spoke with the three candidates and Harrison Tuttle, the Executive Director of the BLM RI PAC about the plan on Sunday morning.

Uprise RI: My reading of your plan to tackle gun violence in Providence is that it’s mostly an expansion or the application of previously existing programs to this problem. Is that accurate?

Corey Jones: Kind of. Previously we’ve had similar programs that don’t target the exact people that we need to, but instead allow people to opt in. The way this will work, with the cooperation of law enforcement, is that we are asking them, at their discretion, to apply these practices before they make arrests – basically giving people opportunities – like a life jacket. There’s still work to be done – working to not overly criminalize certain Black and brown communities is a bigger lift for the public safety and law enforcement. What this plan tries to do is stop arrests and instead apply these triage methods that previously existed outside law enforcement.

Uprise RI: How did you start to develop these ideas? What did you see as the problem and how did you come up with these specific recommendations?

Miguel Sanchez: In like 2019 and 2020, gun violence was higher than usual, but from a bigger perspective this was a national trend. For whatever reason, maybe because of COVID people were stuck at home and didn’t have many opportunities or recreational activities to spend their time on – there’s some data that that’s what led to these higher gun violence incidents. As a result, there’s rhetoric especially from a lot the conservative politicians in the city that crime is high and Providence is a violent city.

Our neighbors hear stuff like that and they feel that way as well. Even in my neighborhood, where there hasn’t been much violence in the past couple years compared to 10 years ago, for whatever reason people will look at the news and fall for the propaganda. You know how it is, Steve, in terms of the news – They always wants to put out the worst of the worst and, and try to create this rhetoric. So, after speaking with neighbors and constituents here in the neighborhood I’m really big [into] data on exactly what is really happening and why it’s happening – not throwing just random rhetoric out there.

Thankfully, this year the violence has been on a decrease. We want to be proactive in making sure that it continues to decrease. The report shows that there are a bunch of programs and services that are already proven. We’re not recreating the wheel. I’m very big on finding existing programs because we just don’t have the time and the privilege right now to do something brand new. People don’t want to spend more taxpayer dollars on studies and reports here in the city when history shows that programs like these work and we just need to start transitioning into real policy, real implementation in our city.

I want to find things that are already working across the country. There’s a lot of great programs and services that already being offered, and we need to try to find a way to secure the funding for it. There’s money out. And then, implement these ideas in a way that is customizable and possible for Providence residents. There’s a lot in this report we can start doing now.

Corey Jones: Just to build off of what Miguel is saying, during the BLM movement we had a lot of discussions about accountability and transparency in policing. Previously they’d been in silos separate from gun violence and crime, but the truth is, when you don’t feel like you can trust the justice system, when you feel the justice system isn’t accountable, you’re less likely to utilize it, rely on it, call on it. As a result more crime goes unreported. Legal cynicism leads to more crime. It’s important that we connect these things together and say that when you have a system that is held accountable, that’s transparent, that people trust and believe in, that reduces crime. And there are studies that say that these things correlate.

People talk about the reduction of crime in a conversation of more cops or less cops when we should be having a conversation about that about fiscal responsibility regarding any department – and not overfunding in ways that are not correlated to the reduction of crime. It’s important that we change the conversation to what actually reduces crime and what evidence based solutions are connected to reducing crime because it’s not the things that people think it is, like more cops or less cops. Legal cynicism is hurting us so we have to make sure we have an accountable system and we should talk about these things in the conversation of reducing gun violence.

Harrison Tuttle: When we talk about the BLM movement and where we were just two years ago, it was the first discussion in years about what public safety actually looks like. Unfortunately we see a lot of conservative Democrats in our state reduce that discussion to “defund the police” despite the last year and a half where we’ve seen so many calls from community leaders and elected officials for a reallocation of funds with the rising urgency in mental health.

This is about meeting people where they’re at and for the first time in Rhode Island’s history we’re seeing communities of color come together, allied with other other folks in the community, to come up with this report that actually identifies some of the problems that we have and how we can move forward. The Black Lives Matter Rhode Island Political Action Committee is supporting the candidates on this call and what they are doing because this report is important, not only to the City of Providence, but all across the state.

Jackie Goldman: Within the activist movement and the “activist class” of people, there is a lot of support for ideas like this. Terminology like “defund” still shocks and scares a lot of people. When talking to people in the community and going door-to-door, obviously everyone wants to feel safe in the places that they live, work, and recreate in, but the only way that people imagine that happening is through policing. But once you get to the doors and talk to people and ask, “What do you think about investing in the things that our communities need to actually be safer?” you get new answers.

For instance, the Fox Point / Blackstone Blvd area are some of the wealthiest parts of Providence and also some of the safest – and it’s not because they have more officers, but because they have more community resources. That’s the conversation I try to shift people to, because I know that I am painted as this wild activist who wants to fire all police officers or whatever, which isn’t true. We have to invest in the things that work. Crime and gun violence require are a more holistic and complex problem than just that there are bad people. and good people, that there are people who have guns that are bad and there are people that have guns that are good.

As people on this call have said, it’s no coincidence that crime and gun violence have gone up in the past few years. Think about the fact that in Rhode Island the number of people who are unhoused and unsheltered has multiplied drastically over the past two years. This year, there’s projected to be 15,000 evictions in the state of Rhode Island. These are the kinds of material conditions that lead to crime. So, while there is, at least for the foreseeable future, going to need to be law enforcement to help with these situations, there’s also a need to think about how we can prevent gun violence to begin with, and get the resources into the communities that prevent crime.

The last thing I’ll say is that I’m hearing a lot about school safety and people bring up Uvalde, which was absolutely horrifying, right? How many law enforcement officials there didn’t respond? How many documented cases have we seen where the shooter had mental health crises that they knew he was a risk for these behaviors? Are there no resources within the school system to get this student the care that he needed? Unfortunately, this is how it escalates, and it is a tragedy every time. If we thought about violence as something more than just a measure that can be addressed with law enforcement, we would have a safer country.

Uprise RI: It occurs to me that law enforcement usually gets involved after a crime is committed. Having a police officer on the street might deter me from breaking a window, but more likely it’s after I commit a crime that the police get involved.

Corey Jones: I always tell folks that we have an archaic version of public safety that responds after the crime has been committed and doesn’t do much to deter crime. If public safety was recreated today from scratch we would probably have multiple continuums of crisis of care, probably up to 13 different responses, from little kids all the way to pregnant women, the unhoused, harm reduction, mental health crisis teams, a kids unit, a mid-age unit, elderly assistance. There’s a lot of work to be done. These are just the most evidence based solutions around the country.

Some folks in law enforcement might see this as undermining the work they do, because in 20 or 30 years these practices could lead to the defunding of police. But if folks in law enforcement and the first responder community have the community in mind and want to do what’s best for the community, they’ll put these practices in place. Some law enforcement around the country have cooperated with these practices. Some have not. I think that’s more of a reflection of their character. But once we get these in place, there’s more conversations to be had about the overcriminalization of certain communities and a bigger conversation about what law enforcement looks like.

Something I wanted to point out from the report in judicial reform that I want to credit Senator Sam Bell for pointing out to me is that Rhode Island is one of eight states that allow members of law enforcement to arraign people on misdemeanor charges. It’s arguably unconstitutional, definitely a conflict of interest. And it’s duplicative of some fascist nations. Brazil has a more extreme version where law enforcement prosecutes every crime, as well as do the arraignments, This type of thing you leads the community to not trust law enforcement.

I think we need to change the conversation because the conversation right now is community policing. Community policing isn’t an evidence based solution. Everybody defines “community policing” differently. Studies have been inconclusive about if “community policing” actually works and even what it actually is.

I talked to a voter yesterday in the Summit Nieghborhood on Third Street who had a Brett Smiley sign and was asking me I think we need more or less police. And I said, “I think that isn’t relevant to the conversation around reducing crime.” After talking to him about community violence intervention and some of these other programs, he’s like, “Put a sign up.” We’re going to have to have these one-on-one conversations, but I’m hoping that we can change the conversation around policing in the city.

Uprise RI: A lot of the ideas that were expressed in the report can be done by the city almost immediately, but some of the ideas would require, as far as I understand, some state assistance. The state has to expand some of the programs or allow them to be applied in new ways. I also think there might be some help needed from the courts. For instance, at the arraignment, maybe a judge could defer trial or sentencing or charges until a completion of a program or something like that.

So we would need to have the courts on board, the state on board, the Department of Labor and Training on board. How would the City Council negotiate with these othr institutions that need to be on board?

Corey Jones: While working under Governor McKee, I proposed a lot of these same ideas. Everybody loved the ideas, from the Department of Health, to the Department of Public Safety to the Governor himself. But I was repeatedly told that they didn’t want to own the ideas. They didn’t want to be responsible for implementing them. They didn’t trust that they would have the ability to implement them. They were willing to open the resources and open up existing programs, but they wanted the city, or the city council or the mayor to own this. And with the relationship Mayor Elorza had with Governor McKee, it was a very difficult thing to do. So I think the state is going to be a cooperative partner in this.

And I think that with us working directly with the state and at the city level to implement these, we can put them in place. The most difficult sell will possibly be the courts, and depending on who the new Chief of Police is, the Police Department. Chief Clemonts has supported similar ideas when I worked under the Governor and tried to get these to pass with some of the federal dollars. Chief Clements sent personal emails to some of the governor’s top aides to let them know that these were programs he thinks should be fully funded and that his officers would love to have the opportunity to offer these type of programs before making arrests.

Chief Clemonts is as aware as everyone that with more arrests you make crime go up, right? There’s this delusion that if you just arrest the perpetrators the city will be great, but crime rates will increase. It’s really a game of catch and release. You send people away and they come back more criminally sophisticated and the cycle doesn’t stop. It just continues.

Jackie Goldman: There’s a lot of research from the public health arena that when somebody’s incarcerated they lose access to a lot of the support systems that functioned as crime prevention and harm reduction, whether that’s access to housing, healthcare, jobs, or stuff like that. So any way that we can reduce the amount of arrests made, especially for nonviolent crimes, drug crime, misdemeanors…all of that’s important because once a person has that history of incarceration it’s game over for being able to access the kinds of programs that are provided by our government to help people who are otherwise facing layers of marginalization and structural violence. Anything we can do so that people don’t slip into that pipeline is really important. And if anyone wants to read those papers, I got you. They’re very good.

Miguel Sanchez: You’re aware, Steve, of the different changes that are going to happen on this council. There’s going to be a majority of new members, whoever wins, at least eight new members. So I think we need to start conversations with different candidates now to make sure that we have a solid 10 people on board with this plan so whoever becomes mayor, we’re override-proof if he or she decides to not support this. It’s important to have a solid 10 people on board to defend and support this plan to the different parts of state government.

Uprise RI: That’s one of the reasons I wanted that this conversation. I wanted to amplify this discussion and bring it to the mayoral candidates at one of the upcoming forums, get them to be talking about this plan or other plans and ideas they might have in their heads. I would love to get them on record as to what policing in Providence might look like. How much would it look like this plab? How much would it be different?

Harrison Tuttle: A lot of folks running for office talk about how, when we’re creating these types of reports, when we’re implementing plans, the need for community engagement. Miguel, Corey and Jackie, although they are running now, have all been organizers over the past two years and have been the folks that are willing to work with elected officials in order to further plans like these to ensure public safety. To my knowledge, the only mayoral candidate that has not responded or has reached out to us is Brett Smiley, unfortunately. We’d love, as a group, to talk not only to him, but, but anyone in terms of how we can improve this report. We are encouraged to see that candidates Gonzalo Cuervo and Nirva LaFortune have responded publicly.

But at the end of the day as, as Miguel mentioned, we’re going to have a city council in Providence that is going to look very different. What’s really important is that we find a foundation that we can work up from because these ideas are incredibly important and are backed up by data. We can’t afford to practice insanity, which is what we’ve been doing for the past 60 plus years.

Here’s the plan: