We’re fighting for a society where all people are healthy and free.
Where we wield our collective resources to help, never to punish or hurt. Where all people get the care and assistance they need to repair any harm they have caused, heal historical or ongoing pain, and grow in community together. Where there is no need for prisons, jails, detention centers, or policing. Where all people can thrive.
Through our research and advocacy with community partners, we’re taking action to advance racial justice, public safety, and health equity.
Browse all of our Health Not Punishment work
Recent offerings from our work:
Abolitionist Public Health Student Network
An effort of our Health Instead of Punishment team, the Abolitionist Public Health Student Network is an ongoing network for undergraduate and graduate public health students interested in learning more about abolition and working on abolitionist campaigns on their campuses. Our goal is to build capacity within the field of public health for understanding and advocating for abolition of the prison industrial complex as a public health strategy.
Decriminalizing Abortion: How Our Movements Can Organize in Solidarity With Each Other
Resource created in partnership with Interrupting Criminalization, Abortion Care Network, Elephant Circle, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction, If/When/How, and the National Network of Abortion Funds on how abortion decriminalization is part of the larger struggle against policing and criminalization, and how our movements can organize in solidarity with each other.
Health and Safety for Young Migrants: Recommendations for Supporting Unaccompanied Youth
We partnered with the Dignity Not Detention Coalition to create a resource outlining recommendations for what healthy, just, and supportive immigration policy can look like for unaccompanied youth immigrating to the US, without relying on detention or detention-like facilities.
Health and Cultural Wealth: Student Perspectives on Police-Free Schools in Fresno, California
We partnered with Fresno Barrios Unidos to create a research brief informed by student experiences about the health harms of school policing and the public health benefits of investing in non-punitive supports for students.
Our Strategies
- Make it tangible by winning policy and budget campaigns that advance community health and freedom
- Make it scalable by building the base of public health workers advocating for the liberation of all people
- Make it sustainable by shifting culture and activating narratives that nurture health equity
Want to know more about our work?
Contact Program Director, Christine Mitchell at christine@humanimpact.org
