SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Local and state leaders are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to invest billions more in crime prevention following Sunday's shooting in downtown Sacramento.
A coalition of criminal justice organizations released a letter being sent to top California state leaders, urging them to address the spike in violence by investing $3 billion in programs, focusing on addressing the root causes of crime and violence prevention.
Half of the proposed $3 billion investment calls for the Legislature to support a $1.5 billion comprehensive behavioral health and substance abuse package, proposed by Gov. Newsom in his budget back in January.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar, other elected leaders and criminal justice reform advocates stood together to call for further investment into crime prevention. They say Sunday's shooting only underscores the urgency to prevent crime before it happens.
"Our systems need to do more to ensure that people who have been part of the criminal justice system do not remain part of the criminal justice system for their long lives," Steinberg said.
Salazar said this is more than public safety.
“It is public safety, victim prevention and creating and healing our current community," Salazar said. "If you don’t have the courage to stand up for that, then you are saying you’re ok with more victims in our community. Just think if we could have had those services to the people who commit these crimes before they committed it, then I’m not standing up here with six families who are planning funerals”
Some of this money would also go toward mental health treatment in the criminal justice system, re-entry services and victims assistance funds, among other things.
"What we want to do here today with this program and opportunity is to address the core issues that face and drive crime. That is mental health, substance abuse, extreme poverty, destabilized homes, home violence. Those all have to be addressed," Salazar said. "When your home is healthy, your community is healthy, your crime goes down and your economy goes up. They are simple tools, but they are also expensive tools, and they have to be funded."
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City, state leaders speak about crime prevention in California | Raw