Moral Budget: Spending Cash On Community Instead Of Jail
Los Angeles County’s Measure J is a dope idea, and everybody should study it
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the unexpected can happen in a flash. Your life can be taken by a callous police officer on a summer day; protests can erupt in response to a state killing captured on video; the world you live in can suddenly flip due to mandatory shelter-in-place orders that isolate you from those you love the most. But 2020 also taught us that race-related innovation is possible. Los Angeles County’s Measure J is that innovation.
Measure J, or the Budget Allocation for Alternatives to Incarceration Charter Amendment, is the best kind of legal looting. It’s a cornering and voter-forced reallocation of at least 10% of the billions collected annually by the county; a move that shifts money to community care instead of jail maintenance. Los Angeles County voters approved this measure in response to a racial pandemic at least 400 years in the making that was punctuated this year by George Floyd’s killing and the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black (and Brown) bodies.
The measure amends L.A. County’s charter so that a minimum of 10% of unrestricted funds of the annual revenue — an amount estimated to be between $360 million and $900 million — is…
