The Open Philanthropy Project made a $60,990 grant to Human Impact Partners (HIP) to support a convening intended to advance a public health approach to criminal justice policy. This event will bring together professionals in both public health and criminal justice reform in order to develop a vision of a health-based approach to criminal justice and an agenda to achieve that vision.
HIP is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, CA that works to increase the consideration of health and equity in decision-making. It accomplishes this through research, advocacy, and capacity building. This convening will be a component of its Health Instead of Punishment program, which aims to advance the use of public health science in criminal justice reform.
Our decision to make this grant was based primarily on the recommendation of Chloe Cockburn, our Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform. We believe that this convening represents the first attempt to bring together criminal justice reform and health experts from multiple jurisdictions to discuss a health-based approach to addressing harms currently processed by the criminal justice system.