Guest Author
As one of the over 4 million Floridians who has been a victim of a crime in the last decade, I am well aware of the consequences of living in an unsafe and underserved community.
Crime survivors like me know that our communities often don’t have sufficient access to the services we need to be secure and to thrive. Under COVID-19, these services have been even further overburdened, and more people are suffering as a result.
Even in the best of times, our state has serious challenges providing help for victims — 8 of 9 survivors of violent crime in Florida do not receive victim services’ assistance.
Other services we need to recover successfully from crime and violence—trauma recovery, mental health, domestic violence services, etc. — are often underfunded and overstretched.
This is Crime Victims Rights Week and even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Floridians can address the needs in the communities most harmed, and protect and expand critical services that prevent crime and reduce recidivism: mental health, drug treatment, violence prevention, and reentry services.
Unsurprisingly, the public health dimensions of the coronavirus crisis disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people and communities in our state. To recover and move forward here in Florida, we need to bring everyone along.
Turning the page on coronavirus and preventing future outbreaks requires state lawmakers and our representatives in Congress to fund critical services for underserved communities, and move away from wasteful spending on over-incarceration, which only makes us less safe.
Decades of incarcerating people who posed no substantive risk to public safety already have made low-income communities of color less safe. Over-incarceration diverts funds from the services that are proven to stop crime from happening in the first place. This misallocation of resources and attention also has robbed vulnerable communities of the public health services needed to prosper.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers at the state level should focus on how we can strengthen services for the most vulnerable among us through domestic violence, mental-health and faith-based services that are proven to make communities safer.
Gov. Ron DeSantis commendably identified social workers and community health workers as essential. Victims’ services and crisis support are more important now than ever.
We believe he should go further, and also include crisis assistance workers in that designation, so they can continue to provide services to people struggling during this difficult time. We also need to ensure that these service providers have the resources to transition their services online and deal with the tremendous increase in calls for services.
Finally, the red tape that often obstructs folks from receiving needed assistance needs to go.
The timeline for processing applications for victim compensation, emergency housing, public benefits, and other crisis support should be sped up, while restrictions that keep those with past convictions from being eligible should be removed.
These are just a few of the ways that local, state and federal leaders can protect vulnerable people and communities, and ensure we receive the support we need during this difficult time.
Our state’s resources should go where they can have the most effect — namely, victim services, rehabilitation and other community supports — and not wasteful over-incarceration.
Even in the midst of a pandemic, we can make progress on both public health and public safety and set our state on a path to a healthier and stronger future.
___
Dr. LaDonna Butler is a crime survivor and serves as chapter coordinator for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice in St. Petersburg. She is the founder of the Well for Life and integrative wellness space in south St. Petersburg.
