A New Foundation for Justice, Safety, and Equity: Key Principles, Danielle Allen, David J. Knight, Lily Jacobs, and Benjamin A. Barsky.
Our overarching societal goals of delivering safety and well-being for all require securing the foundations of mental and physical health, freedom from violence, freedom of movement, housing security, food security, access to opportunity, and undistorted recognition of one’s full personhood. As they currently function, so-called institutions of “public safety” often fail to deliver safety to many, including to the survivors of interpersonal harm. A full treatment of a strategy to deliver safety and well-being would cover all the above topics. Here, we focus on only one component of a strategy of safety: a redefinition of “public safety” as collective safety and accountability to support transformation of policing and civil and criminal judicial processes.
Domestic COVID-19 Vaccine Passports: Policy Options to Build Trust and Curtail Inequity, Natalie Kofler, Chloe Reichel, Aditi Gupta, and Carmel Shachar.
For policy makers considering the implementation of COVID-19 vaccine credentialing programs, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University have developed a road map highlighting key considerations for their ethical design. COVID-19 vaccine credentialing programs or digital health pass programs, commonly referred to as vaccine passports, are a tool U.S. policy makers may use to safely reopen economies and hasten community-level immunity by encouraging vaccine uptake. But their ethical implementation is contingent upon a number of factors: first and foremost, equitable access to vaccines. Other considerations include minimizing distrust, accessibility, risks of discrimination, and privacy protections. In this concise, accessible overview, we outline these considerations and provide responsive policy recommendations to guide more equitable implementation and minimize distrust.
Addressing the Public Health Crisis of U.S. Carceral Facilities: An Integrated and Equitable Approach, David J. Knight and Benjamin A. Barsky.
This document and the resources below address two issues that are critical in the nation’s co-occurring crises of COVID-19 and mass incarceration. These include (1) the call for more educational resources about the COVID-19 vaccines that are sensitive to the unique concerns of incarcerated people and their loved ones, and (2) the need for an inclusive—and equitable—policy approach that fully integrates people impacted by incarceration into our public health response systems. These documents provide important information on these matters that we hope will support those in American jails, prisons, and detention centers, in addition to providing an ethically-based framework to inform and improve the decision-making of policymakers working on issues in the public health and criminal legal systems.
FAQ: The COVID-19 Vaccine: What You Should Know (For Loved Ones): Provides information about COVID-19 and the vaccine for loved ones of incarcerated people.
Essay: Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons: Pairing vaccination and decarceration is necessary to protect incarcerated individuals.
Brief: Addressing the Public Health Crisis of U.S. Carceral Facilities: An Integrated and Equitable Approach, lead authors David J. Knight and Benjamin Barsky.