Swords to Ploughshares: People of Faith Reinvent Public Safety (Part 1)

Indiana is an unlikely place to find some of the country’s most progressive criminal justice reforms. The state that brought us Mike Pence was run by the KKK in the 1920s. And yet Black clergy and churchgoers organizing in Indianapolis, the state’s largest city, anchored a decade-long effort that won the adoption of a violence-prevention program and reforms to police governance. As part of a national faith-based organizing network, they married basic community organizing practices––developing leadership, alliances, and relationships with public officials––to the moral power of religious values. After the murder of George Floyd, what they were able to achieve collectively amounted to a progressive reorientation of Indianapolis’ approach to criminal justice.