Make Communities Safer in Practice—Not Just in Theory
The Cicero Institute works to make communities safer in practice—not just in theory. America’s cities have fallen into decline because of idealistic policies shaped by research that have little basis in practical application. Activists and academics whose loyalty to ideology comes before a commitment to public safety have deceived policymakers and the public for far too long.
The Cicero Institute’s public safety work offers a different, more optimistic vision of the future in which a mix of traditional enforcement and smarter preventative and rehabilitative interventions has meaningfully curbed crime. Accountability is at the core of our public safety philosophy, but not just for criminals. Accountability must extend to the people, systems, and institutions we entrust with our safety—especially prisons, probation, parole, and prosecutors. When they fail to achieve results, incentives should pressure them to realign their efforts.
Accountability doesn’t have to be negative. Positive accountability that rewards innovation, cultural change, and, most of all, improved outcomes is essential to creating the types of virtuous cycles that are largely absent from policymaking. Incentives that reward success are powerful motivators to improve performance, translating into institutions adopting more effective strategies and programs while abandoning practices that prevent success or lead to failure.
Public safety policies typically have incentives that reward failure. Prisons, for example, receive more funding when they have more individuals behind bars—whether they’re private prisons or publicly operated. Elected prosecutors are often unopposed, leaving voters with few options for recourse if their district attorneys refuse to uphold the law. Probation and parole officers suffer from high caseloads, meaning that every person they send back to prison is one less person to manage. Public safety institutions are rife with perverse incentives.
The disconnect between doing good work that improves public safety and any meaningful reward structure stymies positive innovation, robs jobs of purpose, and deters talented people from working in the field. These systemic issues affect culture and performance as much as the direct crime-fighting strategies deployed in communities.
The Cicero Institute is committed to changing systems and reconfiguring incentive structures to attract talented people, promote effective programs and practices, and move resources away from the strategies that have consistently failed to make society a safer place for everyone.