For Immediate Release:
May 27, 2021
Long Awaited, Black Led Organization, Freedom Community Center, Offers Innovative Approaches to Addressing Violence and Harm in St. Louis
In a city struggling to address interpersonal and community violence, Freedom Community Center, an organization that practices restorative justice, provides a unique range of resources for North St. Louisans who have survived trauma and harm. Freedom Community Center breaks the cycle of violence by meeting social needs to alleviate individuals’ immediate economic needs, providing the space to facilitate communal healing, and diverting accusations of violence away from the legal system and into a community based solution that fosters reconciliation, repair, and transformation. Together, along with a base of those who survive violence, Freedom Community Center will address mass incarceration by dreaming collectively of alternative approaches to the failed criminal “punishment” system.
Founded to dismantle systems of oppression that inflict harm and trauma on Black communities in St. Louis City, particularly the police and the criminal punishment system, Freedom Community Center (FCC) is grounded in the knowledge that Black survivors in St. Louis have the solutions to the question: ‘What will keep us safe?’.
The vision for FCC comes from Mike Milton, a Black, St. Louis City resident who has seen how the criminal punishment system has not only failed to address violence, but caused more harm to individuals, their families, and torn at the fabric of Black neighborhoods.
“St. Louis has long depended on failed models to reduce crime in our city. Oftentimes we don’t consider the voices of those directly affected by violence, we don’t consider how much public policy and economic divestment drives crime, and we certainly don’t understand how much incarceration generates violence,” said Milton, the organization’s Founder and Executive Director. “Survivors of harm are desperately calling for alternatives that promote safety, foster transformation, and invest meaningfully into their communities. The Freedom Community Center centers survivors the way they deserve and collaborates with them to advance real solutions to addressing harm.”
Milton recently transitioned from his position as Statewide Policy and Advocacy Director at The Bail Project (TBP) to lead Freedom Community Center. Under his leadership, his team posted bail for approximately 4,000 people in St. Louis City and County, and expanded operations to St. Charles County. Of 1,954 people whose cases have closed, 94% spent no additional time in jail after TBP posted their bail. Of the 1,700 people in St. Louis City, 50% had their charges dropped or were acquitted at trial. They also saw people returned to court, and TBP’s efforts led to a decrease in the City jail population.
In addition to the data, Milton heard hundreds, if not thousands of stories of people impacted by the criminal punishment system. Milton routinely worked with individuals who experienced harm. They often expressed that they did not want to continue to press charges, be subpoenaed, and that they did not want their loved one to be detained pretrial or be incarcerated in prison. Instead people needed de-escalation from harm, safe alternative housing, and resources to address the effects of a racist and segregated city.
“At the Freedom Community Center, we take a survivor centered approach to building solutions that interrupt violence at the root and foster accountability, healing, repair, and transformation. Our alternative to incarceration process, ‘Free Us,’ uses a survivor centered approach to divert accusation of harm away from the legal and into our eight to 15 month accountability and restorative justice model,” said Milton. Once completed and the participants display healthy community engagement, the participants graduate and avoid incarceration.
Rooted in transformative and restorative justice practices, FCC promotes holistic freedom in Black and poor communities by focusing on Building Community, Practicing Transformative Responses to Violence, and Resisting Systemic Oppression.
Freedom Community Center is partnering with local and national organizations to strengthen FCC’s programming and resources for St. Louisans. FCC and the University of Missouri St. Louis Community Psychological Service will work with applicants to ensure they are a good fit, and participants will receive individual cognitive processing therapy to address trauma and PTSD, explosive behavior, and aggressive behavior. FCC collaborates with St. Louis City Circuit Attorney and Vera Institute's “Motion for Justice” Campaign as they work with prosecutors to reduce racial disparities in the criminal legal system.
“Violent behavior is often predicated by a lifetime of victimization and trauma, and emerging evidence suggests that addressing this trauma is essential in reducing violence risk. Nonetheless, few of those responsible for violence receive appropriate trauma-focused treatment. Typically they are just exposed to more trauma,” said Dr. John Nanney, Director of the University of Missouri St. Louis Community Psychological Service. “Our role is to ensure that those responsible for violence are provided the highest quality, evidence-based interventions for trauma and aggression, thus maximizing their chances of never hurting others again.”
The Freedom Community Center is also conducting a survey of people who have experienced harm in St. Louis to gain insight about their experiences and thoughts on the criminal legal system. Of the 93 people who have completed the survey thus far:
less than 10% of respondents expressed that the system was “very helpful” in providing information and support in recovering from the harm done to them;
82% of survivors of harm responded that they believe the prosecutor’s primary goal should be solving neighborhood problems and stopping repeat crimes through prevention and rehabilitation, even if it means fewer convictions;
an overwhelming 90% of survivors of harm say that they support expanding community-based victim services to help more victims of violence get access to programs that help them with stability and recovery from trauma;
an overwhelming 80% of survivors of harm said that they support expanding alternatives to incarceration such as diversion, mental health treatment, restorative justice, and community service to the current system.
FCC launches as many in the region are reimagining public safety. Through policy and budget decisions, St. Louis is moving towards concrete alternatives to replace the failed arrest and incarcerate model that has unjustly punished Black St. Louisans and devastated Black communities. After three years of advocacy by “Close the Workhouse,” a campaign to shutter a hellish jail called ‘the Workhouse’, local leadership moved to defund it by July 2021 and also reduced vacant police positions allowing funds to be reallocated to basic resources. Milton, in his role at The Bail Project, along with ArchCity Defenders and Action St. Louis, have anchored the successful campaign which has also shifted cultural beliefs about the role of police and jails in St. Louis.
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Freedom Community Center is online at freedomstl.org and social media.
For media inquiries reach out to communications@freedomstl.org.