A coalition of organizations working to mediate and stop community violence across New Jersey is demanding a change in how the state delivers funding to their programs.

Last month, the New Jersey Violence Intervention & Prevention coalition wrote to all members of the Legislature requesting that they introduce legislation that would move all funding for community violence intervention programs from the Department of Law and Public Safety, which is under the direction of Attorney General Matthew Platkin, to the Department of Health.

The coalition cites several concerns in the letter, saying the office of the attorney general routinely runs “months late” on releasing funds and it lacks “on-the-ground” support to facilitate collaboration and build relationships between community violence intervention organizations and local law enforcement agencies.

“(T)he Department of Law and Public Safety, Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has not proven itself to be an appropriate and welcoming home to our community violence intervention (CVI) work,” the letter reads.

“Over the years, we have observed that the number of grassroots community violence intervention (CVI) organizations applying for and managing Office of the Attorney General (OAG) grants has dwindled to almost none,” the letter says.

Response from AG’s office

“Attorney General Platkin has been a champion of violence intervention programming dating back to his time as Chief Counsel, and his commitment to this important work has continued as Attorney General. Look no further than the expansion of programming and funding in this area: over $100 million for the Community-Based Violence Intervention Program, Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program, and Trauma Recovery Centers dating back to 2019,” a spokesperson for the attorney general said in a statement.

“Many of these initiatives have expanded the State’s approach to public safety to places it has never been before, all underscored by the dedication to community-based engagement. And through AG Platkin’s establishment of the Division of Violence Intervention and Victim Assistance and the Office of Alternative and Community Responses, we have worked hand-in-hand with community partners in the distribution of state and federal dollars that power these programs while also adhering to our obligation to be good stewards of the funds. We always welcome feedback from our community partners in these and other programs, and look forward to continuing our relationship as we prepare for the next round of funding for our violence intervention programming,” the statement said.

The attorney general’s office and local police departments face renewed calls for improved public safety and police reform after a Fort Lee police officer shot and killed Victoria G. Lee in July while she was experiencing a mental health crisis. For years, New Jersey law enforcement, health care providers and community leaders have worked to improve police responses to mental health calls to avoid violent conclusions after several notable incidents like the one that ended Lee’s life.

Recent changes 

Late last month, Platkin announced changes to the state’s use-of-force policy that his office said are designed to increase the likelihood of “peaceful resolutions” to situations involving police and “barricaded” people, who are frequently in a behavioral or mental health crisis.

Lee’s killing came a year after similar police shootings of Najee Seabrooks in Paterson and Andrew Washington in Jersey City, whose families also called for help during their mental health crises. The deaths of Seabrooks and Washington spurred social justice advocates to push for the expansion of community-led violence intervention programs through the Seabrooks-Washington Community-Led Crisis Response Act.

The coalition sent the letter directly to state leaders, hoping they will address violence intervention and prevention and make the funding change explicit. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union) and the sponsors of the Seabrooks-Washington grant law did not respond to requests for comment.

Looking for answers

Zellie Thomas, head of Black Lives Matter Paterson, is working alongside the Paterson Healing Collective to create a crisis response program through grant funding provided by the Seabrooks-Washington law and said it was important for their programs to get up and running as soon as possible.

“Applicants have been awarded the grant, and since then, we’ve seen the horrific murder of Victoria Lee in Fort Lee,” said Thomas. “And we have been struggling in order to find answers and get support so that we can begin our pilot program, so we can prevent something like that from happening in our city.”

The attorney general’s office has told some applicants that they would get funding under that Seabrooks-Washington law. But as of early August, applicants had not been told how much funding they would get or copies of their grant contracts. That means they have not been able to start their programs, according to the letter from the New Jersey Violence Intervention & Prevention coalition.

It’s also not yet known how the groups will interact with law enforcement on emergency calls, Thomas said.

“We are all still waiting [for] communication about how this program will be interacting with not only law enforcement, but the public safety institution in general, including the 911 dispatch,” he said.

Praise for Health Department

Several of the coalition’s partners recently received funds through the Department of Health and have learned what it is like to work with “supportive and collaborative” grant administrators, the letter said. The coalition cites an example of this “seamless coordination” by stating that the Department of Health has a grant portal and does not require grantees to submit “voluminous documentation” month by month via email.

“In 2024, the fact that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) does not have a grant portal speaks volumes to its lack of commitment to subgrantees,” the letter says.

The coalition sees violence as a public health issue and sees a need to address violence through public health approaches, according to William Simpson, the director of community safety and justice at Equal Justice USA, another member of the coalition.

This means thinking about alternatives to traditional justice-related agencies, Simpson said, and thinking more seriously about what it would look like for departments of health and departments of health and human services to be places that house, fund and seek to expand this work, not just in New Jersey, but nationally.

“The Attorney General, as far as we’re concerned, not only should be less concerned with the kind of bureaucratic issues that they raise, but really concerned with how this work has the ingredients to improve relationships between community and law enforcement,” said Zayid Muhammad, a longtime social justice advocate and lead organizer for New Jersey Communities for Accountable Policing.

“Unfortunately, by virtue of the hostility that our community violence intervention partners are getting in trying to get their work resourced the way it was promised by state leadership, we’re facing new barriers to a relationship that should be about the breaking down of barriers,” said Muhammad.

— Taylor Jung contributed reporting.