We Keep Us Safe

Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities

By: Zach Norris, Van Jones

Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White

A groundbreaking new vision for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment.

As the effects of aggressive policing and mass incarceration harm historically marginalized communities and tear families apart, how do we define safety? In a time when the most powerful institutions in the United States are embracing the repressive and racist systems that keep many communities struggling and in fear, we need to reimagine what safety means. Community leader and lawyer Zach Norris lays out a radical way to shift the conversation about public safety away from fear and punishment and toward growth and support systems for our families and communities. In order to truly be safe, we are going to have to dismantle our mentality of "Us vs. Them". By bridging the divides and building relationships with one another, we can dedicate ourselves to strategic, smart investments - meaning resources directed toward our stability and well-being, like health care and housing, education and living-wage jobs. This is where real safety begins.

In this book Zach Norris provides a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.

©2020 Zach Norris and Van Jones (P)2020 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

"An urgent call for safer, more inclusive communities for everyone.... Highly illuminating account of the changes required to create a more democratic society for all." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Progressive activists, community organizers, and elected officials should take note of this commonsense guide." (Publishers Weekly)

“His call for transforming the justice system into a ‘culture of care’ is clarifying and provides good fuel for debate.” (Booklist)

this man should be president

In this book are all the solutions for our failed prison system. He lays out a solution for a care-based system rather than a crime-based system.

Please read this book! It's a roadmap for harmony.

The fractures that have spread out across nearly every aspect of society in the United States have resulted in wide-eyed paralysis among many well-meaning white people like myself. Speaking as a white person, I see the injustice of systemic racism, I want to be free from my privileged status, I want a level playing field, and I want the joy of loving connections with humanity. But what can I do, realistically?

Zach Norris pulls together ideas that have, in some cases, been around for centuries, and weaves them together into the vision of a culture of caring that we can set into motion ourselves.

It all begins with connecting more. Recognize disconnection and begin fostering healthy human connections all around you. And read the book. :-) There's a lot more there. You can do this.

Definitely a must read for our times

I intend to buy copies for friends and recommend this book to everyone I know. I believe in all of Zach's strategies and intend to contribute to the work of making them work in our society. I am so grateful to find this kind of book. It is not about what is wrong with our society, but what we can do to make it better.

A Compelling Must-Listen for Building a Better, More Just Nation

I highly recommend this outstanding book. In a powerful and humane way, Zach Norris shows us how we can build a better, more just nation by creating a culture of caring and recognizing our true interdependence. In “We Keep Us Safe,” Zach calls out our framework of fear and shows us how to move beyond it, to a system of restorative justice and a stronger social safety net. And it’s more than words: Zach walks the talk through his own life and the stories he shares. If you are wrestling with 2020’s massive challenges and looking for a path forward, I urge you to read this compelling book.

Better Books by Women

Disclaimer that I didn’t finish the last few hours of this book but I just couldn’t get into it. It felt like he was just jumping around from issue to issue and very briefly touching on them which made it hard to follow along and get into it. I also felt like he was mainly just regurgitating what female authors have already written extensively on. I have not written a review for a book before but felt I needed to for this one - kinda like when a women makes a point and no one listens then a man repeats it and gets full praises. Nothing against him and his work - he sounds really awesome, just not the book I was looking for.