From prisons to prevention, Scott and other community leaders say community health—not just policing—must drive the next phase of justice reform.
“Gun violence is a public health issue,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott, setting the tone for a charged panel about mass incarceration and systemic failure. “You cannot solve a public health issue without having a public health-based approach.” That belief shaped “The Next Step on Criminal Justice,“ a timely conversation on the Global Black Economic Forum stage during the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture.
Moderator Errol Louis, host of “Inside City Hall” on NY1, led the discussion with Scott, Dr. Roger Mitchell, president of Howard University Hospital and a leading forensic pathologist; civil rights attorney and Life After Justice founder Jarrett Adams; and Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, the first Black woman to represent New Jersey’s 10th District — each of whom made it plain: this is about health, justice and survival.
Mayor Scott broke down Baltimore’s $50 million investment in community violence intervention. “We pay people who used to shoot people to go and interrupt that violence themselves,” he explained. “It’s not just me… It’s the community, it’s the city of Baltimore, everyone working in that ecosystem.”
Keeping interrupters independent from police, he added, is critical: “Even some folks in the media, they would never ask me to unveil who an undercover police officer is because of their credibility and their credibility in the street. My violence intervention workers need that same accountability to their partners and their relationships.”…