San Francisco, Calif. — Fair and Just Prosecution, a prosecutorial reform advocacy group that works with elected local prosecutors, is calling on prosecutors nationwide to take a more active role in supporting hospital-based violence intervention programs, arguing that these initiatives are a proven public health strategy for reducing repeat violent injury and retaliatory violence.
In a December 2025 issue brief titled Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs: The Role of Prosecutors, the organization outlines how HVIPs operate, summarizes evidence of their effectiveness, and urges prosecutors to adopt policies that protect patients’ rights and limit law enforcement practices that can undermine trauma-informed care. The brief was authored by Kyle Barry and Dawn Milam.
The report describes HVIPs as programs that engage victims of violent injury at a critical moment, often while they are receiving emergency medical care, and connect them with long-term support services. According to the brief, HVIPs “provide services designed to improve the long-term physical, mental, and economic wellbeing of victims and their families, thereby also reducing retaliatory violence and promoting better health outcomes in the community.”…