Why Threatening Prison Doesn't Stop Shooters
"Your name is being spoken at tables you don't know exist."
That line comes from Sasha Cotton. She says it to the young men who show up at GVI call-ins — rooms where mayors, police chiefs, district attorneys, community members, and social service providers deliver a single coordinated message to the people most likely to shoot someone or be shot. She says it because most of them have no idea how closely they're being watched, and because pulling back that curtain is the first step toward an off-ramp.
Sasha Cotton is a the executive director at the National Network for Safer Communities at John Jay College. Her organization trains cities to implement Group Violence Intervention and Focused Deterrence — the evidence-based models that produced a 66% reduction in gang violence in Boston in the mid-nineties, a 62% drop in Philadelphia's homicide rate between 2022 and last year, and over 500 consecutive days without a juvenile homicide in Pine Bluff, Arkansas — a city with fewer than 100,000 people that was experiencing juvenile homicides at Chicago's per capita rate.
This conversation is about how that works. Not the talking points — the mechanics.
What the call-in actually is. A meeting held in a church or auditorium. Individuals on probation or parole, affiliated with groups driving local violence, receive a scripted three-part message: from law enforcement (your behavior has consequences), from social services (you matter and there's a 24-hour line if you need safety), and from community voices (voice of pain, voice of redemption, voice of hope). Dinner is served afterward. Name cards are placed in front of attendees. The goal is not to threaten — it's to inform, and to make clear that the community sees their humanity even as it demands their behavior change.
Why threatening incarceration stopped working. After George Floyd's murder, Sasha and the National Network had to rethink the entire law enforcement piece. Not just because community trust in police had cratered, but because the threat of prison had never been as effective as assumed. A lot of the people in those rooms already expected to go to prison at some point. So the pivot was blunt: I don't want you to die. That reframe — from accountability to survival — changed what the conversation could do.
The honest limits. Sasha does not pretend GVI is a universal solution. She is direct: policing as an institution was not designed to save our kids. Law enforcement co-opting CVI funding, cities implementing GVI without technical support, and credible messengers without the skills or relationships to work alongside law enforcement — these are the ways the model fails and causes real damage. The 40–60% violence reduction outcomes Sasha cites only happen with fidelity, data, and ongoing support.
The part nobody talks about. There is a 25% crossover between people who perpetrate community violence and those who perpetrate intimate partner violence. Sasha has spent a decade in domestic violence work alongside her GVI career, and she's leading a Ford Foundation-funded research project to bridge the two fields. The number one killer of Black women ages 18 to 34 is domestic violence. Those two facts belong in the same conversation as GVI, and in this episode they finally are.
Sasha Cotton is a strategist at the National Network for Safer Communities at John Jay College, where she leads GVI and Focused Deterrence training across the country. She previously directed prevention work at the Minnesota Coalition on Domestic Violence and served as research coordinator at the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community.
Have questions about what you heard? Reach out at incrediblemessenger.com/contact. Interested in having Jonathan speak at your convening or consult with your city? That's the same link.
After The Shooting, Then What?
Are you scared of saying the wrong thing to a loved one after they have suffered a death in the family?
That was one of many things Oresa Napper-Williams and I discussed during our latest conversation on The InCredible Messenger.
We often lean on clichés like "I know how you feel," but unless you’ve walked that specific path, you don’t. We’ve lost the "ministry of presence"—the simple act of showing up with a meal instead of asking a grieving person to make more decisions.
But this isn’t just a talk about grief; it’s a masterclass on the "Second Wound"—the trauma inflicted by the very systems meant to help us.
The Blueprint for Systemic Change:
Oresa didn’t just survive the murder of her son, Andrel; she founded Not Another Child to redesign how systems move. We break down:
The Myth of "Contributory Conduct": How denying victim compensation based on a child’s "lifestyle" dehumanizes families and halts community healing.
Beyond the "Hand-Off": Why agencies must move past immediate crisis management toward long-term, integrated trauma care.
The Receipts: How Oresa worked with Common Justice to strip harmful language from legislation and scale a local tournament into a national model serving 50+ survivors.
Key Moments & Conversation Timeline
[00:00:00] The Ministry of Presence: Oresa reflects on traditional ways of supporting grieving families and why "saying nothing" is often better than saying the wrong thing.
[00:01:10] Competitive Grief: A look at why we shouldn't try to make our grief "greater" than others to seem relatable.
[00:05:36] The Birth of "Not Another Child": Oresa shares the story of her son Andrel and how a local basketball tournament evolved into a national nonprofit.
[00:10:42] Making Their Names Great: How the program uses photos of lost loved ones to turn the urge for retaliation into a legacy of remembrance.
[00:18:25] The Survivor Ecosystem: Moving beyond "silos" and understanding that a nonprofit is a business fueled by passion, but governed by strategy.
[00:20:24] Victim vs. Survivor: Oresa discusses the terminology of "victim services" and why she identifies as a survivor who stands toe-to-toe with professionals.
[00:34:00] Giving Grace for the Lash Out: Recognizing the trauma of murder and why we must give survivors space to act in ways we might not expect.
[00:39:12] Challenging "Contributory Conduct": The fight to change laws that deny families financial support based on the perceived actions of the deceased.
[00:43:48] The Second Wound: Oresa recounts the traumatic experiences with hospital staff and detectives immediately following her son's death.
[00:54:38] Self-Care & Vitamin Drips: How Oresa maintains her energy through mindfulness, family time, and unconventional wellness.
[01:03:00] Advice for New Leaders: Why you should incorporate this work into your life, rather than letting the work overtake your life.
Resources:
Websites: NotAnotherChild.org, CVINSN.org
Social Media: @OfficialNAC | @OresaNapperWilliams
Connect with Oresa Napper-Williams
The Secret Behind Newark’s 71% Drop in Homicides!
Can you reduce murders by taking money away from the police? Newark just proved it's possible. In Newark, NJ, they didn't just talk about police reform—they delivered results. By reallocating 5% of the police budget into community-led public health, Newark saw a staggering drop in homicides: from 112 down to just 32.
In this episode, Deputy Mayor Lakeesha Eure reveals the "unapologetic" blueprint for transforming public safety and saving lives through the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery.
Key Takeaways:
07:15 - The 5 Demands: The specific policy shifts that broke the cycle of violence.
18:01 - Real-World Coordination: How Newark got "The Streets" and Police to communicate daily.
27:10 - The $16 Million Investment: Breaking down exactly where the reallocated budget went.
43:18 - The "Building Takeover": Converting a police station into a community hub
TAKE ACTION: THE NEWARK BLUEPRINT
Replicate the Model: Don't reinvent the wheel. Access the exact frameworks used by the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery (OVPTR) and the Brick City Peace Collective to see how Newark coordinates its "7 Lanes of Work" .
Explore the Newark Peace Collective Hub
https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/brick-city-peace-collectiveAccess Trauma Recovery
https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/violence-prevention-trauma-recovery 2. Support the Frontline: The Newark Community Street Team (NCST) and the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) are the "Credible Messengers" you heard about in this episode .
Support the boots on the ground:
Partner with Newark Community Street Team https://www.newarkcommunitystreetteam.org/
Join the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition Movement https://www.facebook.com/NewarkAntiViolenceCoalition
Join the National Movement: Newark isn't an island.
Connect with the national infrastructure that Deputy Mayor Lakeesha Eure credits for scaling this work: The HAVI: Hospital-Based Intervention https://thehavi.org/
Cities United: Supporting Mayors & Leaders https://citiesunited.org/
CVI Leadership Academy: Professionalizing the Field https://www.google.com/search?q=https://cvila.org
Focused Deterrence (GVI) Explained
Sasha Cotton on the Mechanics of Group Violence Intervention (GVI) and the Operational Necessity of Legitimacy
Most public safety conversations get trapped in the binary of "gun control vs. gun rights." In this episode of The InCredible Messenger, Sasha Cotton—a leading expert on Focused Deterrence/Group Violence Intervention —joins host Jonathan McMillan to move past the slogans and look at the actual mechanics of safety.
Sasha breaks down the three-pronged communication architecture that defines GVI: law enforcement (consequences), social services (safety/resources), and community moral voices (influence). This is a masterclass in how systems move, how incentives drive behavior, and why "procedural justice" isn't just a buzzword—it’s a technical requirement for any strategy to be effective.
What you’ll learn in this masterclass on system intervention:
The "Off the Radar" Incentive: How GVI creates a tangible off-ramp for high-risk individuals to move from law enforcement’s radar into a pro-social ecosystem.
The 24-Hour Safety Blueprint: Why "general safety" isn't enough, and how sites are grounding themselves in immediate, actionable safety planning and relocation.
The Authority Paradox: A candid look at why "Neighborhood Watch" isn't a replacement for an "authority with presence" during a crisis.
Today's Victim, Tomorrow's Perpetrator: Understanding the deep interconnection between victimization and perpetration and how to break the cycle.
The Legitimacy Constraint: Why community belief in equitable policing is the only thing that allows law enforcement to actually be effective.
The Minneapolis Revelation: Sasha shares the "jarring and disturbing" lessons learned while working in Minneapolis during the murder of George Floyd.
Chapters:
00:00 – The First Principle: Direct Communication from Law Enforcement
00:45 – The Two Outcomes: Being Shot vs. Being Arrested
01:10 – The Second Lane: Social Services and Safety Messaging
01:50 – The Interconnection: Victimization and Perpetration Cycles
02:30 – Mechanics of Relocation and 24-Hour Safety Planning
03:15 – Moral Authority: The Role of Community Voices
03:50 – The "Neighborhood Watch" Reality Check
04:15 – Legitimacy and Procedural Justice as Operational Tools
Resource Links:
The National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC): An action research center at John Jay College supporting cities to implement GVI and IPVI to reduce violence and strengthen communities.
Website: nnscommunities.org
GVI Principles Breakdown: Technical documentation on the Group Violence Intervention framework.
Procedural Justice Resources: Training modules on building police legitimacy through equitable practices.
Connect with Sasha Cotton:
Professional Profile: Sasha Cotton on LinkedIn
Organization: National Network for Safe Communities