Following the global uprisings of 2020, the movement to defund and abolish police entered the mainstream. Yet the conversation was mired in so many slogans and debates it rarely got a chance to deep dive into the question: if not policing, then what? In this episode, Amanda Parris travels to communities across North America and Europe to explore what justice and safety can look like without relying on the carceral state.

In New York, she joins a community safety group responding to violence with prevention, intervention and care rather than punishment. In London, she meets families who have lost loved ones after encounters with the police and are still fighting for accountability decades later. In California, she meets a man who discovered restorative justice while incarcerated, an approach focused on healing and reparation instead of retribution.

Amanda also visits a Los Angeles high school where transformative justice replaces punishment with wellness, empathy, and dialogue, proving that alternatives are not only possible but thriving. Throughout her journey, she reflects on the persistent power of the carceral system and on the growing number of communities determined to imagine something better.

Through stories of struggle and innovation, Beyond Policing redefines what justice can mean when we dare to move beyond punishment and toward healing, community, and collective safety.

Part of For the Culture, Series 2.