Why

Invitation / Action

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Reflection Questions

Reflect

Research

Practice

Imagine

Health and public health workers should not report any sensitive information that would trigger criminalization or involvement of the criminal punishment or family regulation systems (i.e. immigration status, reports of criminalized activities, conclusions about “criminal” motive, etc.) in identifiable records without informed consent of the potential consequences
Asking about work/employment can stigmatize people who engage in criminalized work in the informal economy including people in the sex or drug trades
Public disclosure of identifiable information shared confidentially during health visits, public health efforts, or research puts people at risk of criminalization
Police agencies should never have access to health or public health data including patient records, contact tracing data, and research data

Avoid using stigmatizing language in patient charts
Do not ask or document around questions of immigration status, criminalized activity, or intent that could trigger criminalization or involvement of the criminal punishment or family policing system
Use plain and accessible language and explain what is happening and why

Reflect on your experience as someone seeking care in the medical system - have you ever been asked questions that you felt were unnecessary for your care? Have you ever experienced judgment from health care providers which has stood in the way of getting the full care you needed?
If you are a provider - have you ever asked people seeking care questions that made them uncomfortable or documented information that you - or they - didn’t believe was essential to patient care?
- Read No More Data Weapons from Data for Black Lives.
- Read Abolish Data Crim from Community Justice Exchange.

Check to see what your clinic/ hospital/work place’s policies are regarding documentation:
- What kinds of information do they require you to document about people in your care, their families, and about what caused the conditions they are seeking care for?
- Is the information necessary to provide care?
- How could it put people at risk of criminalization instead of care?
- Investigate how to change regressive policies that put patients at risk.
Do people regularly gather information that is not required? Why? How might this information contribute to criminalization instead of care?

Talk to one of your co-workers about why it is unnecessary to collect information that could contribute to criminalization such as information about immigration status or participation in criminalized activities that could trigger the involvement of the criminal punishment system
Facilitate a workshop with your co-workers of community using the activities in the Take Action section of the Abolish Data Crim resource

In what ways does surveillance intrude into the lives of disabled people? Migrants? People living with HIV? People who use drugs? People in the sex trades?
What possibilities would open up for these communities in a world with less surveillance?