We live, today, in yesterday's worries....What has happened can never be undone. Our past is static. The future, on the other hand, is dynamic; its consequences, unwritten. History can inform us, can help us understand what’s happening in any given moment. What comes next depends on what we do now.
. After Incarceration adopts nontraditional approaches to social justice. We learned—in prison—that there is no such thing as a “prison problem.” All problems in prison are transplanted there from the communities in which the prisoners are removed. The “community problems” are concentrated in correctional facilities. People who have lived their whole lives, out of necessity, circumventing the systems that govern the United States, are warehoused. The prisons become big Petri dishes. The system offer very little protection from cross-contamination; thus, we witness more pathogenic mutations than healthy adaptations. The criminogenic impact of mass incarceration must have been understood by its architects—how we would learn to circumvent that part of the system is something they weren’t able to fathom. We were stripped and separated; and still we gathered and grew. Now we are a network of formerly incarcerated community members acquiring influence and power. The foundation for a seat at the table was laid for us by the brothers who stood their ground at Attica in 1971. Our voice at the table was validated by legends like Eddie Ellis and Larry White. Their successes have created more diverse workplaces and have secured the participation of historically marginalized people. After Incarceration organizes for equity, true power at the decision-making table. We believe the Beloved Community is the frame work for the future. This nonviolent principle, as understood through the lens of Kingian Nonviolence, emphasizes the effort necessary to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of the relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential. Our organizing revolves around empowering formerly incarcerated to be the credible messengers our communities need. A credible messenger can only be defined by negation. After Incarceration has a baseline metric: if you “cannot imagine what it must have been like” for someone else, then you are not that person’s credible messenger. That is not to say you do not have the information they need, nor does it mean you cannot be the one to deliver the message. To be a credible messenger, your “credibility” must include your journey. If you don’t have the same lived -experience, you don’t necessarily inhabit the same reality. For many of our allies, being a foot soldier in the fight for social justice is a privilege. For the directly-impacted, it often requires a willingness to continue living in a state of “survival,” under the siege of violence and poverty after incarceration. We are moving forward, towards life, together, at the speed of trust. |
Restorative Reentry Circles
Restorative Reentry Circles
We organize to hold space for people to process the trauma of incarceration, to debrief the dehumanization people often internalize to survive separation and confinement, and to support the reconciliation of relationships that center respect and consent.
We organize to hold space for people to process the trauma of incarceration, to debrief the dehumanization people often internalize to survive separation and confinement, and to support the reconciliation of relationships that center respect and consent.
