Reimagining Justice This Month | February 2021
Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.
Evaluation Reports Newark Community Street Team’s Efforts are Effective in Crime Reduction, TAPintoNewark
Few cities have done as much as Newark, NJ, to think about how trauma affects its community, and that thinking is central to the city’s commitment to community-led violence prevention. A new study has assessed the work done by our allies at the Newark Community Street Team as a “national best practice.”
Bonus: check out this video of Will Simpson, our director of violence reduction initiatives, in action with the Newark Community Street Team
Vital Signs: Generational Trauma Takes Toll on Mental Health in the Black Community, The Daily Progress
Historical trauma from slavery and racial violence creates standard ways of surviving that are passed on across generations. This generational trauma becomes the foundation for other mental health issues, and many Black people don’t have adequate access to mental health resources — a recent study found that only 1 in 3 Black people who need mental health services receive them.
“Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone,” The Chicago Reader
Mariame Kaba, a long-time community organizer and author, has been reimagining justice for years, and cultivating the next generation of changemakers. Her many initiatives show us that the work of reckoning with violence and transforming justice to create healing and repair must be done through collective action and driven by collective responsibility
We three were on death row and we’re a lesson in the need to take care on capital punishment, Tampa Bay Times
Clemente Aguirre and Herman Lindsey were both exonerated after years on death row. As members of our Trauma & Healing Network, their voices give powerful testimony to the fact that the death penalty only perpetuates cycles of violence. Until it is gone, there can be no true justice. In a month when another exoneration further exposed the racism of the death penalty system, and the justice system as a whole, their appeal to Florida is timely and important.
How the Torture Archive, Justice Center are Helping Survivors Heal, WTTW
Black Chicagoans experienced vile racism via the torture they suffered at the hands of city police officer Jon Burge. Remembering that history is part of repair, and a newly launched digital archive documents the history and struggle of survivors. These stories, plus the holistic programs of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, show us justice reimagined as healing and addressing the trauma of police violence.
