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Thankful for you

As the holiday season begins, I am writing to thank you.

You are the voice of change – our partner in transforming the justice system. You keep going when the challenges are exhausting. You step up when you’re needed the most. All of us at EJUSA feel how much you care, and we’re stronger for it.

I have so much to be thankful for this year: an amazing team, incredible local partners, repeal of the death penalty in Washington last month, the life-saving impact of our work with survivors of trauma.

But I’m most thankful for you. Together, we’re going to to make 2019 another year of impact.

From all of us at EJUSA, have a wonderful holiday.

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#GiveAndShare for EJUSA

Giving Tuesday: #GiveAndShare

#GivingTuesday, the largest day of giving in the world, is next week.

Tuesday, November 27 to be exact.

EJUSA has a big #GivingTuesday goal to match our big plans for 2019:

$10,000. In one day.

Ambitious? We can do it together if you can do just two things: Give and Share.

Give to EJUSA anytime between now and midnight on Tuesday, November 27. A long-time EJUSA supporter has pledged to match all gifts received by that deadline up to $5,000!

Continue reading

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Seeking “dignity-based” justice | Reimagining Justice This Month, November 2018

Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.

Seeking Dignity-Based Justice, Institute for Family Studies
So much of the violence in our society has its root in childhood trauma, and too often our responses to that violence only perpetuate the same cycles. The people incarcerated by our justice system have complex family lives that include histories and layers of trauma, from addiction to poverty to incredible resilience and resourcefulness. Justice reform that can break cycles of trauma stems from awareness of these complexities and requires commitment to restoring the dignity of everyone impacted by violence, including those who commit harmful acts and those who are harmed.

Building a New Reality…in Detroit? Building a New Reality
For more than a decade, Detroit communities have been implementing restorative practices that have impacted thousands of lives. From workplaces to schools, and from addressing racism to building bridges between communities of color and police, these initiatives have grown and been sustained by the efforts of people outside of government institutions and resources. Despite challenges to financial sustainability, what is happening in Detroit is a bold experiment that is both durable and authentic, and it shows what is possible when people come together to reimagine justice systems that can create safety and accountability for all.

Healing the Scars Left by the Invisible Shackles of Wrongful Conviction, Beacon Broadside
Our fixation on retribution – including over-reliance on mass incarceration – has destroyed lives and entire communities. Exoneration alone doesn’t heal the trauma of wrongful conviction and incarceration, and too often it deepens the trauma of victims, survivors, and family members. Restorative justice can build connections and healing for everyone impacted by wrongful conviction, and sharing stories of the tens of thousands of innocent people devastated by the justice system can help lead to change.

What Happens When Sexual Assault Survivors Sit Down With the Men Who Attacked Them? Glamour
The trauma of sexual assault is real, lasting, and deep. Yet for many survivors, the retributive justice system only risks furthering that trauma. Restorative justice processes are necessary and vital alternatives, because they allow survivors voices and needs to drive innovative solutions that lead to accountability and healing. Bearing witness to the honesty, humanity, and vulnerability of a process reveals the possibilities and challenges of justice reimagined.

Dream, Organize, and Act for Stronger, Safer Communities, Medium: Justice In California
Communities that are devastated by mass incarceration often face interlinked challenges of poverty, violence, segregation, lack of jobs, and over-policing, all of which perpetuate community-wide trauma. Trauma-informed justice therefore needs to engage people across a range of systems to develop innovative approaches that can prevent violence and address structural racism. Restore Oakland is creating space for healing, jobs, and advocacy under one roof, leading to real impact on individuals and throughout the city.

A Fate Worse than Slavery, Unearthed in Sugar Land, The New York Times
Acknowledging the history and legacy of slavery at the roots of our justice system is an essential part of developing new approaches that can create accountability, safety, and healing. In the Houston suburb of Sugarland, the historical trauma of slavery and its brutal aftermath of “convict leasing” drove economic growth and wealth for a few, and continues to have impact on individual lives and entire communities. Commemorating the stories of those forced to labor under unbearable conditions and buried in mass graves pushes us to pay attention to the ways that economic development is discussed today, and to reimagine justice that addresses structural racism today and in the future.

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Reckoning with historical trauma | Reimagining Justice This Month

Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.

‘They Was Killing Black People:’ In Tulsa, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history still haunts the city with unresolved questions, even as ‘Black Wall Street’ gentrifies, The Washington Post
The historical trauma of slavery and lynching continues to impact entire communities and destroy lives. In Tulsa, reckoning with that historical trauma means excavating and not only acknowledging the devastation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, but addressing unresolved questions about mass graves of Black people and repairing the ongoing harm. If justice means preventing violence and creating accountability and safety, this kind of history needs to be uncovered and recognized.

Bringing a dark chapter to light: Maryland confronts its lynching legacy, The Baltimore Sun
Our justice system is rooted in the legacy of slavery and lynching, and the impact of structural racism from police shootings to mass incarceration is felt across entire communities. Acknowledging that history, as well as both the historical trauma and present day harm of caused by the system, is essential for reimagining justice that can create equity and healing. This is how people in Maryland are making sure we remember the history of lynching so that we can transcend it.Continue reading

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Washington State’s death penalty ruled unconstitutional

In a 9-0 ruling, the Washington State Supreme Court has declared the state’s death penalty unconstitutional. Washington is now without a death penalty and becomes the 20th state in the country to reject capital punishment.

Statement by Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA:

“The Washington State Supreme Court today declared what we have long known – that the death penalty is unconstitutional and rife with racial bias. From police violence to mass incarceration, people of color have been calling on the U.S. justice system to act and address this crisis of racism throughout our justice system. Today in Washington, they were heard. The death penalty’s stark racial disparities send a message that the lives of people of color are less valuable than others. This is not only unfair, it compromises the integrity of justice itself. The death penalty is a tool of our shameful past – and that’s where it should stay.”

Statement by Hannah Cox, National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty: 

“This decision will save Washington State taxpayers millions of dollars that would otherwise be wasted. Conservatives in Washington State and across the country increasingly realize the death penalty is a failed government program that does not value life, threatens innocent people, and wastes money.”

You can read the court’s full ruling here.

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We need to decriminalize trauma. | Reimagining Justice This Month

Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.

Are you registered to vote? Many key criminal justice issues at the local, state, and national levels will be impacted by elections. Visit vote.org to confirm your registration or to learn how to register to vote in your state.

To Fight Mass Incarceration, We Need to Decriminalize Trauma, The Nation
Transformational stories of those who have experienced violence and healed can shape new ways of thinking about justice. Homeboy Industries, based in California, works with people who are part of gangs to heal and restore lives as they reintegrate into society, and seeks to address root causes of cycles of violence, including trauma. The stories in this short film lift up the challenges and opportunities of reform, and it’s important to develop innovative solutions that go beyond sentencing reform in order to create safety and accountability for all.

Violent Offenders, Often Victims Themselves, Need More Compassion and Less Punishment, USA Today
Many people who commit violent, harmful acts, have experienced violence and been harmed, themselves, and many have experienced violence their whole lives. Our nation’s justice system, rooted in the legacy of slavery, is ill-equipped to address the complexities of people’s lives, let alone disrupt cycles of community-wide trauma. We need to work for change beyond sentencing reform to address the roots of violence, break these cycles, and create safety and accountability for all.

Radical New Program Finds Men Most Likely to be Shot – and Hires Them, Block Club Chicago 
This new program in Chicago finds young men most likely to be impacted by violence and gives them jobs, access to therapy, and other services. Selected through an algorithm and through referrals from outreach workers, partners, and the justice system, the READI program is preventing violence by providing a range of services to those most at risk. With a realistic view of the challenges each participant faces, and a commitment to continually giving people the chances they need, innovative programs like this restore lives and create safety and accountability.

Doctors Who Treat Gunshot Victims Want to Stop the Bleeding, The Florida Times-Union 
In the wake of another mass shooting, doctors in Jacksonville want to see gun violence treated like an epidemic public health issue. That starts with opening up legislation and resources to study the effects and roots of gun violence on public health, and includes holistic approaches to creating safety. From a public health standpoint, violence prevention interventions focus on healing and wellbeing across a range of systems before laws are broken, and there is less engagement from law enforcement in situations where its set of tools are not best suited to solve problems.

Philadelphia Cops Reimagine the Juvenile Justice System, The Good Men Project
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and Defenders Association are backing a proposed 24/7 trauma-informed integrated service center for youth to receive support in a non-police facility. The Hub for Juvenile Justice Systems would the point of entry for young people who face the justice system toward healing, and provide a different model for justice that embraces empathy, safety, and accountability for all. The Hub is a collaborative efforts across a range of systems that provides immediate and long-term support to individuals, families, and communities, to break cycles of trauma.

Documenting ‘Slavery by Another Name’ in Texas, The New York Times
In Texas, the remains of 95 African-Americans were found in unmarked graves, their bones marked by debilitating injuries from their labor as prisoners in the decades after slavery was legally ended. This system of “slavery by another name,” in which countless people were rounded up and imprisoned for petty offenses, only to continue the same coerced labor under conditions just as brutal, and stripped people of the ability to accumulate wealth. The legacy of slavery and lynching today – which includes the death penalty, mass incarceration, and over-reliance on policing – is an expression of the historical trauma our society needs to grapple with to reimagine justice that addresses structural racism, and heals and restores lives.

The Victims Who Don’t Count, The Marshall Project
States throughout the country provide funds to compensate the family members of victims of crime, supporting hospital bills, accessibility costs, funeral costs, and lost wages. Seven states ban compensation for people with criminal records – including juvenile records that are supposed to be sealed, and in some cases regardless of whether an accusation led to conviction – and a deeper look reveals that African-American crime victims and their families are denied at higher rates than anyone else. The structural racism of our justice system means that Black people who are harmed, or who have family members who are killed, have far less access to the support they need to heal and rebuild their lives. These are some of the stories of those hardest hit by these policies.

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Announcing Fall 2018 Police/Community trainings in Newark

Newark Police/Community Training

Dates for the Fall Series of EJUSA’s From Trauma to Trust: Police/Community Collaborative Training have just been announced.

The goal of this training is to understand the symptoms of community trauma and vicarious trauma as well as build necessary skills to address and problem-solve when trauma arises. These trainings will focus on the development and maintenance of trust between police and community members/partnerships. Trainings specifics are as follows:

GROUP P: Wednesday, October 3rd and Wednesday, October 10th, from 9am – 5pm
Location: Broadway House (298 Broadway, Newark, NJ)

GROUP Q: Monday, October 29th and Monday, November 5th, from 9am – 5pm
Location: Broadway House (298 Broadway, Newark, NJ)

GROUP R: Monday, November 26th and Monday, December 3rd, from 9am – 5pm
Location: To be announced

REGISTER NOW

Download the flyer here.

What to Expect:

Participants will include 10-12 police officers and 10-12 community members.

Learn about trauma symptoms, ACES, historical trauma, and the cycle of violence.

Hands-on skills-building and problem solving activities that will be customized for trainees on the front lines addressing violence and trauma.

A focus on addressing special populations, including boys/men of color, LGBT communities, girls and women, etc.

Community leaders, residents, and youth from all sectors of Newark are invited to participate in these trainings.

If you have any questions, please contact Lionel Latouche at LIONELL@ejusa.org.

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Pope declares death penalty “inadmissible” in all cases

2014 Pastoral Visit of Pope Francis to Korea

Earlier this month, Pope Francis declared that the death penalty is never admissible and always unacceptable, pledging that the Catholic Church will work for its abolition world wide.

This declaration is a step along a path that has been paved by previous Popes, stretching back to the 1960’s, when Pope Paul VI removed the death penalty from fundamental Church law in 1969.

Pope John Paul II took a significant leap forward from there, revising the catechism to say that the death penalty is unacceptable when other “non-lethal” ways are available to keep people safe. Further clarity came when Pope John Paul II specifically called for abolition of the death penalty in the United States, calling it “cruel and unnecessary.”

Pope Benedict XVI continued the trend when he called on world leaders to “make every effort to eliminate the death penalty” in 2011. In 2015, Pope Francis called for global abolition of the death penalty, as well, linking the issue to broader criminal justice reforms.

Following Pope John Paul II’s initial call, death sentences and executions have both dramatically decreased. Seven states have also repealed the death penalty in that time.

Just as Catholic politicians responded positively to previous statements against the death penalty, Pope Francis’ declaration may bolster pushes for repeal in places like Washington and New Hampshire, where the state legislature could still override Governor Sununu’s recent veto for repeal legislation. It could even influence the Supreme Court.

By recognizing that “the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes,” Pope Francis has provided what our partners at Catholic Mobilizing Network called “a capstone teaching moment for the Catholic Church.” We join with CMN and our other partners in the anti-death penalty movement in marking this revision by renewing our work to end the death penalty and to, as EJUSA’s mission states, “elevate healing and safety over retribution, meet the needs of survivors, and advance racial equity.’

 

Photo credit: “2014 Pastoral Visit of Pope Francis to Korea” by Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han). CC BY 2.0via Wikimedia Commons

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The fight to end the death penalty lives on in New Hampshire

Thank you to all of you who signed our petition to end the death in New Hampshire. Because of you, our partners at the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NHCADP) were able to deliver a huge stack of 56,502 signatures (wow!) to Governor Chris Sununu on May 15, after a press conference with families of murder victims, calling for repeal.

Unfortunately, Governor Sununu refused to heed these voices – and many others – from around New Hampshire and the nation. On June 21 he vetoed the death penalty repeal bill that had passed both chambers of the state legislature with bipartisan support.

If the governor expected repeal advocates in New Hampshire to go away quietly, he was sorely mistaken. The House and Senate votes to end the death penalty demonstrate that the legislature is very close to being able to override the governor’s veto. That override vote has now been scheduled for September 13.

Our friends at NHCADP have put together an action plan of the best things YOU can do to help overturn the governor’s veto next month. Please check out their news update here. You’ll learn about action opportunities, a documentary they’re working on, and much more.

The fight to end the death penalty in New Hampshire is not over. Please check out NHCADP’s website and find out what you can do to help. Thank you!

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From slavery to lynching, mass incarceration, & the death penalty | Reimagining Justice This Month

Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.

A Visit to Montgomery’s Legacy Museum, The New Yorker
Recently, EJUSA staff visited the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, to reflect upon history of and present-day structures of racism in the United States. This article highlights the experiences of two friends – one black and one white – visiting the museum and reflecting upon the intimate connections between slavery, lynching, mass incarceration, and the death penalty. For the authors, moving through the Memorial is as much a reckoning with the nation’s history as it is a recognition of personal connections, past, present, and future.

In Detroit’s busiest ER, a man with his own dark past tries to halt a cycle of violence, The Los Angeles Times
This profile of Ray Winans, whose life experience drives him to disrupt cycles of violence, illuminates the deep and lasting effects of community-wide trauma, as well as the hope and possibility that comes from treating violence as the public health crisis it is. This spotlight on the incredible work of one of our Trauma Network members shows the challenges and possibilities of reimagining justice as responses to violence that are focused on healing and wellbeing across a range of systems.

What happens when schoolchildren live in violent neighborhoods? The effects are broader than previously known, a study finds. The Washington Post
A new study shows that the effects of violence transcend individuals and specific communities. Violence prevention and intervention needs to go beyond law enforcement, and strategies should cut across public health, child welfare, and education systems. Everyone – educators, community members, lawmakers, and more – can benefit from justice reimagined.

It’s not just at the border. The U.S. separates families all the time. The Washington Post
The trauma that children at the border have experienced is all over the news, but children throughout the country are also separated from their families by a justice system that is fixated on retribution. There is overwhelming evidence that the tools of retribution – including over-reliance on mass incarceration – have compromised safety, failed to deliver healing or accountability to survivors, and destroyed lives. Children with incarcerated parents suffer a range of negative learning and health outcomes, including higher rates of PTSD, solutions need to move beyond sentencing reform and focus on the border to break cycles of community-wide trauma.

These healers want to ensure trauma victims aren’t treated like ‘just another black kid in a hospital’, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Young men in Philadelphia who have survived gun violence are learning to become healers, and bridging the divide between survivors and helpers. In a system that often lacks people with lived experience, these young men are training to be there when other survivors of gun violence wake up in the hospital, and to be with them through every aspect of the healing journey as they navigate the health system and the many layers of emotion that will arise. Responses to violence need to engage across a range of systems, and programs like this can build empathy, understanding, safety, and healing that will prevent violence and break cycles of trauma.

The Freddie Gray effect: Black Americans’ mental health suffers after police killings, WHYY.org
A new study matches the experience that activists and community members have shared: that police violence against unarmed black people affects mental health in black communities, including people that don’t have personal connections to victims. Whereas white people do not seem to be affected, a co-author of the study says that even the widespread effects in communities may be understated. Violence is a public health issue, and the tools of retribution – including over-reliance on policing – have compromised safety, failed to deliver healing or accountability to survivors, and destroyed lives.

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