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.
