Dear Reader, In 2001, my son, Khaaliq, was murdered over a parking spot dispute. He was a young social worker, determined to serve children and families in our community. Together, we were going to start an organization that would do just that. I felt so much grief and trauma after his death, and I thought…
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Reimagining Justice This Month | September 2020 Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. If we want to change our justice system, we have to change the way we talk about it, Represent Justice Words Matter. When we…
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San Quentin State Prison is notorious for a number of reasons. Located north of San Francisco, it is home to the nation’s largest death row — 737 people when Gov. Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on executions in 2019. San Quentin has been featured in movies, books, podcasts, and more, and earlier in 2020 held…
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Race plays a decisive role in who lives and who dies in the United States. COVID-19 has devastated communities of color. Maternal mortality rates for Black women are horrifying. And the racial makeup of death row is starkly unjust.
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This week, our allies at the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released “Enduring Injustice: The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the Death Penalty System.” For the ever-growing number of people who pay attention to justice issues, that blunt subtitle does not come as a shock. That doesn’t make this report — written by Ngozi Ndulue,…
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EJUSA Trauma and Healing Network member Lakeesha Eure is the director of the Shani Baraka Women’s Resource Center in Newark, NJ. Since co-founding the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) in 2009, Lakeesha has led community-based violence intervention efforts throughout the city NAVC was founded to empower Newark residents with social and political awareness, and to support…
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Reimagining Justice This Month | August 2020 Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Austin Cuts Its Police Budget by About a Third, The Appeal Austin, Texas, is diverting $150 million away from its police department to reinvest…
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Ruth Rollins is the founder and executive director of We Are Better Together, Warren Daniel Hairston Project (WAB2G), based in Boston. Her organization provides emotional and financial support as well as advocacy for both victims of gun violence and those who cause harm. She’s also a member of EJUSA’s Trauma & Healing Network. We spoke…
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Five months ago, cities and states across the U.S. initiated a series of shelter-in-place orders as COVID-19 surged for the first time. Communities experienced waves of grief, loss, and economic insecurity. With the pandemic far from over, Black and Brown Americans continue to bear the brunt of its impact, and of the layered collective trauma…
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To transform our justice system, we must change the way we think about accountability. Our culture of punishment as accountability has never made us safer. But there are models of accountability that heal rather than harm. EJUSA has a vision for how this kind of accountability can apply to policing for the damage and pain…
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