Once we had a culture of surveillance, police, and prisons. Executions and solitary confinement were inflicted on our people. We deployed armed people in the place of community members and social workers, situations were often escalated beyond repair. Death penalties did not address or repair harm, instead it left gaping, poisoned wounds in our communities. The prison-industrial complex grew monstrous appetites and blighted entire neighborhoods, swallowing generations. We had abandoned each other.
The system had to be dismantled.
We started by asking why we had no other well-resourced options outside of the police, and poured into them instead. We closed down police stations and prisons and turned them into temporary shelters, training centers, universities and schools, community kitchens, and restoration circles. Underlying needs were met first. Solidarity was built as generational traumas and injuries were finally addressed and healed. Everyone had food, shelter, healthcare, therapy, education, clothing, a place of belonging.
Nobody slept on the streets anymore. Land was given back to the indigenous tribes to manage and restore.
The elements of reparations were built into our new justice system: Repair, Restoration, Acknowledgement, Cessation and Non-repetition.
Restorative Justice created a culture of accountability for violence and harm, and we acted at the individual, community, institutional and societal levels. Survivors and their communities had a voice and autonomy over what restitution they needed to heal. Consequences, accountability, compensation, acknowledgement, responsibility, apology, repayment, loss of privileges and access to spaces replaced cages and cruelty.
Circles were built.
We celebrated, mourned, supported, held conflict, witnessed, and dealt justice in circles. We took responsibility for each other; nobody was left out. There was no single right way, but instead a thousand different ways.
We no longer abandoned our communities to violence but instead moved towards the horizon of abolition, freedom, and justice for all.