what is abolition?
“My understanding of prison industrial complex abolition is that it’s a vision of a restructured society where we have everything that we need to live dignified lives.” - Mariame Kaba
Abolition is the practice of creating a world without prisons, police, and surveillance. It means building systems of justice that are grounded in healing and accountability. The movement to abolish prisons is built on the understanding that punishment and incarceration do not heal communities, but rather cause further harm. In the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.”
Abolitionists envision a world where communities are well-resourced, thriving, and able to meet the needs of every member. As abolitionists, we are invested in building healing communities that holistically support individuals when harm occurs. We are building a world where we respond to harm and violence by uprooting and working to transform the conditions that caused the harm.
what is healing justice?
The term “healing justice” refers to an array of approaches to responding to harm and conflict in communities in ways that support healing and transformation. Organizer, curator, and cultural/memory worker Cara Page defines Healing Justice as, “a framework that identifies how we can holistically respond to and intervene on generational trauma and violence, and to bring collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our bodies, hearts, and minds.” Healing Justice approaches include methodologies such as Restorative Justice, Transformative Justice, and other community accountability practices.
At Freedom Side, practicing healing justice means:
All staff are trained in restorative practices, transformative justice, and/or additional community accountability processes.
We prioritize the work of building strong, caring, trusting relationships across our school community.
We address conflict with a set of processes that aim to identify the needs underlying the conflict and work toward meeting those needs.
When someone does harm we respond with an accountability process that focuses on what the person or people who were harmed needs to heal, and what the person or people who did the harm needs to transform their behaviors.