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Vision:
The BACKBONE OF JUSTICE Project
is a Social Impact Organization focused primarily on probation reform.
Our dream is of a future where people reintegrating their lives following incarceration are supported, rather than hindered or harmed, by the process of probation or supervised release. Our vision centers on holistic, integrative, rehabilitative justice modes for generating change, in service to the safety and accountability of all members society.
We believe that shifting the U.S. Justice System to a supportive model from an antagonistic approach is necessary for any society which wants to consider itself built on the backbone of humane social structures. One of our aims is to hold the United States Legal System responsible for the 8th Amendment Rights of its citizens, specifically:
"The Right to be free from... cruel and unusual punishment."
Few Americans are aware of the high levels of undue suffering endured by those who have completed the required portion of their prison sentence and then are on probation or supervised release, where their lives are determined under the sole (and often unchecked) discretion of a state/federal probation office.
Sometimes, the mindset of a probation officer inflicts more harm or hindrance on the person attempting to integrate back into society than was ever inflicted by the person on probation in the first place.
Examples routinely include separation between children and parents, inability to secure safe housing, job/income/opportunity loss, prevention from accessing medical care, financial harm due to inability to make one's own decisions in a manner that attends soundly to important life matters, immobility which can keep a person trapped in a dysfunctional or abusive environment, and more.
...There are times where the infliction of pain and bodily harm goes further,
to levels of unimaginable pain...
Such as in the case of the inspiration for the Backbone of Justice Project.
Unfortunately, there is no process nor procedure within the current structures of state or federal probation systems to ensure the prevention of levels of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain from reaching the threshold of "cruel and unusual punishment."
Even review of cases by a judge can leave a person in unimaginable pain, due to lack of medical responsiveness in the decision-making process, where the judge's court-ordered judgment often defers to the probation officer's thought-process and associated recommendations. When there has been problematic and abusive treatment by a (destructive) probation officer in the first place and they continue to be the voice and source of (corrupted) authority, only an appeal to a different judge could possibly yield a different result. However, even a transfer of judges is often limited within the same district.
Although the courts may allow a transfer of locations, this is often unfeasible for a person on probation to act on, due to financial or logistical reasons. This can result in an overwhelming challenge to navigate, keeping a person within a single probation district such that placement in a safer probation situation with a fresh set of eyes may not be accessible.
Even in situations of severe abuse, including risk of endangerment to children, repeated calls to the U.S. Attorney General's office for guidance as to how to navigate the system issues may go unanswered. The next person in the chain of command is the President of the United States.
This leaves citizens of the United States who become entangled in the (in)justice system unsupported in being able to seek help through formal channels, nor through systemically undermined social support related to familial, occupational, residential, and social aspects of life affected by stigma, such that a person who could have previously reached out to community or loved ones for support may no longer be warmly received in times of immense need.
And, thus, they FIND THEMSELVES HAVING NOWHERE TO TURN.
MISSION:
The Backbone of Justice Projects seeks to change the predicament of people on probation having nowhere to turn when they are experiencing harmful effects of the restrictions or procedures of probation, through creating novel additions of Advisory Boards, for an Holistic, Integrative, Rehabilitation-Oriented, Trauma-Informed Justice System with capacity to approach each person on whole, where their multifaceted lives are considered and contextualized in the integrated, whole picture view of society.
The Backbone of Justice Project stands in support of the importance of 8th Amendment Rights, along with a general rehabilitation approach, to overcome pitfalls of the current punitive, authoritarian approach which often hinders or outright harms a person in the process of putting their life back together.
Please consider supporting these efforts to help us make certain that the
current punitive orientation of the probation system becomes a thing of the past,
paving an emerging future for rehabilitative, regenerative, restorative modes of justice.
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