Home > Work > Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair
21 " We could reasonably describe whiteness as the oldest alternative to incarceration in America. "
― , Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair
22 " The history of slavery exemplifies the mutually reinforcing link between racialized dehumanization and extreme punishment. "
23 " At the heart of that narrative is the story of an imagined monstrous other—a monster who is not quite human like the rest of us, who is capable of extraordinary harm and incapable of empathy, who inflicts great pain but does not feel it as we do, a monster we and our children have to be protected from at any price. "
24 " Survivors therefore need something from those of us committed to them. If it is true that survivors are a far wider-ranging group of people than we know, if it is true that incarceration does not consistently deliver safety and almost never delivers healing, if it is true that basic things like validation, control, and a coherent narrative are necessary elements for coming through trauma, if it is true that survivors who are given options almost always choose anything other than prison, if it is true that millions of survivors tell us again and again every time they do not call the police that what the criminal justice system has to offer does not work for them, then it does seem to follow that survivors absolutely, urgently need all of us to end mass incarceration. It may be the only practical thing we can do in their names. "