The United States has the largest carceral population in the world. Legislation designed to feed the prison state has produced detrimental outcomes for former prisoners; 70% of returning citizens go back to prison after returning to civilian life. The Return Citizen Support Group in New Jersey has constructed a community that utilizes parallel structures of mutual aid to support formerly incarcerated civilians in their journeys beyond prison. Importantly, this objective was born out of necessity. In modern America, the state and private sector only work to isolate individuals and kneecap their ability to move forward — demonstrating that rehabilitation and strength is cultivated not within the system, but outside of it.
Building Systems of Mutual Aid After Prison | CHR Documentaries
The Return Citizen Support Group in New Jersey has constructed a community that utilizes parallel structures of mutual aid to support formerly incarcerated civilians in their journeys beyond prison.
Mutual aid is what happens when the official system is finished punishing people but still refuses to let them live. The prison state calls it “reentry,” then hands people locked doors, stigma, debt, surveillance, and a lecture about personal responsibility. Communities like this are not charity. They are repair work. They are people saying: if the state only knows how to cage and discard, we will build the table it never intended you to sit at.
excellent Chris very selfless thank you sir.