Voices for Racial Justice
Report date
March 2019
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Voices for Racial Justice advances racial, cultural, social and economic justice in Minnesota. We received funding to elevate the voice and power of people who are currently or formerly incarcerated and their families to develop solutions to the problem of mass incarceration, particularly among men of color. One area where we made significant progress was in developing a shared understanding about the health equity issues endured by incarcerated people. We gathered stories from incarcerated people (many written in their own words) and interviewed family members about health concerns faced by incarcerated people. This research informed a health equity report called Unfit for Human Consumption (see https://bit.ly/2MizqlT), which we have used to publicly raise issues, surface community-led recommendations, and inform future advocacy with the Minnesota Department of Corrections. We describe health in a very broad context in the report, ranging from health care access, to mental health issues, to the environment in prison, to the realities formerly incarcerated people face upon reentry into the community.
Listening sessions we conducted with family members of incarcerated people were critical learning tools that helped us overcoming the inherent barriers of working with people incarcerated. These conversations have taught us a lot about how incarceration affects families. We’ve learned about limitations in visitation policies, a lack of support for families who have grievances with the system, and their fears over the living conditions in prison. Further, these conversations helped surface ideas for what it would really take to end mass incarceration in Minnesota—beginning from the school to prison pipeline. Key policy change recommendations emerged, including ending restrictive visitation policies, ending the practice of solitary confinement, and reinstating the Office of the Ombudsman for Corrections to support families that have concerns. Strong leaders also emerged as a result of these conversations, and several Voices-trained leaders now regularly advocate for changes at the legislature.
Key lessons learned
Over the two-year grant period, we experienced periodic breakdowns in our communication with people incarcerated. This happened because of staff transitions, miscommunications with unpaid leaders, and because of the difficulty of communicating within a system that is designed to present barriers. We learned some lessons about the impact these breakdowns had on our incarcerated colleagues. We have always known how important deep, trusting relationships are to incarcerated people, who have many reasons not to trust institutions. Any confusion, lack of clarity, or mixed signals can lead to breakdowns in trust. As we learned this, we shifted how we approached our project. We originally conceived of the project as a base-building effort among partner organizations working to end mass incarceration. Today, our project is entirely focused on centering people incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, as well as their family members, in leading the movement to end mass incarceration. We always knew community-based leadership was important, but this work has fundamentally changed how we have positioned those relationships and designed our solutions.
Another lesson we learned was about trauma and healing. We found that people incarcerated friends, and family members of incarcerated people have been so traumatized by the corrections system that the act of engaging in this work—which they supported and wanted to be involved in—was re-traumatizing for them. This realization brings up many questions about how to build power with this community and to engage them in challenging the institutions that could change outcomes in communities of color. We are thinking creatively about how to protect people’s mental and physical health while they are engaged in work that consistently taxes them. We also think it is important to incorporate training about power and teach people to claim their own power so they can play a role in changing the institutions that have harmed them. Our new training curriculum therefore is deeply threaded with healing justice themes and strategies that emphasize self-care, are grounded in culture and community, and provide pathways to building power in ways that are generative and healing.
Reflections on the community innovation process
The most important element of our process has been inclusivity. In our original plan, the work would be led by community-based organizations; this still happens and is important. The breakthrough we experienced because of this community innovation grant was a deeper understanding and reimagining of the movement to end mass incarceration being led by impacted people. Instead of being focused primarily on advocacy, we now lead with training and listening. We train affected community members in racial justice, healing justice, community organizing, and participatory research practices. This gives leaders the tools they need to augment their lived experience and expertise and lead research, policy, and advocacy efforts that will begin dismantling the mass incarceration system in this country. We believe this is the only sustainable and authentic way to produce lasting change; it also gives affected community members the skills, resources, and relationships they need to overcome other barriers in their lives—whether that be barriers to successfully reentering community or overcoming hardships while a loved one is in prison.