The addition of three new states are North Dakota, Colorado, and Idaho β marks the growth of a reform movement already building in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina.
Upending a culture nearly years in the making takes time and requires a collective healing process, but together we hope to help shift the public consciousness around how incarcerated people deserve to be treated. Taking lessons from Germany and Norway, and the youth justice reform expertise of formerly incarcerated grass root leaders in the United States, Restoring Promise repurposes existing housing units for young adult mentees ages and mentors incarcerated people over the age of 25 in prisons and jails.
Grounded in a collaborative research process, every unique unit is driven and designed by incarcerated people who are most harmed by the current system, along with corrections staff who experience harm as well. Together, they become agents of change and can determine a workplan, training, and staffing model that will make their daily lives safer, more engaging, and more hopeful.
We look forward to collaborating with our new sites on a process to improve conditions for all. Though every Restoring Promise unit is different, young adults and mentors are meant to participate in practices towards self-determination, cultural identity, community strengthening, restorative justice dialogues, meaningful activities that promote or restore family and community connections. Mentors provide support by processing lived experiences and offering understanding, coaching, and perspective.
Through school, work, and other programs, daily life reflects life on the outside as much as possible in order to better prepare people to thrive when they return home. Families and community are partners in this process. Staff not only feel safer at work and lead healthier lives, they also find greater meaning in supporting young people. An early evaluation for the CORE Unit at Turbeville Prison in South Carolina, which celebrated its one-year anniversary last month, show a staggering improvement on the life of all people who live and work in the prison.
