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We value the knowledge and lived experiences
of those directly affected by the prison system. We believe they are most qualified to lead the movement to revolutionize our society's ideas about justice.
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We value cultural practice
and understand that it must live at the heart of the social movement to end mass incarceration. Cultural practice brings people together, fosters community-building, fuels hope, excites the imagination, and nurtures the spirit.
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We value diversity and inclusion
for their roles in strengthening our community. Intentionally cultivating training groups and audiences from different backgrounds and with different values, beliefs, and lived experiences, and inviting all to share and participate in how we work to increase empathy, encourage connection, and advance the work to end mass incarceration.
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We value equity
and hold ourselves and our community accountable to the ongoing process of building relationships and practices that are grounded in justice, dignity, and love.
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We value honesty
in our relationships with others, but above all else in our dealings with ourselves. We believe that truthful self-examination is a powerful aspect of healing and community repair.
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We value every person's innate artistry
We believe artistry is the birthright of every human being. Sparking and supporting the imaginations of people who were incarcerated in visioning alternative futures and teaching them to wield the tools to build such futures, is central to healing and to building the movement to end mass incarceration.
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We value boldness, imagination, and risk
In the face of decades of policy failure and limited success in movement building to end mass incarceration, boldness, imagination, and risk are required to end mass incarceration.
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We value the expression of the full and awesome range of our humanity
and believe it is essential to counteracting the traumatizing effects of dehumanization. We believe that ending mass incarceration requires expanding beyond rational, logical, linear, and mental modes of knowing to include the emotional, symbolic, circular, imaginative, somatic and embodied.
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We value participatory democratic culture
Solving the most pressing problems, including mass incarceration impels us to develop the tools of participatory democratic culture, including dialogue, storytelling, listening, compromise, imagination, empathy, deliberative decision making, and collective problem solving.
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We value love
as a real and animating force in the universe with the power to heal on all levels, from the individual to the global. We believe love must be cultivated, encouraged, and expressed. Being in community, feeling connected, making art, and the experience of being seen and heard all allow for love to emerge and for healing to occur.
