How does TJC understand transformative justice?

Transformative Justice is a philosophical approach to reducing violence through systemic and individual accountability and healing. Transformative Justice recognizes that our current criminal legal system channels poor, Black, indigenous, people of color into incarceration, which largely serves to increase their marginalization and lower their socio-economic well-being even after having served their time. The vast majority of incarcerated people have also been hurt by systems that treat economic deprivation, racial discrimination, addiction and other mental health issues as problems of individual failing deserving of punishment instead of as social problems with collective responsibility for community health.