3. 01
Defining Transformative
Justice
The underlying biases in the
incarceration system + how
TJ is needed
02
Different Approaches to TJ
Organizations who aim to slow
and undo the harm caused by the
carceral system
03
Confronting Yourself and
Loved Ones
The process of unlearning
+ how to confront yourself
and loved ones on harmful
systemic biases
04
Personal Experiences
Issues happening today and
our thoughts about them
5. Define Transformative Justice
“Transformative Justice responds to the lack of —and the critical need for—
a liberatory approach to violence. A liberatory approach seeks safety and
accountability without relying on alienation, punishment, or State or
systemic violence, including incarceration and policing.”
Generation FIVE, “Toward Transformative Justice”
Transformative Justice seeks to respond to violence without
creating more violence and/or engaging in reducing the harm
done to be able to lesson the violence.
Reina Sultan, 2020
6. —Micah Hobbes Frazier
“There’s an opportunity for
healing not only for the
survivor, but for the person
who’s done harm and been
violent, and the community at
large.”
7. Define Transformative Justice
It is a humanizing process that equips us to move beyond shame
and punishment to normalize navigating conflict, seeing it as a portal for
accountability, transformation, and healing.
TJ is a framework in which people begin to understand and
address why harm is happening while emphasizing the
responsibility to seek accountability when actions occur
Reina Sultan, 2020
8. Theorists of Abolition
Ruth Wilson
Gilmore
Prison Abolitionist
+ Prison Scholar
Angela Davis
American political
activist, philosopher,
academic and author
Rachel Herzing
Organizer, Activist
and Advocate
9. Three Core Beliefs of TJ
Individual justice and collective liberation are equally
important, mutually supportive, and fundamentally
intertwined—the achievement of one is impossible
without the achievement of the other.
The conditions that allow violence to occur must be
transformed in order to achieve justice in individual
instances of violence. Therefore, Transformative Justice is
both a liberating politic and an approach for securing
justice.
State and systemic responses to violence, including the
criminal legal system and child welfare agencies, not only fail
to advance individual and collective justice but also condone
and perpetuate cycles of violence.
01
02
03
Generation 5, 2007
10. The Carceral System
As shown through police violence and the demographics of incarcerated
populations, we can say that this is a mechanism of control over the
most marginalized groups in the U.S society: Black, brown ,indigenous ,
poor, trans, sex-working, and disabled people .
Reina Sultan, 2020
It emphasizes individual acts of harm as they label those who do harm
as criminals as an excuse to dehumanize, isolate, and punish
incarcerated folks
11. The Carceral System
It has been found to actually be a source of harm itself rather
than a source of rehabilitation and help. Moreover, it does not
protect survivors as they throw them into a cycle of harm and
trauma
Reina Sultan, 2020
12. Carceral Feminism
Carceral feminism is a term dubbed by abolitionists and refers
to individuals who support state and government punishment as
a means to absolve gender-based violence.
Abolition Journal, 2020
13. Sexual Harm in Carceral Systems
Reina Sultan, 2020
Sexual assault is also the second most common form of police
brutality, primarily used against Black women and women of color who
are also frequently criminalized for the strategies that we use to survive.
Although a carceral system is put in place, sexual harm still occurs in big
numbers. Moreover, most rapists aren’t even incarcerated and tend to have
prominent points of power. It is also really common in the system
supposedly put to stop it to the point that 4.0% of state and federal prison
inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more
incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff since
their admission to the facility Beck, Allen J, 2013
14.
15. 4%
47%
of the Earth’s population
of women live in the U.S.
of Black transgender people
have been incarcerated
over 30%
of the world’s incarcerated
women are in the U.S.
nearly 60%
of incarcerated women
identify as LGBTQ+
Grace Hong,2019
17. TJ is Case Sensitive
Reina Sultan, 2020
Survivors also lead the process as they are the one that need to feel safe
which, in a large scale, can be seen as creating consistent containers for
people to engage in many subjects like co-learning, co-processing, co-
conspiring, etc.
It means accountability processes, ways that we can protect and interrupt violence
in the moment by using de-escalation or bystander intervention, ways that we can
support each other and survivors to heal, and structures that we create within
communities to ensure that violence, harm and emergencies are addresses outside
of the carceral system
18. Steps to take to achieve it
Reina Sultan, 2020
We can start it all by creating shared housing models as that would provide safety
and stability to people as they are helped out of houselessness
Public call for consequences is another step we can take through using our
combined strength and reach of their combined platforms in an attempt of
imposing consequences on powerful folks who, normally, would not take
accountability for what they did.
19. Consequences and Boundaries
Reina Sultan, 2020
It is known for advocates of TJ that there are people who engage in abuse and will
continue their harmful behaviour which is why they believe in boundaries and
consequences
The series of steps to do so include grounding in minimizing future harm, taking
power away from the harm-doer while increasing the survivors ability to thrive.
This is different from punishment as it does not dehumanize, villainize, and
inflict more harm on someone.
20. Consequences and Boundaries
Reina Sultan, 2020
“Since many people who engage in abuse are able to continue harming
others and avoid taking accountability by expanding their access to
important positions on multiple platforms, it can be important to
deplatform them on social media, magazines, podcasts, and other
media.”
It also requires the acknowledgment of the harm as wall as the intentional
actions to fix and work on it. They can also assist so by moving the harm-doer
out of the house, stepping down from a job, wtc. This leads to the fact that
they are removed from an area where they have power or access.
21. Examples of TJ in Action
API Chaya
An organization that aims to empower survivors and find
an end to systemic violence and assault.
22. Examples of TJ in Action
Black Women’s Blueprint
An organization dedicated to giving Black women a voice
that other communities tend to speak over, and using TJ
to protect and empower Black women who are survivors
of sexual assault.
24. Confronting Yourself + Loved Ones
In a society with so many inherent systemic biases, many individuals
go through a never-ending process of unlearning the harms they were
exposed to growing up whilst learning new information to make
change going forward.
Part of this process involves consciously challenging yourself and
those around you when these harmful notes arise.
Transformative justice contributes to challenging previous viewpoints
as it sources the carceral system itself as a way of harm.
27. What are your thoughts on transformative justice? Do
you feel it is a productive alternate to the carceral
system?
Is there a situation of injustice that occurred in the
world in which you think transformative justice would
be beneficial to stop incidents like it from happening
again?
Discussion Questions
28. CREDITS: This presentation template was created
by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and
infographics & images by Freepik
Thanks
Do you have any questions?
Shabayek-s@webmail.uwinnipeg.ca
helm-d@webmail.uwinnipeg.ca
29. References
● How Transformative Justice Responds to Violence Without the Carceral System. (2020, Jul 27). ShadowProof. Retrieved
Aug 12, 2020 from https://shadowproof.com/2020/07/27/how-transformative-justice-responds-to-violence-
without-the-carceral-
system/?fbclid=IwAR04nqypqo86kT4GlcE8KvpL9MV8XPTBzcC_4kqF3bUleXugj4p7O8cw2KE
● Tran, Kim (2018) “Transformative Justice, Explained.” Teen Vogue,
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/transformative-justice-explained
● Hong, G. (2019). Feminist Anti-Carceral Studies. Center for the Study of Women.
https://csw.ucla.edu/cswresearch/feminist-anti-carceral-studies/
● Transformative Justice | TransformHarm.org. (2018). Transform Harm. https://transformharm.org/transformative-
justice/
● If You’re New to Abolition: Study Group Guide. (2020, June 25). Abolition Journal. Retrieved Aug 10, 2020 from
https://abolitionjournal.org/studyguide/?fbclid=IwAR2ttlkGRMZ0_pjwvKOVJbufmJhntr65eKPSJTpmO2BrlQ1dIumRU4KZ
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