“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” - Emma Lazarus
We put our belief that people are not the worst thing theyʼve ever done into action by providing intentional housing, empowering organizing trainings, job skills and mental health counseling to people of all walks of life returning from prison.
Our vision is to transform the way people view crime and rehabilitation: from one of individual choice, to one of collective responsibility and accountability. Our guests will find their own liberation by seeking their own mental health treatment and healing from an unjust system while receiving the time they need to find housing, jobs, and restored family and community relationships.
The Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project (APTJP) mission is to drastically reduce recidivism by bringing an end to the victimization and powerlessness inherent in todayʼs criminal justice system by using a transformative justice collective model.
The Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project (APTJP) believes that diverse communities need diverse initiatives in order to serve the various needs of its members. We understand that when people are in need or feel unsafe, they can call the police, but we also understand that due to systemic racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia, not everyone in our community feels safe calling the police. APTJP is creating community-run public safety units; this would give our community members an alternative to calling the police. All members of the community-run safety units, both professional social workers and volunteers, would be self-identified feminists (against all oppressions) trained to respond, specifically, to mental health issues and other non-emergency crises with care, kindness, de-escalation, and with appropriate support to work through the difficult situations community members might find themselves in.
We are looking for volunteer social workers, community volunteers willing to be trained to be part of the public safety units, fundraiser and grant writers, lawyers and anyone who would like to help grow this community empowerment program. Please email transformativejusticeap@gmail.com if you are interested!
TJP is currently offering trainings and guidance for communities and organizations interested in transformative justice processes. We offer our five years of on-the-ground experience in the newer transformative justice field along with many years of grassroots education we have engaged in ourselves with transformative justice and abolition practices. We help facilitate transformative justice processes concerning sexual violence, community relations, and domestic violence, giving orgainzations and communities tools outside of the criminal justice system to solve and heal injustices in your/our communities. Please email transformativejusticeap@gmail.com if you are interested!
Transformative Justice is a doorway one enters by viewing victims and offenders as individuals first.
Through this doorway, APTJP broadens and deepens the focus on matters of real justice, taking the centrality away from the criminal justice system and its by-products by starting an individual and community healing and accountability process.
It uncovers and addresses systemic oppression, such as colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, elitism, classism and ableism, as these things underscore and are pervasive in our criminal justice system.
APTJP addresses how these forces undermine a personʼs inherent relationship with their surroundings and unlocks the individualʼs inherent potential for their own self-empowerment and for the community at large.
APTJP puts systems of domination in the forefront of the discussions on criminal and social justice matters, and unveils its roots in all domestic, interpersonal, global and community conflicts. We see the criminal justice system as embedded in a milieu of historical injustices.
The US prison system was created by the Quakers as a way to “restore” those who have committed crimes against their communities.
With the rise of the US prison industrial complex, private prisons, racism, and classism, the United States has 25% of the world's prison population even though the US is only 4% of the worldʼs population. Prison is no longer a place that restores the people who enter it. In fact people come out more mentally unstable than when they entered. We started this project because we believe that all people have inherent value, and when given just treatment and a stable environment people will grow to be their best selves and community members.
Through our own community partnerships, APTJP guests will have multiple options for job placement.
Our long-term goal is to develop a worker-owned cooperative program.
The worker-owned cooperative program is an exploratory form of economic participation and ownership that puts APTJP guests at the front line of business and community involvement. It provides APTJP guests with access to decision-making skills, education, ownership responsibilities, economic enlightenment and relationship skills that otherwise would be out of reach in most small-to-medium size businesses.
Transformative Justice is not an easy or short process to work through.
Twice a week, guests at the house will be offered the opportunity to walk through a training. The training will have three main components:
Post Traumatic Stress, depressive, and anxiety disorders acquired in prison go highly undetected.
All tenants will be given full mental health and substance abuse assessments and screenings by a licensed social worker.
Mental health and/or addiction one-on-one counseling will be provided to those tenants who require it.
Guests who enter into our leadership program will be trained to become decision-makers and stewards of the APTJP.
They will go through training courses which will bestow upon them the resources and abilities to lead and facilitate all aspects of APTJP House.
They will be granted all of the employee benefits and responsibilities that come with running the house. They will be involved in maintaining and creating community relationships and keeping with the shared vision of our project.
As a result of APTJP classes, guests will collectively conceptualize, develop and fulfill self-determined volunteer community outreach projects.
We put our belief that people are not the worst thing theyʼve ever done into action by providing intentional housing to those coming out of prison.
Housing for those coming out of prison in Asbury Park is a great need. Asbury Parks recidivism rate for incarcerated youth is one of the highest in New Jersey. We want to change this and make sure our community members coming out of prison have a safe place, community and support, a home, and time to heal and get their lives together. We aim to house our community members for three months to a year free of charge. Some members might be able to stay on longer and work, educate, and support others coming home from prison. We desire to offer housing because we understand that people with felony charges have a hard time finding someone who wants to rent to them and are not even allowed on public housing property.
All who live in the house will be able to get job training, be able to be part of a cooperative businesses, and go through our TJP classes that will walk them through three main steps.
We are currently fundraising and looking to purchase a house in Asbury Park. If you or someone you know wants to donate a house for this project contact us at transformativejusticeap@gmail.com.
The prison industrial complex is perhaps, at least domestically, the most striking example of us putting profit before people. It all stems from one basic misunderstanding: that the public good can be shepherded by private interests.
Eugene Jarecki
If you or a loved one are interested in getting involved with the project and/or in staying with us, please contact us for an interview.
We do interviews both in and outside of prisons in order to make sure that we are a good fit for each other. If you are interested in financially or physically supporting the Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project, please use the above-listed contact information to get in touch with us. Please contact us with any questions you may have. We are a 501c3 nonprofit.
If you or a loved one are interested in getting involved with the project and/or in staying with us, please contact us for an interview.
We do interviews both in and outside of prisons in order to make sure that we are a good fit for each other. If you are interested in financially or physically supporting the Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project, please use the above-listed contact information to get in touch with us. Please contact us with any questions you may have. We are a 501c3 nonprofit.
transformativejusticeap@gmail.com