The carceral state says that a harmdoer is nothing more than the harm they caused. Once you're in the system, you're marked forever as a harmdoer and subject to punishment for the rest of your life. TJ/RJ, in my mind, is supposed to challenge this.

It's supposed to say that through accountability, consequences, and real work redemption is possible. So the harmdoer is responsible for the harm without it becoming a part of their identity and how we value them.

What I mean when I say the harmdoer is responsible for the harm is that its their responsibility to acknowledge the harm and how it impacted others, to undo the harm (if its possible), and to commit to their own healing and growth so that they dont harm again.

Harmdoers are not responsible for anything outside of addressing and preventing the harm they caused. They cannot heal survivors. They can do things to help survivors heal (financial compensation, deplatforming/decreasing visibility, etc.). But not much else to be honest.

Our goal shouldn't be to disappear harmdoers. That's what prisons do. We dont do what prisons do. And that can be hard for survivors for obvious reasons. Idk how we address that. Cause I still think some harmdoers just have to be offed and that's not good.

But at the root of this shit is that we all have the capacity to harm. We dont (or at least we shouldnt) view our selves as disposable. We are all capable of being and doing better. Not on some idealistic in theory type shit. We all have capacity for good and bad.

And we just have relied on prisons and punishment to address/prevent harm and its trash. It doesnt help us get or be better. RJ/TJ is supposed to do that....even for the "worst" of us

And I havent done the reading so this thread might offend RJ/TJ experts lol. But I've done the work and like lived the life. I've punished and been punished. And I've dissapeared folks from my life. The healing has yet to come