One thing that has confused and upset me since coming to VCBR is that many of us, including me, have had the treatment classes for years while in prison. Yet, we have to begin treatment in here as if we were beginning for the very first time ever. Any treatment i have ever received is ignored – all of the relapse prevention model, the offense cycle, the containment model, or my own will power towards volitional control. Nothing I have ever accomplished has any weight or credibility here. I am treated as an ignorant patient with zero past treatment. Even the fact that I could stay in the community for 5 1/2 years with no sex offense, or a total of 18 years including no offenses in prison or in here. It makes no sense to keep people on a life-long cycle of incarceration without any crime. It should be unconstitutional, and we need a competent defense lawyer to stand up and prove it. If the claim is that we go to prison and get treatment, then we should be free when our sentence is completed. Only if we are deemed to go to a mental institution instead of prison, should anyone go to VCBR. No one should have to do both.
Our vision for a just future
1. Abolish pre-crime preventative detention laws
2. Free our friends and loved ones from dehumanizing labels
3. Realign our justice system with the values of restoration and reintegration
Just Future Project is a new initiative focused on challenging pre-crime preventative detention laws. We are a people-driven grassroots advocacy campaign dedicated to building a movement of community members demanding an end to indefinite detention regimes.
Why Is This Important?
Pre-crime preventative detention systems are a dangerous departure from the traditional values of our legal system.
We believe in justice, that persons who have caused harm may be held accountable for their actions. But justice also demands proportionality and due process, elements essential to distinguish justice from mere vengeance. The goal of any true system of justice must be restoration and re-integration, not the perpetual containment and incapacitation that have come to define the U.S. criminal legal system.