The Center for Healing and Transformative Justice is a joint project of the New York Metropolitan Regional Office and the New England Regional Office.

Program Philosophy

The American Friends Service Committee's Criminal Justice Program has organized its work under a Healing and Transformative Justice Framework.

Program goal

A system of justice that has shifted from a paradigm of retribution to one of healing and transformative justice that seeks to restore wholeness to individuals and communities, and is informed by

• Quaker philosophy
• models developed in Indigenous communities and other communities of color
• the knowledge of prisoners and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families

Areas of work

1. Ending the reliance on punitive practices
2. Developing and calling attention to true healing and transformative models

The New York Metropolitan Region NYMRO: Prison Watch

The Prison Watch Project monitors human rights concerns, violations, and abuses of prisoners in the U.S. federal and state prison system, with a regional focus on New Jersey and New York. A special emphasis is maintained on the inappropriate use of isolation and devices of torture. Staff advocate resolution of the complaints through appropriate channels and report abuses to national and international monitoring groups. Staff speak widely on prison issues and provide technical assistance to students, media and authors.

The New England Regional Office

The Criminal Justice Program of the New England Regional Office (NERO) was founded after the Attica, NY Prison outbreak in 1971, in response to requests for assistance from prisoners at Walpole, MA State Prison. The program's fundamental goals are:

• To organize a broad alliance to challenge human rights abuses and improve programs and service provision in the prisons;
• To educate the public, the media, the legislature, and those involved in the administration of justice to the financial, human, and social costs of the present punitive system;
• To promote alternatives to incarceration;
• To support prisoner initiatives to effect institutional and personal change; to assist them in communicating with the public regarding the realities of prison life; and to demonstrate to them that there are people who care about their treatment.