About the Transformative Justice Project

What TJP is

TJP is a curriculum and a way of working. Thirteen ten-week courses ground transformative justice in neuroscience: the nervous system under threat, trauma, shame, addiction, habit, compassion, communication, systems, and teaching. Each course works like a think tank and then a task force: residents master the research, then build something the public can use.

It was designed for a living unit inside a South Carolina prison, for residents who have done serious personal work and want to become teachers and credible messengers. The tools also work anywhere people want to prevent harm: schools, churches, reentry programs, recovery communities, and families.

An independent curriculum

TJP is an independent educational curriculum. It is not an official publication of the South Carolina Department of Corrections and is not endorsed by SCDC or any other agency. Where the documents mention SCDC, they describe the setting TJP was designed for and the governance it proposes.

How TJP proposes to be governed

TJP is not an inmate-led initiative. Residents do the learning, the building, and in time the teaching. Three levels of leadership are proposed to govern it:

• Oversight: the state agency division responsible for programs, reentry, and rehabilitative services.
• Direction: a Board of Volunteers, trustees of the vision and mission and guardians of program integrity.
• Supervision: an interdepartmental committee at the facility, including the associate warden for programs, the programs supervisor, the chaplains, and the education leader.

Safety first

Peer facilitators are educators, never therapists. Every session that can surface trauma is led by staff, and the deepest clinical courses run only when licensed professionals are present. The Personal Narrative is written with stop rules and staff review, and it reaches a harmed person only through victim services, and only if that person asks.

Contact

Write to support@peakagentai.com.