Matt McGorry Instagram – “Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and A Road to Repair” by Danielle Sered of @common_justice This is one of the most important books that I’ve ever read. It is an incredibly clear guide for why incarceration as a “safety response” to violence is not only ineffective, but causes more violence. With a deep practicality, it demonstrates the way that the system fails survivors of violence and provides powerful examples of restorative justice processes that truly moved my soul. Essential reading for abolition and #DefundThePolice . “Choosing alternatives to prison in no way requires survivors to be forgiving or to be invested in the well-being of the person who hurt them. Early in Common Justice, a case was referred to us in which a boy- just fourteen years old- was badly beaten and robbed. The young man who did it was facing three years in prison. I went to speak to the survivor’s mother, to see whether she and her son wanted the young man who committed the crime to be given the opportunity to participate in Common Justice. She said to me: ‘When I first found out about this, I wanted that young man to drown to death. And then I wanted him to burn to death. And then I realized as a mother that I don’t want either of those things. I want him to drown in a river of fire. But three years from now, when my nine-year-old son is twelve, he is going to be coming to and from his aunt’s house, to and from school, to and from the corner store alone. And one day he’s going to walk by that young man. And I have to ask myself: when that day comes, do I want that young many to have been upstate or do I want him to have been with y’all? And the truth is, while if that young man were before me today and I had my machete, I would chop him to bits, bury him under the house, and sleep soundly for the first night since he dared hurt my child, the truth is I’d rather him be with y’all.’ This mother did something I have since seen countless survivors do over and over again: she put aside an individual desire for revenge in the interest of what would secure the safety of her child and children like him.” My Booklist: bit.ly/mcgreads (link in bio) #McGReads