They were not DEPORTED. Deported means sending them back to their country of origin. These people were sent to a maximum security #prison in #ElSalvador, without any #DueProcess or any analysis as to whether they feared harm there.

Flying a person to a third country that they may never have been to, directly into a prison where they are going to be forced to do hard labor, is not a #deportation; it's something else entirely.

American prisons run on forced labor. For @bolts, historian Robert Chase answered reader questions about the legal basis for paying incarcerated people below minimum wage, whether the Americans with Disabilities Act applies in these circumstances, who has the authority to stop prison labor, and more.

https://boltsmag.org/the-past-and-present-of-prison-labor-your-questions-answered/

In New Jersey, there’s no legal mechanism for judges to take into account whether a defendant suffered abuse that may have been a factor in their committing a crime. Seventy-two percent of first-time offenders imprisoned for a violent crime in the state’s women’s prison were abused by their victim. While Governor Phil Murphy has granted clemency to some people, The ACLU of New Jersey and other groups are now advocating for a legislative fix. @bolts takes a look at the issue.

https://boltsmag.org/new-jersey-clemency-and-sentencing-for-survivors-of-abuse/

We haven’t been taught how to identify our feelings and needs, how to set healthy boundaries, how to strategize and work together.

These are skills that have to be learned.

So please if you want to get better at helping others and yourself and creating community, look up ways to do this such as, psychotherapy, non-violent communication, intentional peer support, empathy training, mindfulness-based communication, restorative justice practices, Zegg forum, intentional community building, pod work or any of the many other modalities that exist to do this.

We all have a responsibility to work hard on our mental wellness. Not just those of us labeled as “mentally ill” or “criminal”.

-Drag Queen Jesus

5/5

People with mental and emotional wellness challenges that are debilitating, who’s behaviors are often criminalized, furthering the barrier to goods and services, who are surviving on a pittance, are naturally going to be asking their communities for lots of help and that’s a good thing!

Asking for help is the bedrock of healthy interdependent communities. Naturally some people will get exhausted with trying to help. But, too often instead of setting health boundaries and saying something like, “I’m so exhausted and need to take care of myself for awhile.”, people throw blame and shame on those already disenfranchised.

4/5

Study after study, and common sense, tells us that what we really need is stable #housing, #community, access to healthy #food, #transportation, #education, quality #healthcare services, #nature, #art, #music, and to be loved and accepted for who we are and where we are at in our journey.

It’s not any one individual’s fault that our society is so sick and we are living in times of such artificial scarecity. It is not any one individual’s fault that disabled people are given $12,000 a year and then expected to “make better financial decisions” and then blamed when we are asking people for things we cannot afford.

That is society’s, government’s and the ruling class’ fault. But it is our responsibility to recognize reality for what it is, to own how we treat other people, to treat our comrades as equals worthy of love and respect.

3/5

We are told to see therapists, psychiatrists, probation officers, court mediators, nutritionists, go to support groups, say positive affirmations, meditate, workout…

…and yet there is little to no acknowledgment that society at large bears the majority of responsibility for our challenges.

It is almost entirely up to us to fix problems which, mostly, we did not create. Even our family and friends blame us and tell us we should “just pray harder” or “just don’t do that” or “you should spend your money more wisely” or tell us to do all of the things mentioned in this post even though WE ARE ALREADY DOING ALL OF THEM.

2/5