What we do
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Those individuals who have survived a prison sentence and emerged offer the most insightful frameworks for redefining reentry and are the most passionate about making sure other people do not suffer the same injustices they did upon reentry. With Executive Director, Kirstin Eidenbach, at the helm, ATLaS hopes to harness these insights and passions by reaching out to this marginalized population and empowering them to populate and expand Arizona’s meager reentry resources. Most importantly, ATLaS works with individuals to discover and unlock their dreams. Our work is not just about helping prison survivors find stability; it is about helping them thrive.
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Who We Are
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At ATLaS Justice Center, we see ourselves as a family. We help people successfully reintegrate back into their communities after serving time in prison, jail, or juvenile detention. Being a family means that we offer unbending support, honest and unabashed advice, and security. ATLaS fosters individual growth and continues to counsel, provide resources, and offer encouragement throughout the remainder of that individual's life.
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Our History
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ATLaS aims to provide a forum for one of the most powerful tools of communication: art. Our Freedom of Art gallery gives visitors a bird's eye view into mass incarceration and its byproducts, communicating both the struggle and the humanity of each artist. ATLaS tailors all of its programs to support the growing community of prison survivors and those still serving time on the outside.
As ATLaS built its programs and refined the philosophies and core values behind them, we came to a stark realization: our current correctional system is too broken to fix. The only was forward is to build a replacement. Undeterred by the magnitude of this epiphany, ATLaS set out to first build a transitional community that would truly and dramatically decrease recidivism. ATLaS is starting locally, creating ATLaS Houses, sober environments for reintegration. These sober homes offer residents struggling with addiction and post-incarceration trauma a safe, home-like environment free from triggers and family pressures to take their first steps back into their communities. These are temporary homes provide individuals with enough head space to reconnect with themselves and with programming and psycho-education to help them navigate reintegration. ATLaS' next program, Holobiont Farms, will offer residents an intense year-long reintegration program on an organic farm. But addressing mass incarceration only on the back-end (reintegration) isn't the only way ATLaS aims to end the incarceration cycle. ATLaS created an entirely new correctional system, a complete replacement to our current system. This system prioritizes humanity and normality over revenge and punishment, employing a modified Scandinavian model. In May 2017, ATLaS revealed a comprehensive plan to construct this new system and to introduce it through pilot programs across several states. SHRR Camps will break an individual's "correction" into two parts. First, the individual will go through intensive institutional detox and rehabilitation, and this portion of the program will be largely driven by the individual. Second, the individual will participate in a restorative justice plan tailored to the injury their action(s) caused. This plan will include the voices of the victim and victim's family, the community, the individual and their family. The purpose of this new system of corrections is to end mass incarceration by actually correcting and healing individuals rather than subjecting them to dehumanization, trauma, and violence. |
Contact Us
Please feel free to reach out to us with questions, stories, comments, or ideas. We are always looking for new ways to serve our community and partner with community members.
Kirstin EidenbachExecutive Director
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