Civic & Social Organization - Tucson, Arizona, United States
ATLaS Justice Center is blazing the path to revolutionary prison reform. Born of the passion of its two founders - Kirstin Eidenbach and Jonathon Trethewey - ATLaS Justice Center's programs aim to redesign America's approach to corrections. Whether through their transformative ID class, their organic farm residential reentry program, or their modified Scandinavian correctional model - ATLaS is taking the dialog of prison reform to direct action.Kirstin is a civil rights attorney who has spent years working on prisoner's rights issues. In 2013, she helped file a class action lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections for failing to provide constitutionally adequate healthcare, as well as inhumane conditions in solitary confinement. As part of this case, Kirstin interviewed hundreds of prisoners and prison staff and toured many of Arizona's prisons, giving her a firsthand look at the actual condition of the prison system.Jonathon grew up in abject poverty and suffered daily abuse at the hands of his parents. He saw the inside of a jail cell for the first time at age 6. In his early teens, he began to steal food to feed his young sisters. This practice eventually morphed into a criminal enterprise, and by 15, Jonathon was tried as an adult and convicted of armed robbery. Between the ages of 15 and 35, Jonathon spent 13 years in prison. His experience has given him a keen understanding of the system, where it fails, and its direct impact on prisoners.
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