1. If you are new here, the best place to start is the blog post called,
START HERE: J's Story. J is a musician - a composer and singer who plays guitar, bass, drums, and keys. He is incarcerated. And he lives with mental illness. His music is one of the things that is helping him cope, grow, and even thrive. We hope to find ways to share his music with all of us on the outside in the coming months. 2. If you have already read the start-here post and want to keep going, scroll down the BLOG POSTS page to read the back-and-forth entries from J and Sabrina: * J. Bloom's PERSON, INTERPRETED series, describing what life is like inside his head AND * Sabrina Justison's J'S MOM series, written in response to PERSON, INTERPRETED, offering her outside perspective 3. If you'd like to read other types of writing from either J or Sabrina, visit the MORE TO READ page for things like: * J. Bloom's POETRY (posts coming soon) AND * Sabrina Justison's BEING A FRIEND posts, ideas and encouragement for people who want to become supporters, mentors, and advocates for J and others like him who are living with mental illness while incarcerated (posts coming soon) 4. If you want to learn how you or your group can offer support to an entire prison community (inmates, corrections officers, administration and staff) via letter writing and prayer, scroll down a bit on the PRISON CARE page to explore ways to "Adopt-a-Prison," or visit our sister-site that is devoted to this fantastic model for supporting positive prison culture from outside the walls -- PrisonCare.org! 5. For more on mental illness, incarceration, advocacy, family support, education, and related topics, explore the PRISON CARE page. 6. If you want to book Sabrina to speak to your group (either virtually or IRL), or make contact with her via social media or email, visit the SPEAKING page here. 
so what am *I* supposed to do about it?Believe it or not, the simple fact that you are here learning about people who live with mental illness while incarcerated matters for good. This is not a subject most folks ever give a moment's attention. The U.S. criminal justice and prison systems need reform...but that's not my area of expertise. You can find links to organizations doing great work toward reform on the PRISON CARE page.
What I REALLY hope you will do is visit our sister-site at PrisonCare.org! Founded in 2021, PrisonCare equips compassionate people to support positive prison culture from outside the walls, because EVERYone on the inside matters. PrisonCare.org offers PDF resources (always free) to help you learn about prisons and the people who make up a prison community - residents, staff, and administrators. All of the people groups inside the razor wire are largely invisible populations. Those who are incarcerated desperately need support from the outside, but corrections officers, staff, and administrators do, too! When people on the outside learn ways to respect, appreciate, encourage, and support people on the inside, beautiful things can happen. At PrisonCare.org, you can also find community opportunities, video and podcast resources, and links to other organizations who are doing good work in prisons nationwide. Mainly THIS site is about J and me, our personal journey on this difficult road. It shares our stories with a focus on mental illness, and our hope is that by speaking openly about things like hallucinations, delusion, dissociation, and more, stigma will be reduced and more people who live with mental illness, and those who love them, will be encouraged. There is a positive difference we can all make in simple, practical ways. Becoming "A FRIEND OF J'S" (learning about mental illness, incarceration, and ways to help those whose lives are shaped by these challenges) or Adopting-a-Prison is not that hard. It need not be risky. And it can literally make the difference between life and death for someone on the inside. |
ABOUT ME
Sabrina Justison is a curriculum developer, speaker, and writer, wife to Fred, and mom or step-mom to 7 grown kids, plus grandmother to 5.
One of those grown kids is "J," who is mentally ill and in prison, serving a very long sentence for murder. Sabrina is an advocate for people like J who are incarcerated, in particular those living with mental illness. In addition to her own efforts to support and advocate for people like her son, she helps others discover simple ways to be "A FRIEND OF J'S" and others like him. There are reasons to hope and ways to help in the face of prison and mental illness. We can care, we can link arms, and we can learn. Where an estimated 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience serious mental illness, it is likely that more than twice that many behind bars are seriously mentally ill, with access to behavioral healthcare that is woefully inadequate... ...and often non-existent. Let's see what we can do to help. |
