Our Values
Accountability Principles
Our approach to accountability is grounded in our abolitionist politics — eliminating the prison industrial complex and building lasting alternatives to punishment. These six principles guide how we hold ourselves and each other accountable as a community.
PIC Abolition is Our Goal
Our approach to accountability should line up with our abolitionist politics: eliminating the prison industrial complex and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. We ask ourselves: does our approach take practical, accessible steps toward abolition?
Ask for What We Want, Not What We Think We Can Get
Our approach should help us push ourselves to think about what we're capable of giving and receiving in creative, broad ways. We work to prevent falling into old patterns and narrow thinking. We encourage members to think expansively about what they can contribute to supporting accountability across our community.
Don't Build Up What We'll Need to Tear Down Later
Our approach should encourage us to establish accountability measures that work in both the short and long term. We ask: are we using ideas and tools that allow us to develop broader and broader trust and accountability — or are we developing guidelines that replicate current means of punishment or retribution?
Not Working from Good and Evil
Our approach should acknowledge the real impacts of harm and of lack of accountability, while avoiding oversimplified thinking that reduces things to good and evil. We hold the complexity of situations of harm while taking concrete steps to resolve them.
Not Operating from a Place of Scarcity
Our approach should encourage us to imagine that we have a wide, rich variety of resources at our disposal to help people be accountable and to reduce harm. We operate from the assumption that we should attempt to utilize the best tools for the situation, even if they are not immediately at hand.
Balancing Building Safety with Risk Taking
Our approach should acknowledge that a certain amount of risk taking may be necessary to help members be accountable or address harm. We build our capacity to engage in principled struggle and productive conflict — the kind that may be necessary to build trust and understanding among members without generating or regenerating harm. We avoid liberalism and paternalism in not holding people accountable because of their backgrounds or identities.
These principles were developed in the tradition of transformative justice and community accountability — an ongoing practice, not a fixed document. We welcome feedback from our community partners.
Download as PDF