Reflecting on 5 Years of CTJC

Artwork by Chiara Francesca

Walking into the newly renovated space that in a few short weeks will be the home of the Chicago Torture Justice Center is a feeling that is hard to put into words.

 It is not just a physical space where the staff team can gather and work together. It is not just a community space where all those we engage and serve can call their own and feel a sense of safety and belonging. It is so much more.

 It is—as Ollie Hammonds, a police torture survivor and fierce advocate, once said so eloquently— “the physical manifestation” of what repair, transformative justice, and liberatory imagination looks like.

Five years ago when the Center first opened its doors all we knew was that it would be a much needed space for individuals who had experienced a multitude of trauma and violence at the hands of the police and the criminal legal system. We knew it would be a space of healing, but hadn’t yet fully envisioned what healing from state sanctioned violence encompassed.

Now, celebrating our five-year anniversary, the Center is so much more than we ever could have dreamt. It is a space of joy, of resilience, of resistance, and yes, of healing. It is a space of connection and a space of belonging. It is a space of self-determination, of radical power, and a space where all of us gets to unapologetically show up.  

And, it is a space comprised of the dreams, the commitments, and the contributions of every single individual who has crossed its path. As we celebrate our five-year mark and get ready to open in a new space with a team of seventeen (over half of whom are survivors themselves), we feel in every part of our being the reality that it has taken all of us, all of you, to get here.

Every participant, every community member, every incarcerated survivor, every donor, every funder, every artist, every organizer, every teacher, every journalist, every curious learner, every committed advocate….every single individual has helped make this vision of survivors become a powerful reality.  

You have often seen us be unapologetic in our rage and in our grief, but this month we are also similarly unapologetic in our celebration! Please join us in celebrating yourselves, each other, and this beautiful physical manifestation of reparations that we know is only the beginning.  

Written by CTJC Co-Executive Directors Aislinn Pulley and Cindy Eigler