Rooting Justice in Dignity, Care, and Collective Accountability

Religion and Public Life recently completed its five-part webinar series, titled Breaking the Matrix. The series focused on particular systems in our society that are impacted by the fascination with carcerality in the United States, including the economy, education system, democratic system, and the carceral system itself. In the series, professionals and thought leaders highlighted both the effect of the carceral state on all facets of society and offered ways that we can imagine beyond the constraints of “the way things are” and into new futures.  

The work of wrestling with the notions and impact of religion as we examine issues like carcerality and the carceral state continues beyond the series with the work of students such as Stephanie Tabashneck, MRPL ‘25. 

“In addition to being an HDS student in the Master of Religion and Public Life program, Tabashneck is the Director of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior NeuroLaw Library. She is also a Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience at the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at Harvard Medical School and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Her work as a forensic psychologist and attorney consists of evaluating people who have committed serious crimes, training judges and attorneys on substance use issues, and running a NeuroLaw library focused on making juvenile justice neuroscience more accessible to judges and attorneys. 

“Our criminal justice system is influenced by religion in subtle but important ways,” Tabashneck said. “The Protestants started prisons, and the Quakers developed solitary confinement. There are a lot of implicit assumptions and influences in the legal system that are not explicitly identified, including religion, and we see it in themes like atonement and redemption—these are all religious themes.” 

Tabashneck came to the MRPL program “seeking ways to bring greater humanity and imagination to our responses to harm.” She reflected, “MRPL has deepened my understanding of how faith traditions influence our concepts of justice and how they might illuminate pathways out of entrenched systems of control and guide us toward approaches and structures grounded in dignity, care, and collective accountability.” 

Her culminating project is a judicial toolkit designed to integrate science into court decision-making in cases involving addiction. She explained, “my project is a critical examination of the role religion has played—and continues to play—in shaping our legal system.”  

Tabashneck notes that part of integrating science and bringing greater humanity to our criminal justice system is recognizing that behavior and social choices are influenced by economic, social, and cultural backgrounds. “When people are socio-economically disadvantaged and have experienced community-based trauma, lack of adequate schools, violence in the home, and other negative social factors, they are more likely to enter into the carceral system,” Tabashnek said. 

Tabashneck’s reflections suggest that the United States’ carceral system is not merely a legal apparatus but a reflection of deeply rooted structures of violence—systems that perpetuate harm through dehumanization, neglect, and retributive ideologies. Her call to bring “greater humanity and imagination” to our responses to harm aligns with what scholar and theologian John Paul Lederach refers to as ‘moral imagination’—the capacity to envision justice beyond punishment, and safety beyond control. 

Tabashneck recognizes that the carceral system is very challenging due to violence, lack of prosocial opportunities, and very limited resources. However, she has hope that the system is improving. “I was just in Maine. I visited a prison, and the environment was very different. The residents there had laptops. They were taking coding classes and growing gardens. There’s no violence in that prison. The warden goes by his first name. There’s mental health treatment, and it’s a much more positive facility. People are healing and [this] decreases the chance of recidivism while also enhancing community safety.” Tabashneck highlights that when people have opportunities, like a college education and good mental health services, their outlook on life changes, reducing their likelihood to return to the carceral system. 

Reflecting on people’s individual concepts of justice and accountability for the carceral state, Tabashneck said, “A lot of people live within fifteen minutes of a jail or prison, but they don’t think about jails or prisons. I think the first step is awareness. And the second step is building relationships with people who have been incarcerated, supporting family members of people who are incarcerated, and also supporting victims of crime. And being a listening ear to help people heal.” 

Tabashneck concluded, “With moral imagination we can think and dream of a different system that would do a better job of keeping communities safe, decreasing violence, and healing people whom society has broken.” 

If you would like to learn more about carcerality in the United States, take a look at our five-part webinar series and follow our newsletter for future events.