Stuck on Stupid
Moment of Truth
“The truth is, the prison and its residents fill your thoughts and it’s hard to remember what it’s like to be free… you spend a lot of time thinking about how awful prison is rather than envisioning your future. Nothing about the daily workings of the prison system focuses its inhabitant’s attention on what life back on the outside, as a free citizen, will be like.”
Piper Kermin – author, "Orange is the New Black"
Within all of us is an infinite range of ways to be stuck on stupid. We recycle and repeat our bad decisions, or we choose to believe the dehumanizing labels we are given. A single demeaning word is a powerful tattoo on the soul that stifles what we believe we can become. Internalized labels impede women with prior convictions from success in the outside world, contribute to our soaring recidivism rates, and directly impact public safety.
At Journey and Peace House, the staff believes and demonstrates in their actions, attention and care how being stuck on stupid in all its manifestations can be healed.