The criminal legal system loves to talk about “accountability.” It loves the language of consequences, deterrence, and punishment. But here’s the truth we almost never say out loud:
If a state sends someone to prison, that state absolutely becomes responsible for the trauma that person experiences inside and the trauma they continue to endure under probation and parole, and the conditions that spill-over into communities.
This isn’t optional; this isn’t a luxury. This is a moral and legal obligation we’re talking about here.
Because the moment the state takes control of a person’s life, whether through incarceration, surveillance, or supervision, it also takes responsibility for their safety, stability, and psychological wellbeing. And right now, in prisons and in community supervision, states are failing on every front.
People are paying for it with their minds, their futures, and sometimes their lives.
Prison Doesn’t Just Punish — It Damages
Prisons are not healing environments, they’re not correctional. Why? They were never designed to be.
People inside are exposed to:
- violence
- isolation
- chronic fear
- unpredictable routines
- medical neglect
- separation from loved ones
- sexual abuse
- constant hypervigilance
Trauma doesn’t just magically stay behind when someone leaves prison. It follows them into the community, into their relationships, into their sleep, into their ability to make decisions and regulate emotions.
And then, instead of support, they face something else:
Probation and parole; arguably one of the most misunderstood and traumatic stages of the entire system.
Probation and Parole Are Traumatic, Too
People imagine probation and parole as “freedom.” But anyone who has lived it, or loved someone living through it, knows better.
It is a second sentence. A quieter sentence. And often a more psychologically corrosive one. Because there is no rest or relief until it’s over.
Community supervision often includes:
- constant fear of violating rules
- unclear, shifting expectations
- aggressive check-ins
- threats of reincarceration for minor mistakes
- intrusive home visits
- financial burdens, fees, and monitoring costs
- being treated like a perpetual danger instead of a person
- re-triggering of institutional trauma
- instability for families and children
- the emotional toll of living under surveillance
For many people, probation and parole feel like living with an invisible cage. And every time someone jumps at a knock on the door, panics over a missed call, or watches their life shrink around supervision requirements, the trauma compounds.
There is no way we can call it “rehabilitation.” What it really is, is state-enforced instability.
Reentry Isn’t Enough — We Need Trauma After-Care
Reentry is about logistics.
After-care is about trauma.
Most states barely fund reentry, Michigan for example, has just cranked up the trauma machine by cutting vital funding for reentry services, let alone funding trauma after-care.
And absolutely none treat trauma as a guaranteed part of probation and parole, even though supervision routinely triggers anxiety, PTSD symptoms, shame responses, and crisis moments.
People are expected to “comply” while living with:
- trauma from incarceration
- trauma from their lives before incarceration
- trauma generated by the supervision system itself
And when they struggle? The system calls it “noncompliance” and threatens people, rather than ask critical questions:
- What happened to you?
- What trauma is this behavior responding to?
- How can we support you instead of punish you?
Instead, a missed appointment becomes a violation. A panic attack becomes a threat. A transportation issue becomes a trip back to jail. A missed payment becomes a show cause hearing. It’s a setup that enables states to keep the prison industrial complex running.
Ignoring Trauma Creates the Very Instability the System Claims to Prevent
When trauma is untreated, the consequences will always ripple outward:
- caregivers break under the pressure
- households destabilize
- people relapse under stress
- relationships fracture
- mental health spirals
- children absorb fear and chaos
- employment is lost
- survival decisions get misinterpreted as “noncompliance”
- violations send people back to prison
This is how mass incarceration reproduces itself, even outside of prison walls. The state creates trauma, then punishes people for showing symptoms of it. You can’t take people down to the studs and then wonder what happened to them. It’s like poking someone in the eye with a stick and wondering why they’re holding their eye. Because you poked them in the eye with a stick, duh.
You can’t cause pain and then wonder why people feel it. Most people who have even committed a crime are suffering from a mental health issue. So then the state is saying, “well, we didn’t give you the right care to begin with, so let’s punish you for our mistake.”
Trauma-Informed Approaches Should Be Mandatory — Not Optional
Here’s the truth policymakers avoid:
You cannot run a justice system without trauma-informed practices.
Not ethically. Not effectively.
Not sustainably.
Trauma-informed approaches should be mandatory for:
- probation officers
- parole agents
- judges
- prosecutors
- public defenders
- reentry coordinators
- corrections officers
- and anyone making decisions about another person’s freedom
Not in a “we took a webinar once” way.
Not in a “nice-to-have” way.
But in a required, ongoing practice that reshapes how people are treated.
Mandatory trauma-informed systems would include:
- understanding trauma responses vs “noncompliance”
- avoiding re-triggering interactions
- flexible scheduling and communication
- predictable, humane policies
- respectful, non-threatening contact
- treatment over punishment
- clinicians integrated into supervision teams
- training designed with lived experts
Because you cannot rehabilitate someone while actively re-traumatizing them.
If the State Creates Trauma, the State Must Fund the Healing
If states choose incarceration and surveillance as tools, then they must also:
- fund trauma after-care
- integrate trauma-informed supervision
- support families healing from the fallout
- provide ongoing therapy
- invest in stability, not just control
Anything less is moral negligence.
You cannot claim to promote public safety while ignoring the trauma your own system creates.
Pulling it All Together
States MUST acknowledge that the traditional prison model creates trauma. Probation and parole often extend that trauma. And states have an obligation, not an option, to address it.
If you take a person’s freedom, take responsibility for their healing, otherwise what are you even doing? If you impose supervision, you inherit responsibility for the psychological burden you create. And if you want people to succeed, you must give them the tools to recover from what your system has done to them.
Trauma-informed care is not a bonus. It is not a courtesy. It is not an “enhancement.”
It is the bare minimum of human decency.
And if states cannot provide it, then they have absolutely no business running systems that intentionally inflict trauma in the first place.
So what do we do about it? We start advocating for change. And that begins with he jacked up way our lawmakers have structured the system. Contact your legislators; stress the importance of trauma-informed care. We can’t keep breaking people down and wondering why communities are suffering.
