good morning, your cohost of the mosaic show this morning. welcome to you and i welcome to our special guest today. on this festive sunday, palm sunday, easter sunday. it is a wonder for wonderful time of year in the church calendar. today i'm work welcoming laura who is with us, laura is a quaker or as we would more formally say, you are a religious society of friends

member, that's her denomination. >> that's right. >> welcome we are here and glad you are here with us at mosaic. for those who might not be familiar with quaker church or denomination, tell us a little bit about it. and what worship might be like, your values and theology. >> the part of quakerism that i believed to is friends meeting rather than friends church although there is a friends church. and we worship in silence. so, we sit in silence and wait upon the spirit and then people might speak out of the silent as they are moved by the spirit. so in an hour we maybe get a few messages. and then we just kind of return to the silence and stay in that space. we don't have ordained clergy. we all take responsibility for the ministry. and we do everything by committee as often happens in

churches. >> and in that quaker community, what would be some of the other activities or ministries that might occur there? >> there's always a close relationship in our tradition between our faith and our action. particularly work in the road related to social justice. the environment. and so forth so there is a lot of work we have committees that do that, social order committees. the environmental committees. things like that but we also have a worship and ministry committee. and a pastoral care committee and that type of thing that handled the meetings of the pastor handles. >> would a visitor be welcome at the gathering? >> always, always. i like many denominations we are challenging ourselves to be more welcoming and to figure out how to make people feel comfortable in what may feel uncomfortable space after spirit >> we are not used to that much silence are we, in our lives let alone in a worship setting?>> that's true, it is amazing what can happen, it is

christian mysticism going back to the 1600s. and so a lot can happen in that silence but you have to be able to wait.>> giving space for the spirit to speak their people.>> i could say theologically that hours, we are one of the piece churches there were three original piece churches the mennonites, the brother now the quakers. so we've had a strong pacifist tradition. not going to war, not feeling that we had the right to take a life. and that has carried over obviously to the present. but also on the issues that i work on which are the criminal putting systems to punishment. >> we want to hear about the work because you're doing important work and is timely right now. through the american friends services committee that was established in 1917. >> we just celebrated our centennial two years ago.>> happy anniversary. and is that, is that kind of the social justice branch of

the church? >> yes it is an independent organization, an ngo basically. so we are separate technically from the religious arm. but is also, quaker based. the board is predominantly friends and that term friends and quakers are sort of interchangeable. the official title is the religious society of friends but we've been call quakers from the beginning because people were found to quake when they were in the throes of the spirit and so this nickname came along very easily. and that i've had that experience when i need to speak my body will start shaking . >> you feel it in your body first. interesting experience. so that is good for us to know quakers and friends are interchangeable as is the religious society of friends. you participate in the strawberry creek friends meeting. in berkeley. >> yes.>> there are only about 1400 friends in this part of the western well, california

and nevada area. so, it is not a lot but we are mighty. we think. we have an impact we hope.>> absolutely. well laura is the program director of the healing justice program of the american friends services committee. and we want to hear the work you are doing in abolishing death penalty and also your work with solitary confinement and prisoners who are experiencing that. so when we are back we will hear more about that. [ cell phone rings ]

>> yeah, i'm watching it too. i see them every day. >> the curtains, they're always drawn in this place. >> i know. >> that guy, it seems like he's in charge of them. i don't know, i don't feel very good about this. >> we have to report this. >> yes, absolutely.

welcome back to mosaic. lead pastor of st. mark's lutheran church in san francisco, today our special guest is laura. she is the program director of the healing justice program of the american friends services committee. and tell us about the work that you are doing specifically. >> so we work on a wide variety of prison issues but the ones i thought we would focus on today or the death penalty and solitary confinement. and really important moment now on the death penalty because of the decision that the new governor, governor gavin newsom made to give people a reprieve

who are currently on death row. there is 737 people on death row, 23 of them are women. and so, his decision is a moratorium, it doesn't end the death penalty it just says i can't do this and i was really moved by his taking that stance. it is really very personal. and to me, you know, very faith related because when you are the person who actually is responsible for signing a death warrant it is a different thing than any of the rest of us usually face. so his reasons for saying this is wrong, this is not taking us in the direction we need to go, i thought were excellent. it puts the issue back on the pages of, to think about. because we have had a moratorium since 2006 when the court said way your method that you are using is wrong and you can't use the strange drugs that are really torturing people as they are dying. >> ineffective in some cases, too. >> and ineffective.

it is amazing to think about, who decides what kind of what they call cocktail to give somebody to kill them. the idea that we as a society are spending our time thinking about that is not very good for us. and so anyway the courts have slowed it way down. but then, governor gavin newsom stepped in and said this shouldn't be there at all. one of the really exciting things to me, is that right away legislation was introduced a constitutional amendment come to abolish it. in california. as soon as he made a decision. there are 23 co-authors. i've been working on this issue since the 1970s when the united states supreme court said it is unconstitutional and so for a small amount of time we didn't have it in california . i was there when people were introducing legislation both to reinstate it and to abolish it and they were, two or three people you might have signed onto that. so the idea that 23 co-authors are signing onto this, it takes a 2/3 vote and it will have to

go to the bout. because the people originally put these laws on the books. so it is a long wait from there, from here to there. but the idea that we are talking about it again and taking it seriously and that we are asking ourselves, is this really how we want to spend our money? and how we want to treat people? the message you are sending is that killing people is okay. i don't think that is the message we want to send if you are talking about death qualifying offenses. we really want to say no come of this is not okay and we are not going to participate and we do want you to participate in. >> i know when family members who, who have had another family member killed, murdered. some of them say that an execution of those who perpetrated the crime doesn't bring them any relief or any closure. it doesn't bring their loved one back. but in your conversations with people who have differing opinions, what are you hearing?

>> you know we've worked a lot with family members who have been on both sides of that issue. and a lot of times families do think it is going to bring closure and then after it happens they are stuck with those same feelings. and some of that has come out in the articles since the governor's decision i noticed that it really doesn't bring closure. if you read sister helen's book dead man walking, same thing. she spent a lot of time with the family members as well as with perpetrators and, came away realizing that it wasn't meeting anyone's needs. to take another life. so it is an important conversation to be having. but you know our system is not about healing. it is not really about taking care of victims. victims are just used in the legal process to get a conviction. they are not, their needs are not met certainly not their

emotional needs. sometimes a few of their financial needs. but this isn't the way we should be taking care of people. >> what would you, i mean, what is your vision for taking care of the victims? >> other countries invest in this and they spend as much money and time figuring out what the vic ems need in a situation like this and not just focusing on get the bad guy. and punish that bad guy. so it is much, much more parity between what you do with the offender and what you do with the victims. and both of those words are problematic because they're all people. and they're coming from different perspectives. >> for those who are on a death sentence, serving time, are all of them in san quentin? >> the men are in san quentin, a few others but the women are in the women facilities. i do visit when i have visited for over 20 years. said to kind of just keep hope alive and see if it is possible to have a life while you are waiting for death. people typically on death row in california are waiting decades for the legal process

to run its course. so, just again, to kind of be in relationship and to make sure that people, they are treated like human beings. >> and how do you keep hope alive on this season of easter? a season of hope and new life. where do you find that in prison? >> the person i visit as an artist, and he paints wonderful pictures particularly animals. and so the more he, he watches pbs shows to learn his craft. he doesn't have anyone to teach him so he is totally self- taught. and he's gotten so much better in the time that i've known him, really exciting. he painted an hour for my granddaughter, an orca for my grandson and those are life- affirming for him and for those receiving it. >> it sound like he is living as if he has a future. >> yes, which i am very moved by because i don't know if i would be able to do that.

>> how challenging that would be. >> but we could be putting our resources into making sure that happened or giving people access to programs or to education if we really wanted to treat folks like human beings.>> there is more like him . i would think. you know like you said there are 737 total. yes. we don't want them focusing on death either we want them focusing on life because you know, my belief as a christian is that people can change. that there is redemption and that that's where we need to concentrate our resources because if we all want to go forward together we need to be thinking about what brings life and not what brings death. >> that's right. that's an appropriate message on this easter sunday, palm sunday. we will be back to hear more messages of hope from prison, in just a few minutes. nute

welcome back to mosaic in

this easter season . today with us is laura the program director of the healing justice program of the american friends services committee. i'm talking about your work with prisoners on death row and abolishment of the death penalty. but another little area of interest for you is the issue of the psychological, physical, emotional punishment of solitary confinement. talk to us about that particular work and focus be >> people don't realize the beginning and 1980s, we started building institutions for permanent solitary confinement. places where, which were very, very isolated where people were going to go and stay forever. it is always been the whole, there's always been what we might think of as timeout when we are raising kids perhaps. so there's always been a certain amount of isolation but is always temporary. when somebody misbehaves.

but these units didn't have to do with it, they have to do with gang management especially in california. and separating people. and so, people have been spending decades in solitary confinement. >> define what that means. >> it is a cell the size of a small bathroom. that you don't get out of at all except to shower. there is an exercise cage, that he would be exercising and along that about is the same size you are walking up and down. you don't have human contact except with guards who could be very hostile. so it is death, extreme isolation. and not good for the human soul. and it doesn't make people better. in fact it does cause mental illness which is documented and easy to understand if you just, i think i would go crazy in the month. and that kind of situation. back in 2011, we got packets of information from prisoners at pelican bay in california who

had been in the situation for decades. and they had made a decision to go on hunger strikes. nonviolent tactic to draw attention to their plight. to let people know that this was happening. and, they had demands that they had all agreed on and they work across all these different gang groups that supposedly couldn't get together . every decision they made they made together and they wouldn't go forward unless they all agreed. and so, in july 2011 they were on the first hunger strike and there were three of them, two in 2011 and one in 2013. there were at that time, by calculations, 14,000 people in some form of long-term isolation like this. >> here in the state of california . >> here in california alone. but as they started working they said we need a mediation team to help talk to the department of corrections for us on our behalf. so i was privileged to serve on that team and to try to be a communication vehicle between the prisoners on strike on the

department. i think it was life-changing both for the department people and for us and for the prisoners themselves. since that time, i think the number is 82% of the prisoners in one form of solitary confinement were released to general population density percent of the people in an which is administrative segregation has been segregated. it is a huge step forward and life-changing for us in the prison abolition movement, is, is to hear these ideas and leadership from the people inside who are really suffering the most. they were not asking, they were not asking to abolish solitary confinement although my organization would support that. they said you have to do it in a completely different way. you have to give people opportunity to be with other human beings, give them programming. don't expect people to change or get better and the circumstances they are in.>> and so that's you've seen

progress in the area? >> we seen progress, there is a very favorable court decision monitored now in a settlement phase. and the other thing they did was they've issued a call to end hostilities per they said if they're going to put us in here because we can't get along with each other we have to stop that behavior and start really working together. they put out a call to end hostilities to everyone in prison. they said let's try to start working together. it is life-changing. but it is a work in progress. >> it is a work in progress. given, given your focus on this a really intense work, what is your vision for the world? where do you find hope and what is your vision for doing what you are doing? >> well, i mean i think the vision is freedom. the vision is doing the things that are life-affirming and

that actually make us better and make us more whole. the prison system is built on punishment and violence. restorative justice which we do a lot of in my organization, is based on wholeness and healing. which we all need. whatever our origins or whatever our histories are. i we don't spend enough time figuring out how to get that and practicing because you know, it takes practice. is that something we automatically know how to do.>> certainly easier to punish, lock up and throw away the key as you hear them, this hard work of forgiveness, restoration, making amends. >> yes. it is not about no accountability. does involve making amends but doing it in a way that people actually take responsibility. >> we will be back in just a moment and we will talk more about the hope of easter season, hope even found in prison through the good work that laura is doing. we will be back.

welcome back to mosaic in this easter season. laura has been ours bestial gas from the american friends service committee and we were going to -- has been our special guest from the american friends service committee and we were going to talk about your work. >> one of the things that is personified by the governor and the death penalty is used his authority to give people

reprieves. to say let's try something different and that has been in, law from the beginning from colonial times. it is extremely important that somebody have the power to make a choice for mercy. instead of for meanness and punishment. and so that is very important but also i think people again don't know forgiveness because they may not feel like they are forgivable. and so if we don't practice that, people won't feel it and we will not get there. so we always have to ask verselves what kind of world do we want to build if we build it on violence and meanness and hatred we are not going to get there. >> as christians we believe in a god of forgiveness and a god of hope. either is about resurrection and new life starting over, new beginnings. and so your work certainly personifies that as a work of new beginnings for so many.

but also this easter season is a team for you as our viewer, to begin again. whatever that might mean for you. to celebrate easter the resurrection of jesus christ, we want you to go to a worship service on easter sunday or throughout the easter season. laura was mentioning that you will experience a contemplative gathering at a friends service. >> people on easter sunday might give messages about easter, the theme might go there we just can't control it. it is unprogrammed. >> very good. work at your or worship at your neighborhood church especially on easter sunday throughout the season of easter. visitors are always welcome and expected. but a practical note, check the website because particularly on easter sunday, there might be a special breakfast or extra services or music so you want to make sure that you arrive at

the time you want to be there for everything. st. mark's has two services, the lutheran church at 9 am and 11 am. we have a lot of festive music at st. mark's. a huge pipe organ, special music at 10:30. so lots to hear and to listen to along with a wonderful hymns of hallelujah. throughout easter and the season of new life. so we thank you for showing us where new life is and can be in the prison system.>> in the california. >> thank you for your good work and further committee is doing. >> thank you for mosaic. >> i want to say a special word of thanks to my cohost the reverend ron, our late producer, reverend hugh burrows, blessings to you during this easter season. u his i hope you go out and worship and we will see you next time, have a xt

wonderful day. wond

this is kpix 5 news. now, this morning an eyewitness account of the terrifying moment a woman gets caught in a moving train. get a dui if you drive high. they are cracking down on stoned drivers this 4/20 making. aloft professor believes democrats could make a case around the issue of fitness for office. we sit down with you in a bit. good morning. it is 6 am let's start off this easter sunday morning with us check of the forecast. i am happy to say it is not going to be as windy as i sterday.