hello and welcome to mosaic. justice is not just a word. jury could declare guilty or innocent we say that looks like justice has been done. we would probably say we want to live in a just society and justice as possible for all. what is the human story behind the word, justice. we might see that justice is more than a principal in which we hope to act, deeper then

discerning wrong on the side and right on the side and leaving at it that. it is a human relationship when an injustice has been done a relationship has been wounded and torn. it needs healing. today we will talk with the director of the archdiocese and restorative justice. we provide people affected by crime, victims and offenders within our communities support to heal through prayer, prevention, intervention and guidance. stay with us and we will learn of the meaning of restorative justice and what the archdiocese doing two teach it and practice it.

hello and welcome. julio escobar is the director of the office of restorative justice ministry. >> yes. i coordinate the ministry named restorative justice. >> you told me a couple of things. one is that you and your ministry is called ministry. you don't call it an office or

bureau or program. the second thing you do and insisted on informing me is that it is a ministry of president. help us understand those things. >> when i say presence i mean we need to be present when we meet people and have a congregation with people we can be offender or victim. we need to be present and be accompanying families in the process of their journey in recovery whether there inside a prison or jail or it is a person that has lost a family member in violence. >> as i look at what you do in your mission statement, it does seem you acknowledge there is a relationship between the offender and the victim and maybe the relationship did not exist before, they didn't know

each other but now they are in a relationship. i know nothing about this except what you are going to tell us. the relationship is there and it needs some kind of acknowledgment and attending. that is what you let people understand? >> yes. the relationship is there. it brings two parts together. that is what restorative justice is all about when harm has occurred. particularly when there is a crime. that breach needs to be connected by the two people when they both agree. it seems to me it is different from our adversarial justice system where you had the court into adversaries settling something. what is different about what restorative justice brings? >> the current system, in attempts to separate both there

is no opportunity for the two parties to learn about what happened. restorative justice brings that opportunity. we listen to each other and what happened in this instance or crime? i go about focus of your offices on criminal justice? or civil things as well? >> our focus is to bring the biblical to people that are inside jails and prisons and to bring the same approach to someone who has lost a family member in violence. >> so it says on your mission statement that you provide crime victims and offenders with support to heal. it is clear to us, i think, crime victims need to heal.

you are also saying that criminals, people who committed the crime also need healing. how do you work on that? >> that works because criminals, or anyone who is in jail, most of the time they have been a victim first. >> i have heard that said by experts. let me point this out. i am using the word criminal. i think you refer to people as incarcerated, people in jail, in prison, we are not judging that they committed a crime we are saying this is a situation where the line themselves incarcerated >> correct. and what we attempt to do, this time we speak with the incarcerated. we want to bring the word of god and for them to were allies that they have committed or have harmed all other people. that is the first step for people that we go and visit.

they need to have this encounter with god first, before anything else can happen. >> so you try to awaken the consciousness of the person incarcerated. i have heard this said as well many times that people who commit offenses have been offended against before and they are bringing the anchor they feel into another relationship, where it doesn't belong. how do you meet with them and bring them to realize that kind of thing? >> first, not just anger, it could be trauma. it could be that they have been victimized first. it could be that they have been abused they could have been used. in this process of being harmed themselves first, what we do is bring them together in faith.

our hope is that god will have a relationship and realize they have committed this harm and they are going to recognize that they have hurt somebody. >> it is not the right to hurt someone? god wants more for them? >> yes. we look for an encounter that they find that they have responsibility. it is responsibility for the harm they have caused. that is one of the steps in restorative justice, they need to be responsible to begin the process of healing themselves. i go i would guess that is difficult to do the incarcerated seek you out? what means do you meet them by? >> our goal is first to bring

to them god. it is unknown at what point that we realize they will take responsibility and -- for example we go visit someone for one time and we hope that they meet god somehow and at the time when they have this session they have to be responsible. it could be two years or three years are the same day when we go to meet them and the way we speak with them, they realize, okay. i need to take responsibility. that is a process. >> let's take a break. when we come back we will ask you more about the process by which this happens.

hello and welcome back. we're talking about restoring justice and his practice for the archdiocese of san francisco. i understand you initiate meetings or mediation between offenders and their victims, survivors. you have an agenda for that in which you help open everyone's mind to what their practices. you meet these people through their case manager, parole officer? how does that work? >> we work with partners and the partners are the promotion officers and they referred their cases to social workers or a case manager and at that time is when minor crimes are delegated to me. in other cases this is

preventive. we have different cases and how we use the practice. >> there is a focus on criminal behavior but family applications? >> mediation for families. we may have a family that needs to speak with their son. the relationship is broken and they come to us seeking help mediating the situation they have. it could be the use of drugs or it could be a teenager that needs to behave or is entering to gangs or escaping at night and different situations the families bring. as long as they both agree to come meet with us we can hold the meeting. >> so you have small personal meetings but your department also does activities that i

think involve many partnerships and an educational program as well? >> yes. we work with former incarcerated people. when they come out, how'd do they reenter the community? how are they able to get back to the workforce and so on. so what we do is have a conference and we have many partners that offer opportunities to formally incarcerated people from housing, job readiness and so forth. >> let me ask you a few things. we have some photos to show up some activities and i would like to ask them to run them now so you can let us know what is happening. tell us what we seek in this first set, if you don't mind. >> in this photo we have the observation and myself. we are holding a prayer service

on the street where some one was killed. we held a prayer service. we contacted the family and offered -- we asked if we could come and do a prayer service and they agree. whatever is needed the most is where we need the prayer service. >> you do this regularly. these are on the streets of san francisco reclaiming the spot of the murder and i hope everyone is welcome? >> yes. for every homicide in murray county san francisco and others, we can do a prayer service. we bring up priest and hold the prayer services. >> there are couple in this set of slides that have a different -- >> a photo of your group. >> yes.

we have the missioners of charity from mother teresa and volunteers that belong to the detention ministry. that group goes into the county jails and juvenile facilities and this meeting was -- this photo was from a meeting that we took after we had a meeting at the archdiocese. we had father john q manis in the back. we have different volunteers that participated. >> the next photo is also a group of volunteers? >> this was a delegation of bishops with sister helen. we went to look at the facility and the different aspects of san quentin.

>> in the next set, i believe it is a candlelight vigil for crime survivors? >> we did a prayer service at night. this is a vigil. that is a photo shown there. people are invited to come and do family members. regardless of what has happened we gather. >> this one was in sacramento. it was in the cathedral there. we had a large group of people come for conference and we did a prayer service together. >> the next set shows a young man's funeral. this is a picture of the victim of a crime? >> yes. this was in palo alto. he was killed in a drive-by shooting. we did this prayer service in

east palo alto a few years ago. we do this for every family. >> the next one shows some young men clearly in detention. >> yes. we have detention facilities for youth as young as 10 years old. young people incarcerated. specifically in san francisco. this is a sample of what the facility may look like and for -- because they are under age we can't show actual pictures. this is what it looks like inside of a facility. >> this is a small sample of some of the things you do and i can read a list of the other activities you do. when we come back -- i know you will be asking for volunteers i want to make it clear to people and tell them what kind of skills they should bring to be

volunteers or if you can take people without any special skills. we will talk about that in our next segment. we will be back after this break.

we are talking about the

prospect of justice and a special kind called restorative justice. your ministry does lots of different kinds of activities. prayer, prevention, guidance and you have a list of your recently passed events. you had of recognition awards dinner for those helping you. i see this. explain to me what this is. people are invited to come and understand. i think you would not mind having volunteers. you have the reentry conference and resource fair in september. >> september 7. it is a big conference. what we have is over 40 sessions and services for the people that are coming out of jail and prison. we also have discussions going from different topics where

people can attend. that goes parallel with the people that come in tables. the center directors that offer services to people coming out of jails can come to the table. this is a restorative justice conference. we also invite crime survivors to come to the table so we have both of the same location on the same day and we have people that are formally incarcerated and crime survivors, specifically homicide. you have retreats for families. this comes in october >> yes. we have retreats for formally in car serrated and crime survivors and retreats for families who have somebody in prison. we have a retreat for volunteers as well. >> i wanted to ask about that. i have no experience with

prisons. if i wanted to volunteer, are there opportunities for someone with professional skills, zero skills? what kind of help can you use? >> certainly. our base really is made of volunteers. they can be clergy or laypeople. here, what is important is the time and the heart. no special skills. of course you need to have catholic belief in the faith and bring that with you. that is where we come into church. outside, if you want to help in a retreat or if you want to help in a conference or any event that we have, you don't need to be catholic. you need to have the time and hard to help. >> we talked about this. it seems to me this mediation technique, some of those can be used. you are saying you see, as a

christian, a deeper layer and that is the soul of the person and the love relationship in which we are supposed to dwell with each other and that has been broken or damaged and you are trying to make people aware of that. i think it's really good. in the works of mercy jesus as i was in prison and you came to visit me. i have never quite understood that, frankly. i was thirsty you gave me drink i was naked you clothed me. when i hear about being in prison i always think what does that mean? i was in prison because you belong there and i am not sure about that. i think i have seen more clearly that that is a damaged and broken person who is my brother and i see it in a christian tradition who jesus himself was condemned to death. the christians were not the law- abiding people they were

lawbreakers and imprisoned quite frequently. we have a tradition of being among the prisoners. >> so if you're in prison jesus says when did you come and visit me? that is a question, when? the answer there is that it is when we are called to do this and we are called to do this because when you are in prison, you need somebody to talk to. you need someone that you can share your conscience. you need to be able to say i committed a crime. i need to have someone that i can go back to. and that is in relationship to the question of when and that is when we are called to answer that question and be present and that is how we use the model of being present in the hardest

and most difficult times when people are alone and isolated and to transform themselves and they need a word of encouragement or some direction and that is when we become present in people's lives. >> i saw yesterday you welcomed a group of high school students. they are in town for a week or two. can you tell me what they are doing? >> neighborhoods in action. that is a national entity that has a mission trips for young, catholic teens. the group that we have is from washington. they have come to learn about restorative justice and practice through videos and then the principles we use and they are doing great cards for father's day, mother's day and christmas. >> thank you for being here. anyone who is interested should contact the archdiocese the

restorative justice web site and you can volunteer. thank you for being with us. we will see you on the next mosaic.

fears this morning as thanksgiving travelers return home. the tighter restrictions now in place for one bay area county. every minute we lose money. >> san francisco placed in the purple tier after explosive virus case rates. the businesses now being hit the hardest. >> and disruption for the 49ers. they have been banned from playing at levi stadium, and there are questions about where the team will play next. it is sunday, november 29th. >> let's start with a check of or weather. it is a chilly morning, pretty much the same story as yesterday. we are going to be waking up to cool temperatures, cold in some spots, down into th