learn how abbvie could help you save. hello, in behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to mosaic. justice is an important word, a critical word that speaks to basic human need, a thing we all want to have for ourselves, that we want to see others have as well, when things are right and fair and when the accounts are settled and the jury has declared guilty or innocent, punishment has been in post, we say that looks like justice has been done. we probably would say we want to live in a just society, where justice is possible for all. but what is

the human story behind that word "justice"? we might see that justice is more than a principal on which we hope to act. deeper than discerning wrong and this song on right and leaving it at that. justice involves a human relationship. injustice has been done -- human relationship has been damaged, wounded, and torn and the relationship needs healing. we will talk with a director of the archdiocese in ministry called restorative justice. his mission statement says we provide people affected by crime, victims, and offenders in the community's support to heal. that is through prayer, prevention, intervention, and guidance. after this brief break, we will learn about the meaning of restorative justice and what the archdiocese is doing to teach it and practice it.

welcome to mosaic. let me introduce my colleague, julio escobar. he is your title director of the office of restorative justice ministry. >> yes, i coordinate the ministry named restorative justice. >> you work at the archdiocese, the central office, the -- one, you told me that your ministry

of restorative justice is called ministry. you do not call it an office or a bureau or a program. the second thing you insisted on informing me about this was it is a ministry of presence. help us understand those two things. >> when i say "presence," i mean we need to be present. present when we meet people, how we encounter people, whether it is an offender whether it is a victim. we need to be present and be accompanying the families in the process of their journey in recovery, whether they are on the side of a prisoner or a jail or whether it is a person that has lost a family member in violence. >> as i looked at what you do and your mission statement, which we will get into, it seems like you would know it's

there is a relationship between the offender and the victim and maybe that relationship did not exist before. they did not know each other but now they are in a relationship. that is the part that strikes me. i know nothing except what you're going to tell me, but the relationship is there and it needs some kind of acknowledgment and tending and that is what you let people understand? >> yes, the relationship is there but there needs to be a breach. that brings two parts together. that is where -- when harm has occurred, in particular when there is a crime, so, that bridge needs to be connected by the two people. that is when they both agree. >> it seems to me it is different from sort of our adversarial justice system, where we are used to the idea of the court and two adversaries settling something.

what is different about what restorative justice tries to bring in? >> the current system, what it does is it attempts to separate both. there is no opportunity for the two parties to learn about what happened. restorative justice brings the opportunity. at least they listen to each other about what happened in this crime, in this instance. >> the focus of your office is on criminal justice systems or civil things as well? >> our focus is to bring the biblical restorative justice to people that are inside jails and prisons and to bring the same concept, the same approach, to someone that has lost a family member in violence. >> it says on your mission statement that you provide both

crime victims and offenders with support to heal because it is clear to us, i think, that we think crime victims need to heal, but you're also saying criminals, people who have committed a crime, also need healing. how do you work on that? >> how that works is criminals or anyone that is in jail -- most of the time, they have been a victim first. >> a that said by experts, too. let me point this out. i'm using the word "criminal." in your language, you refer to people as incarcerated, those who are in jail, in prison. we are not judging if they have committed a crime, but saying this is the situation in which they find themselves. they are incarcerated. >> correct. but we attempted to do -- we speak with the incarcerated people and we attempt to bring the word of

god for them to realize that they have committed -- they have harmed other people. that need to have this encounter with god first before anything else can happen. >> you try to awaken the consciousness of the person who is incarcerated? i have heard this said as well many times, that people who commit offenses have been offended against before. they are bringing the anger that they feel into another relationship where it does not belong. how do you meet with them and bring them to realize that kind of thing? >> first of all, it is not just anger, but it could be trauma. it could be that they have been victimized first. it could be they have been abused. maybe

used? in this process of being harmed first , what we do is we bring faith. okay? in the faith, our hope is that god, that they will have a relationship with god first, and through their conscious and realizing they have committed this harm, that they are going to recognize that they have hurt somebody. >> and that it is not their right to hurt someone, that god frowns on that and god wants more for them? >> correct. we look -- we want them to have an encounter that they have responsibility. that is one of the other --

>> to the incarcerated seek you out? >> our goal is first to bring to them god. it is unknown at one point they will realize that they have to take responsibility. for example, we go and visit someone one time and we do not see this person again. our hope is they need god somehow and they will have this real -- this realization that they have to take responsibility. it could be two years or three years or the same day when we meet them in the way we speak with them. they realize, okay, i need to take responsibility. that is a process. >> let's take a break and when we come back, we will ask you more about the process by which this happens.

welcome back. we are talking with escobar about restorative justice and his practice in san francisco. i understand you initiate meetings or mediations between offenders and their victims? survivors and so on -- you have one agenda for that in which you help open everybody's mind to what their practice is. do you meet these people through their case manager, parole officer -- how does that work? >> we work with partners and the correction officers, but also they refer their cases to social workers or a case manager and at that time is

when minor crimes are delegated to me. in other cases, they are preventive -- we have different cases and how we use the practice. >> there is a focus on criminal behavior but also family applications or environmental applications? >> mediations for families. we may have a family that needs to speak with their son, and their relationship is broken, and they come to us seeking help, mediating the situation they have. for example, it could be the use of drugs or it could be a teenager that needs -- is misbehaving and entering gains or they are into violence or escaping at night. different situations that the families bring. as long as they both agree to come and be with us,

then we can hold a meeting. >> so, these meetings, you have small personal meetings, i understand, but your department also does activities i think that involved many partnerships and educational programs as well? >> yeah, so we work with former incarcerated people. when they come out, how do they reintegrate into society? how do they reenter the community? how are they able to go back to the workforce? so on -- what we do is we have a conference and we have many partners that offer opportunities from housing to education to employment and job readiness and so forth. >> these partners are important. let me ask you something. we have some photos to show up some of your activities. i would like to ask them to run them now so you can let us know what is happening in these. tell us what we are seeing in this first set.

>> in this particular photo, we have the archbishop and myself and we are holding a prayer service on the street where the son of this mother was killed and we held a prayer service with the archbishop and we contacted the family and we offered -- we asked if it was okay for us to come and do a prayer service and then they agree and whatever the -- that is where we go into the prayer service. >> you do this regularly? we have photos of three or four different events to show. these are on the streets of san francisco, reclaiming the spot of the murder. everyone is welcome to come to these. >> for every homicide in marion county or san francisco and in san mateo, we do the prayer service. we bring a priest and we hold these prayer services.

>> for the next set of slides, there are different things. >> we have the -- they are volunteers that belong to the detention ministry we go to juvenile facilities. this meeting, these photos were from a meeting that we took after we had one of our meetings of the archdiocese. we had father john her manas in the back and different volunteers that participated. >> in the next photo, there is a group of volunteers in san quentin. >> yes, this was a group of california bishops with sister helen. we went there to look at

death row facilities and the different aspects of san quentin. >> and the next set, i believe, is a candlelight vigil for crime survivors? >> we did a prayer service at night. this is a vigil. that is a photo that is shown there. people are in the community and invited to come and family members -- regardless of what happens, we do that. this one is in sacramento. we had a large, large group of people come for a conference and we did a prayer service together. >> in the next set, it shows a young man's funeral or memorial, i would say. this is the victim of a crime? >> yes, this was in palo alto.

he was killed in a drive-by shooting and we did this prayer service with a father in palo alto a few years ago. we do this for families that are killed. >> they are clearly in detention of some kind right here. >> we have detention facilities for use. they are as young as 10. young people that are incarcerated in specific. this is a sample of what the facility may look like. because they are under age, we are not able to show actual pictures, but this is what it looks like inside of a facility. >> what is a small sample of what you do? i can read a list of other activities you do when we come back in the next

segment. we will also be asking for volunteers. i want to make clear to people -- what kind of skills that should they bring it they will be volunteers or if you can take people without skills. it seems like a special ministry. we would like as many people as possible to be involved. we will talk about that in our next segment. we will be back after this break.

we are talking about the serious prospect of justice in a special kind called restorative justice as practiced by julio escobar. your ministry , as we saw, does many different activities. you have prayer, prevention, guidance, mediation, all kinds of things and you have a list of your recently passed events. you had recognition awards dinner for the community people that help you. coming up, i see that. explain to me what these are. people are invited to come to them. i think you would not mind having volunteers for most of it? >> you have the reentry conference and resource fair in september. >> what is that? >> it is a big conference. what we have is over 40 nonprofit

organizations that offer services for the people that are coming out of jails and prisons for them to reintegrate into society, but we also have -- different topics, where people can attend and that goes parallel with the people that come to the tables. they offer services to people coming out of jails and they can come to the table. because this is a restorative justice conference, we also invite crime survivors, others to come to e ta so that we hae me y, have people that are formally incarcerated and those who are survivors, specifically of homicide. >> and you have retreats for families and friends of prisoners? >> we have retreats for formally incarcerated people and for crime survivors and retreats for families who have somebody in prison. then we have our own retreat for

volunteers. >> i wanted to ask about that. i have no experience with prisons or the criminal justice system, thanks goodness. if i wanted to volunteer, is there how -- can use help if you do not have any skills? >> our ministry base really is made of volunteers. whether they are clergy or laypeople. here, what is important is the time and the heart. no special skill -- of course, you need to have catholic belief. you need to believe in the faith -- that is what we come and share with the people that come into the jails. outside, if you want to help in a retreat or if you want to help in a conference or an event that we have, you do not necessarily have to be catholic. you need to have the time and the heart to to come

and help. >> we talked about this a bit. it seems this kind of mediation techniques -- that can be used in a secular way. >> of course. >> you are saying you see, as a christian, a deeper layer, that is the soul of the person and the love -- how we are supposed to dwell within each other. that has been broken or damaged and you are trying to make people aware of that. i think it is really good. in the -- jesus says , i was imprisoned and you came and visited me. i've never quite understood that, frankly. he said i was hungry and you fed me. i was naked and you clothed me. i was thirsty and you gave me a drink. when i hear that thing about being in prison, i think, well, what does that mean? you're in prison because he belong there and i should visit you? i am not sure about that. but i think i see it more clearly, and that is a damaged, broken person who is my brother and that needs -- i see that

in the christian tradition. of course, jesus himself was a prisoner and condemned to death and for the first 300 years of the church, the christians were not the dimensional, law-abiding people. they were the lawbreakers. we have a long tradition of being among the prisoners. >> so, if you are in prison, jesus says -- when did you come and visit me? that is a question, when? the answer there is 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 exactly your conscience. you need somebody that you can say i committed a crime. i need to have someone that i can go back to. that goes in relation to the question of when. that is when we are called to answer

that question and be present. that is how we use the model of being present in the most difficult times, when people are alone and isolated and wanting to transform themselves and they need maybe a word of encouragement and they need some direction and that is when we become present in people's lives. >> tell me briefly about this. you welcomed a group of high school students from out of town and they are in town for a week or two with you, doing some work. can you tell me 30 seconds what they are doing? >> young neighborhoods in action. they are an entities for catholic teenagers. it is from washington. they have come to learn about restorative justice and the practice from videos and the principles that we use and they are doing grading curves for father's day, mother's day, and christmas for crime survivors

and prisoners. >> i want to urge anyone who is interested to contact the archdiocese of san francisco. you can see his web page. thank you very much for being with us. see you on the next mosaic.

>> especially asian americans come up to me. daughter's and also mothers to say, like, thank you so much for this film . good morning on this sunday, no