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hello and on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to "mosaic". justice is an important word. a critical word. it speaks to a basic human need and names a thing we want to have for ourselves and we want to see others have. when things are right and fair, the jury declared guilty or innocent, a punishment has been imposed, we say that looks like justice has been done. and we would say we want to live in a just society, which justice is possible for all. but what is the human story behind that were justice? looking deeper we might see that justice is more than a principal on which we hope to act, deeper than discerning wrong or right and leaving it at that. justice involves a human relationship. when an injustice has been done a human relationship has been wounded, damaged and torn. that

relationship needs healing. today we will talk with the director of the archdiocese in ministry called restorative justice. as his mission statement says, we provide people affected by crime, victim's, and offenders, within our communities, support to heal through prayer, prevention, intervention and guidance. stay with us and after this brief break we will learn about the meaning of restorative justice in which the arch the sizes -- and ways in which the archdiocese is teaching it and practicing it.

hello and welcome to "mosaic". let me introduce my colleague , julio. is your tighter director of the office of restorative justice ministry? >> i coordinate the ministry named restorative justice. >> you work at the chancellery office? and you told me a couple of things. one is, your ministry of restorative justice is called ministry, you don't call it a office, a bureau or program. the second thing you insisted on informing me about was it is a ministry of presence. help us understand is two things. >> when i say presence, i

mean we need to be present. when we meet people. when we have an account or with people. whether an offender or a victim, we need to be present and accompanying the families in the process of their journey , in recovery whether they are inside a prison or jail or whether a person that has lost a family member in violence. >> as i looked at what you do and your mission statement, it does seem that you acknowledge there is a relationship between the offender and the victim , and maybe the relationship did not exist before and they did not know each other but now they are in a relationship. that is the part that strikes me. i know nothing about this except what you will tell us. the relationship is there and it needs some kind of acknowledgment and tending and that is what you let people understand. >> the relationship is there

but there needs to be a bridge that brings the two parts together and that is what restorative justice is all about . when harm has occurred and in particular when there was a crime. that bridge needs to be connected by the two people when they both agree. >> it seems to me that it seems to be different from our adversarial justice system. we are used to the idea of the court and two adversaries settling something. what is different about what restorative justice tries to bring into it? >> the current system, what it does, it attempts to separate both. so there is no -- there is an opportunity for the two parties to learn about what happened. restorative justice brings that opportunity. at

least, listen to each other , what happened in these instances in this crime. >> your focus of your office is the criminal justice system , 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 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, that crime victims need to heal but you are saying that 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 . >> i have heard that said by experts. let me point this out. i am using the word criminal. i think in your language you referred to people as incarcerated pete --. they are incarcerated . were not judging whether they commit a crime. this is the situation in which they find themselves. incarcerated. >> what we attempt to do, we spend with incarcerated people, we attempt to bring the word of god for them to realize that they have committed or they have harmed other people. and that is the first step for people that we go and visit. that they need to have this encounter with god first, before anything else can happen. >> so you try to awaken the consciousness of the person who

is incarcerated. i heard this said many times, 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? >> it is not just under, it could be trauma. it could be that they had been victimized first. it could be they had been abused. or used. and in this process of being harmed themselves first , what we do is we bring the faith. in the faith, our hope is that god, they will have a relationship with god first. and realizing they committed this harm, they are going to recognize that

they have heard somebody. >> it is not their right to hurt someone. god frowns on that. god wants more for them. >> correct . will be look for is , in the encounter, that they find they have responsibility. for the harm they have caused. that is one of the other steps in restorative justice, they need to be responsible , in order for them to begin the process of healing themselves. >> i guess that is difficult. do the incarcerated seek you out? what is the means by which you meet them? >> our goal is to first bring to them, god. and it is unknown at what point that we realize that they have to take

responsibility. to be, for example, when we visit one time and we don't see this person again. our hope is that they meet god somehow and by the time they have's realization, they have taken responsibility. it could be two years or three years or it could be the same day. will we meet them in the way we speak with them. they realize , i need to take responsibility. and that is a process. >> let's take a break. when we come back we will ask about the process by which this happens.

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so please help us fight in this battle against cancer. welcome back. we are talking with julio about restorative justice and his practice for the archdiocese of san francisco. i understand that you initiate meetings or

mediations between offenders and their victims. survivors and so on. and you have an agenda for which you help open everybody's mind to what their practices. do you meet these people through their case manager, parole officer, how does that work ? >> we work with partners. the probation department and probation officers but also they were further cases to a social worker. or a case manager. and that time is when minor crimes are delegated to me. in other cases, they are preventative. we have different cases and how we use the practice . >> there is a fat -- focus on criminal behaviors 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. it could be the use of drugs or it could be a teenager that is misbehaving and entering into gangs or violence. or escaping at night. different situations that the families bring. as long as they both agreed to come and meet with us, we can hold a meeting. >> these personal meetings, you have small, personal meetings . your department also does activities that i think involve many partnerships and sort of an educational program . >> we work with former incarcerated people. when they come out, how did they reintegrate into society. how did they reenter the community

? how are they able to get back to the workforce ? and so warm. what we do is we have a conference and we have many partners that offer opportunities to former incarcerated people to housing to education to employment to job worthiness and so forth. >> let me ask you a few things. we have some photos to show of some of your activities and i would ask them to run them so you can let us know what is happening in these. tell us what we're seeing in this first set. >> in these particular photo we have the archbishop and myself and we are holding a prayer service on the streets where the son of this mother was killed. and we held a prayer service with the archbishop and we contacted the family and we asked if it is okay for us

to do a prayer service and they agree. this is where we do the prayer service. >> you do this regularly. we have photos of several events to show. these are on the streets of san francisco. reclaiming the spot of the murder. everyone is welcome to come. >> for every homicide in marin county, san francisco and san mateo, we do the prayer service for every homicide. we bring a priest and we hold these prayer services. >> let me ask for the next set of slides. this is a photo of your group of volunteers . who are they? >> we have the missionaries from the charity of mother teresa. we have volunteers that belong to the detention ministry. the group that goes

into county jails and juvenile facilities. this meeting , this photo was from a meeting the we took after we had one of our meetings at the archdiocese. we have father john in the back and different volunteers that participate . >> the next photo, is a group of volunteers . >> this is san quentin prison. this was a delegation of california bishops. with sister helen. planned we went there to look at the devereaux facility and the different aspects of san quentin. >> the next set i believe is a candlelight vigil for crime survivors. >> we did a prayer service at night and this is a vigil and that is a photo that is shown

and people are invited to come and family members. regardless of what happened, we do this. >> you are gathered in a church in this next photo. >> this was in sacramento. at the cathedral. we had a large group of people come for a conference and we did a prayer service together. >> the next set shows a young man's funeral, a memorial, i would say. this is a picture of a victim of a crime. >> this was in east palo alto. and he was killed in a drive-by shooting. and we did this prayer service in east palo alto. a few years ago. we do this for every family that is killed. >> this next one shows young men who are in detention of some kind. >> we have detention facilities

for youth. i have seen as young as 10 years old, young people incarcerated. specifically in san francisco. this is a sample of what the facility may look like. because they are under age and we cannot show actual pictures but this is what it looks like inside of the facility. >> this is a small sample of something to do. i can read a list of other activities you do. when we come back. i know you will be asking for volunteers. i want to make clear to people that , tell them what kind of skills they should bring if they're going to volunteer. you could take people without particular special skills. it seems like a special ministry. we will talk about that in our next segment. we will be back after this break.

we are talking about very serious prospect of justice in a special kind called restorative justice as practiced by julio. your restorative justice ministry does lots of different activities. prayer, prevention, guidance, mediation, all kinds of things. you have a list of your recently past events, you had your recognition awards dinner for the community people that help you. coming up , i see

this. explain to me what these are. people are invited to come to them and understand what they are doing and he would not mind having volunteers for most of these. you have the reentry there in september. >> september 7th. it is a big conference. what we have is over 40 nonprofit organizations offer services for people coming out of jails and prisons for them to reintegrate into society. but we also have 10 panel discussions going from different topics . where people can attend. that goes parallel with the people that come to the tables. they offer services to people , coming out of jails can come to a table. because this is a restorative justice conference, we also invite crime survivors, to come . so we have both at the

same location. the same day. we have people that are formerly incarcerated and people that are crime survivors, specifically homicide. >> building relationships. you have or treats for families . >> we have retreats for formerly incarcerated people, for crime survivors, for families to have somebody in prison. and we have a retreat for volunteers. >> i want to ask about that. i have no experience with the prison or criminal justice system, thank goodness, i guess . are there opportunities for someone with professional skills, zero skills, just a good-natured? >> our ministry base is really made of volunteers. whether they are kludgy or laypeople. -- clarity or laypeople. here is time or hard. no special skill. you

need to have the catholic belief in the faith. with you. that is what we come and share when we 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 we have, you don't necessarily have to be catholic. you need to have the time and the heart to help . >> we talked about this and it seems to me that this kind of mediation techniques, those can be used in a secular way. but 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 is really good. in the corporal works of

mercy, jesus says, i was in prison and you came to visit me. i am never quite understood that, frankly. he said i was hungry and you fed me. i was thirsty and you gave me drink. but always added , when i hear about being in prison, what does that mean? you are in prison because you long -- you belong there? i'm not sure about that. but i see it more clearly. that is a damage, broken person who is my brother . and i see that in the christian tradition. jesus himself was a prisoner and condemned to death and for the first 300 years of the church christians worked with law-abiding people and they were lawbreakers and imprisoned quite frequently. we have a long tradition of being among the prisoners. >> if you are in prison, jesus says, when did you visit me? that is the question . when ? the answer 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 someone that you can say, i committed a crime , i need to have someone that i can go back to. and that goes in relation to the question, when. that is when we are called to answer the question and be present. that is how we use the motto of being present. in the hardest and most difficult times when people are alone and isolated. and wanting to transform themselves and they need may be a word of encouragement, they need some direction. and that is when we become present in people's lives. >> tell me briefly about this. yesterday you welcomed a group of high school students from out of town. they are doing work with you. can you tell me what they are doing? >> neighborhood in action,

young neighborhood in action is a national entity that has mission trips for young, catholic teens. the group that we have is from washington . they have come to learn about restorative justice and the practice through videos and the principles that we use. and they are doing greeting cards for father's day, mother's day, and christmas for prisoners as well as crime survivors. >> thank you for being here. i want to urge everyone who is interested to contact the archdiocese of san francisco. leaders restorative justice webpage and volunteer. thank you for being with us. see you on the next "mosaic".

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