A New Mind: Spiritual Healing and Restorative Justice

Anuar Velazquez and Jerry Elster sat down with our host, Martin Friedman, to share their thoughts on restorative justice in the American prison system. Anuar is a former police officer and Jerry was formerly incarcerated. Jerry begins by sharing that restorative justice started within himself and progressed into building, maintaining, establishing, and mending relationships. Jerry realized that he brought harm to his community when he committed his crime, and that was a relationship he needed to mend to heal. Anuar also thinks relationships are crucial to restore justice in America’s criminal justice system. When Anuar was a police officer he felt like he was participating in restorative justice the most when he was building relationships in the communities he grew up in. The three men go on to discuss how restorative justice is reconnecting with humanity. We are socialized to believe that our titles are more important than our vulnerability and honesty. Jerry shares how he judged everyone in the justice system by their title and this caused him to realize he didn’t have the ability to see the humanity in others. To build and maintain relationships within our communities we must learn to look beyond labels, titles, and identities.

Show Notes 

• 2:14 Jerry Elster shares his experience in the criminal justice system
• 5:19 Jerry shares how looking within himself changed his view on restorative justice
• 8:37 Anuar talks about his relationship with restorative justice as a former police officer
• 11:19 Martin shares his thoughts on restorative justice as a racial equity worker
• 15:08 Jerry reacts to Anuar and Martin’s definitions of restorative justice
• 17:50 Anuar talks about how restorative justice also restores humanity 
• 19:12 Martin asks Anuar and Jerry to share how to be accountable when restoring justice
• 29:44 Martin talks about how society has to take accountability in restorative justice
• 33:35 Jerry talks about taking accountability in patriarchy
• 37:30 Anuar explores how accountability can be weaponized in restorative justice
• 41:19 Martin and Anuar explore how we shape our own reality 
• 42:39 Jerry talks about how we avoid responsibility in restorative justice work
• 46:29 Anuar explains how we can all find a place of connection

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