Celebrate with us on October 8 at GRIP Honors!
Turning violence and suffering into learning and healing
The GRIP Training Institute is a California-based nonprofit organization transforming lives—and the criminal legal system—from the inside out. Our work begins inside prisons, where we offer a year-long, trauma-informed program called Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) that equips incarcerated people with the tools and inner capacities to become peacemakers.
How We Heal
Being a member of a GRIP Tribe is an essential part of the program. Each member is trusted and valued as an integral member of their Tribe. In this bonding process, a unique learning environment emerges and deep healing takes place. In the program, incarcerated students learn to:
Cultivate Mindfulness
Mindfulness helps students shift from impulsive reactions to thoughtful responses, cultivating inner resources to build resilience and stress-management skills.
Develop Emotional Intelligence
Learning how to heal past traumas from the past helps regulate and manage strong emotions in the present, opening space for healthy relationships.
Stop Violent Behavior
Building a toolbox of skills that question belief in thoughts that justify harm undoes the roots of antisocial behavior, cultivating inner freedom and mutual respect.
Understand Impact on Victims/Survivors
Facing the impact of harm builds empathy and intrinsic motivation for prosocial change, and opens potential dialogues that foster healing and peace.
A Program for Transformative Change
Most incarcerated people have experienced extraordinary abuse, violence, and trauma in their early lives. The culture of GRIP honors and acknowledges the humanity of all participants, as well as the unique path that each student takes to build resilience and heal their own particular wounds. It is only through this kind of compassionate and restorative approach that true accountability and empathy emerge.
Read Peacemaker Magazine
A major project from our community inside and outside, showing just how true it is that “Nobody Does Time Alone.” Explore stories, poems, and art from over 30 contributors of the GRIP community. Get your copy today!
GRIP by the Numbers
Since our first GRIP tribe in 2012 at San Quentin, we’ve expanded to six more institutions in California, including, for the first time, a women’s prison in 2023. Since GRIP’s inception, over 1,700 students have graduated, and over 800 have been released. Only a few students have returned to prison, giving us a recidivism rate of less than 2%—dramatically lower than the overall US rate of over 60%—and saving California taxpayers over $680 million.
Reentry Success Rate
Returned Home
Years Earlier Back Home
Facilitators Trained
Savings to Taxpayers
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