GRIP Training Institute
Advocacy & Re-Entry
Vision
GRIP’s activism comes from a unique place: we have earned our opinion through working intensively with incarcerated people in prison. Our methodology empowers the incarcerated to take charge of their lives to heal the formative traumas that led them to break the law. When an incarcerated person has done the personal transformation work that is facilitated in GRIP, they can effectively join the social movement that actively calls for a more compassionate, humane, and restorative justice system.
GRIP Training Institute considers it vital to engage in activism that offers something to be for, not just against. We envision building a movement of people rolling up their sleeves and going to work in the trenches to help transform and welcome back those who have been deemed unfit for society, who have been forsaken. With a curriculum that was developed from working with thousands of incarcerated people and many of their victims, we can empower those who have harmed others – and those who have been harmed – to overhaul those systemic inequalities of the justice system that perpetuate suffering.
The Transformative In-Prison Workgroup
The TPW is a statewide group of individuals and organizations that believe in the transformative and healing power of in-prison programs. The TPW was started because of the belief that we are more powerful together than in isolation. In-prison program providers face common challenges including isolation, burn-out, resource scarcity, barriers to facility access, and lack of representation in decision-making meetings. Individuals who have been incarcerated and families affected by incarceration face similar challenges, which create barriers to fully engaging in and leading these programs. The TPW fosters an environment to break isolation, share ideas, and build political power to have statewide influence.
GRIP’s founder, Jacques Verduin, was instrumental in getting this initiative started with an initial lobbying effort to promote quality in-prison programming. In 2014 he brought a presentation team to a meeting of the California Legislature’s Public Safety and Budget committees. This team included both a victim and a former life-sentenced prisoner and resulted in the CA Legislature’s support for experienced, in-prison rehabilitation programs provided by community based organizations across the board. On an annual basis, funds ($2.5 million, initially) were put aside through the ‘Innovative Grants Initiative,’ with a focus on underserved, life sentenced incarcerated populations with a restorative justice perspective. Grant amounts have increased to an estimated total of $30 million since 2015. TPW was formed to coordinate communications between the correctional department and the non-profit organizations providing their services through these grants. GRIP remains supportive of the development of TPW, an ecosystem of community based healing and transformative in-prison programming.
WHAT WE ARE DOING IN RESPONSE TO THIS MOMENT
This moment in time heralds a departure from punitive and retributive justice to one of restorative and transformative justice throughout all corners of our society. The current mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis in California’s prisons has shown the devastation brought about by a blatant disregard for human rights. As is the case across the country, this virus is impacting Black and Brown people to a much greater degree than others. Hundreds of our GRIP graduates and students are incarcerated in these prisons. Too many have gotten sick; too many have died.
URGENT SUPPORT
In May, we provided materials so our incarcerated facilitators could make thousands of cloth masks (before they were widely available inside). We collaborated with organizations including the Insight Garden Program and Prison University Project to get 4,000 medical-grade masks – and a new sewing machine! – into Avenal State Prison at the height of the outbreak there.
Our staff have done gate pick-ups for paroling graduates who needed help getting to a transitional home to quarantine, and along with the Ahimsa Collective, helped create the Mutual Aid and Restorative Justice platform that pairs volunteers with justice-impacted people in need.
EARNED RELEASE
We must rapidly address the ongoing COVID-19 situation in prisons through enhanced early release while working toward long-term transformation of the system itself. At GRIP we are refocusing and increasing staff time to address this urgent need.
To save the lives of some of society’s most vulnerable, public health experts have said a 50% reduction of current prison capacity is needed. To get close to this target, many more people need to be released. This can be done through early release for those who are nearing the end of their sentences, and compassionate release of those over age 59 or with health issues potentially complicated by COVID-19.
To achieve the goal, however, we coined a term to describe the need for what we call “earned release.” We are specifically advocating for the release of those with life sentences who have already served the minimum of their time, and who have demonstrated commitment to turning their lives around. GRIP is making “earned releases” our priority. Most of the prisoners in the GRIP Program are level II violent offenders who were sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Their recidivism rate is below 3% in general, and for GRIP graduates, the overall recidivism rate is 0.3%.
ADVOCACY
We’re staying in close touch and providing a lifeline for our 400+ students and sharing their concerns – along with the concerns of survivors and family members – with decision-makers and media.
For those who have been released after years of incarceration and are just now entering a very chaotic, pandemic environment, we’ve been able to offer donors’ support through cash cards to help cover immediate needs.