Guiding Rage into Power: From Prisoners to Peacemakers

Ep. 160 (Part 1 of 2) | In this profoundly moving and inspiring conversation, GRIP Training Institute CEO, Kim Moore, and facilitator/trainer Fateen Jackson, Sr., also a GRIP graduate, educate us as to the power and magic of the GRIP prison movement, based on Jacques Verduin’s model: Leaving Prison Before You Get Out. This yearlong trauma healing and accountability program is unique in the degree of radical transformation it aims for—and delivers. It is about freeing minds, and as Kim points out, goes beyond the duality of teacher/student, inmate/not inmate, victim/offender to where everyone joins in a mutual journey of healing, transformation, and liberation.The program is so transformative that ripple effects from GRIP students can be felt throughout the prison, and GRIP graduates often struggle with how little emotional intelligence and trauma healing work the rest of us have done when they get out.

Kim and Fateen shine a bright light on the inestimable value of a caring, compassionate community, pointing out that deep personal transformation and taking responsibility doesn’t happen in isolation. They share illuminating stories of their own experiences, and the dedication and gladness they exude in this talk is itself impactful and inspiring. There is something in this conversation, maybe because it touches our deepest brokenness and then lifts it up and redeems it, that reaches right into one’s heart and infuses it with inspiration, hope, compassion, and love. Recorded November 21, 2024.

“The wisdom that is born in these groups goes way beyond prison.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

• Introducing GRIP CEO Kim Moore, facilitator/trainer Fateen Jackson, and the remarkable program Guiding Rage into Power (01:15)
• How did Kim come to have a life purpose of facilitating transformation? (04:06)
• Moving out of privilege into direct relationship with the realities of criminal justice (06:25)
• Fateen’s story and how GRIP allowed him to source the trauma that led to prison and transform it (09:19)
• The morning Fateen was released and the ripple effects of GRIP (16:03)
• 4 foundations of GRIP: cultivating mindfulness, developing emotional intelligence, doing no harm, understanding victim & survivor impact (19:39)
• The importance of building a safe container and building trust (20:52)
• GRIP assignments: the unfinished business letter, apology to the victims letter, and more (22:18)
• The emotional/energetic arc the group goes through, ending with a deep sense of empathy for the survivors or victims (25:33)
• What is the power and the magic of GRIP? 1) instruction, 2) practice/tools, 3) processing (28:36)
• The incredible power of a healing community (30:07)
• Leaving prison mentally, emotionally, spiritually can happen even while still in prison, without hope of release (30:55) 
• The healing itself is the reward—that’s where the freedom comes from (32:12) 
• How GRIP students affect the rest of the prison: flipping the culture of the yard (33:20)
• Becoming peacemakers: taking responsibility for your own healing doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in community (34:39)
• What happens when you get out of prison? (36:22)
• Recidivism and Fateen’s story of looking for a job (37:46)
• GRIP’s reentry support for prisoners who are released (42:50)
• The extraordinarily low 1.7% recidivism rate of GRIP students (46:28)

Resources & References – Part 1

• Guiding Rage into Power program, the GRIP Training Institute (where you can watch a moving and impactful short video of a group in process)
• Jacques Verduin, founder of GRIP, Leaving Prison Before You Get Out: A Transformational Healing Journey for Incarcerated People to Learn How to Guide Their Rage Into Power (GRIP)
• john a. powell, director of The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, advancing groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality
• MC Hammer, Pray (Just to Make it Today), YouTube music video

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Kim Moore has spent more than two decades working to make the San Francisco Bay Area a more just and equitable community through her work as a community organizer on issues of affordable housing, healthcare, immigration, violence prevention, and criminal justice reform. She has dedicated the last eight years to The GRIP Training Institute, a restorative justice organization serving hundreds of incarcerated individuals across seven California prisons, where she serves as Executive Director, and the entirety of her career to advancing justice and building a Beloved Community. A strong believer in the principle, “The first revolution is internal,” Kim considers meditation and the Dharma the foundation of her work for justice in the community. Kim is also a Buddhist chaplain in the Theravada tradition, and holds degrees in anthropology from Stanford University and Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

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Fateen Jackson, Sr, is from Long Beach, California, and currently resides in Northern California. Fateen completed the GRIP program as a student while still in San Quentin, in 2013. After graduation, he went on to facilitate several groups while still inside. He performed a spoken word piece called the Apologetic Salute, at a TEDx event, which was held at San Quentin in 2016. The spoken word piece was dedicated to the people who have suffered violence at the hands of another person. Fateen regained his freedom in 2019 after former governor Jerry Brown commuted his sentence. He joined the GRIP staff the same year, and is now a Senior Facilitator as well as the Senior Facilitator Trainer/Coordinator for the GRIP organization. He goes inside several institutions to deliver the GRIP program and to train people in the work.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell