The Prison Post #24 Katherin Hervey, Artist and Filmmaker of "The Prison Within" documentary

Our guest on our show today is a world changer! On The Prison Post #24 we discuss a host of topics around restorative justice with Katherin Hervey! Katherin is an artist and filmmaker whose work focuses on those of us who live in the margins but refuse to be marginalized. She is interested in what is hiding in the dark crevices and corners of the American landscape and our collective psyches, believing truth is often found in the dark before it shines in the light.

Katherin was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of "Shades of Contradiction", a nationally distributed arts and culture magazine dedicated to critical thinking and creative action. She has produced, directed and art-directed short documentary and narrative films, including "The Cocktail Waitress" for KCTS/PBS broadcast. THE PRISON WITHIN, her award-winning first feature film, sprung from her work as a Los Angeles Public Defender and volunteer prison college instructor, where she worked weekly with men who had committed serious acts of violence and had been sentenced to die in prison. Unredeemable in the eyes of the law, she saw the exact opposite and sought to create a film that captured the complexity of the people locked behind bars, in stark contrast to the dominant black and white depiction of victims, prisoners, and those we label as "criminals". Katherin is currently at work on a new film.

Katherin received her Bachelor's degree in Cross-cultural Communication in America from the University of Washington and is a graduate of Vancouver Film School. She also holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School. Her mixed media artworks and creative fiction have been exhibited in galleries and published in online and print literary journals.

The notion that the prison system is broken is nothing new. What’s far more interesting is how to fix it—which is the focus of her award-winning documentary The Prison Within. Directed by Katherin Hervey, the documentary takes viewers inside a unique program at San Quentin Prison focused on restorative justice and transforming the prison system. 

During meetings of the San Quentin Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG), the incarcerated and survivors come together in a restorative justice program that encourages the incarcerated to see how the trauma they’ve experienced contributed to their criminality and helps them understand the impact of their crimes on those they victimized. 

I would like to invite you to watch The Prison Within, which can be found here: https://vimeo.com/355387389 Katherin Hervey, speaks nationally on prison reform, restorative justice, and the ideas central to the film – hurt people hurt people, intergenerational trauma, unpacking trauma as the path to personal and collective healing, and more. #CROPOrganization #ThePrisonPostPodcast #RestoringLivesandHealingCommunities

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