Jesse conceptualized and runs the Beyond Bars campaign to curb mass incarceration.

His work includes strategic planning, producing videos, writing articles, and forging partnerships with groups working to make a positive difference in this field.

Previously a political campaign staffer and communications strategist for progressive causes, his work has covered an array of policy areas including climate change, campaign finance, drug treatment, and funding for social services.

Jesse was also the founding director of Faithful Democrats, a group that worked to reclaim the national values debate from the Religious Right.

He has a master's in public policy from Harvard and a bachelor's in government from Wesleyan University.

You can contact him at jesse [at] bravenewfoundation [dot] org.

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Choctaw Sequoyah Trueblood shares Indigenous Perspectives of Restorative Justice

Sequoyah Trueblood (enrolled with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) has contributed selflessly for many years in Canada, and the United States, and around the world as a role model for healthy leadership, bringing peace and joy to the hearts of many. As a pipe carrier and messenger of peace and with an "off the grid" style in his work he offers something most have never experienced: the genuine guidance of a supportive, profoundly inspired and diversely experienced Elder. His consistent ability to touch wounded hearts and sooth troubled minds with compassion and wisdom has endeared Sequoyah to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike. He has a varied background in leadership capacities within Indigenous peoples contexts as well as Western institutions including the U.S. Army, World Bank, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Harvard University Program for Extraordinary Experience Research, and Correction Facilities across North America. Paramount in his work is always placing the needs of the young people first. Currently he spends most of his summers living from the Kankurwa Medicine Lodge (Place of Peace) at Cross River Wilderness Centre in the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia.

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by Molly Rowan Leach, Huffington Post, February 21st, 2013
A moment in time that nobody expected: the marriage of a football stadium and naming rights with for-profit private prison industry the GEO Group. At this writing, a huge wave of utter discontent and amazement that something like this would ever occur is making waves across the internet and was featured recently in the New York Times.

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Tonight's weekly edition of Restorative Justice on The Rise features a courageous advocate for RJ, Therese Bartholomew, Director of The Final Gift and of the Restorative Justice Initiative.

Her brother, Steve, was murdered a decade ago and she openly shares via the film, and her life, the journey she has taken in the aftermath of her brother's death