By Jacob Jones

Published in The Inlander on November 19, 2014

Excerpt:

“Each story swerves from despair to hope, sometimes several times. As men and women step to the microphone at the Smart Justice Symposium on Saturday, they share troubling testimony of criminal childhoods, institutional injustice, abuse and often redemption.

“But each story eventually reaches a tipping point in which the narrator gets a new chance or embraces a revelation. Every speaker took advantage of treatment and now works with community groups to reform the criminal justice system. The crowd of nearly 300 symposium attendees applauds when the speakers share that they have since left probation, graduated college, or stayed seven years sober.”

Read more: Troubled Tales – Smart Justice works to leverage personal stories into policy reforms