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New series by UW alum explores restorative justice

'94 graduate directs and executive produces CNN series that unites victims and offenders.

by Aaron R. Conklin May 1, 2019
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The mother sits in a chair, just a few feet away from the man who set her son up to be robbed and murdered. Looking him directly in the eye, she gently exhorts him to change his life and leave his heroin habit behind. His lips pursed, he nods at her, tears rimming his eyes. 

It’s a raw, powerful moment. This is restorative justice, as seen through the lens of “The Redemption Project with Van Jones,” an eight-episode weekly TV series that began airing on CNN last weekend. One of the executive producers and the director of the show is Jason Cohen, a 1994 UW-Madison journalism and communications arts graduate whose work includes feature films and documentaries.  

The project found its genesis in “Facing Fear,” an Academy-Award-nominated short film Cohen created in 2014.  That film told the story of forgiveness between a former neo-Nazi and the gay victim he attacked 25 years ago.  

“In making that film, I was introduced to the idea of restorative justice, and what that looked like,” says Cohen, who lives in Berkeley, Ca. “I saw the reception ‘Facing Fear’ got and wanted to find a way to tell more stories.” 

Jason Cohen

Restorative justice programs are far from the norm for most states, though interest is rising nationwide as part of a larger discussion on prison reform. California, where three of the eight stories featured in “The Redemption Project with Van Jones” take place, is among the leaders in incorporating it into the state criminal justice system. The series’ first episode takes place in Alaska, with others taking place in Indiana and Louisiana. The fourth episode, set to air on May 26, is set in Wisconsin.

“You’re basically a fly on the wall for the most intimate moment of these people’s lives,” says Cohen.“It’s heart-wrenching when a victim’s mother is face-to-face with the person responsible for killing their loved one. In another sense, we also have to put on our production and director hats and put the story on the screen. We have to keep the distance of being a filmmaker.”

Not surprisingly, the victim must be the one to initiate the restorative justice procedure.  

“It is so individualistic,” says Cohen of the eight vignettes. “Some victims are looking for answers or healing. Some want to form a bond. These dialogues are not about forgiveness, although that sometimes becomes an outcome.”

Cohen, along with production company Citizen Jones, partnered with UW-Madison professor Jonathan Scharrer, the director of the Restorative Justice Project at the Law School, as well as two of Scharrer’s students, to help with one episode that tells the Wisconsin story. Several scenes were filmed in Madison. Cohen turned to Erik Gunneson, a professor in the Department of Communication Arts, to help him hire a pair of since-graduated UW students, Harrison Cope and Christian Cuevas, to work as production assistants on the project.

Van Jones, right, interviews one of the victims, a mother whose son was slain in a drug deal/robbery. Image courtesy of CNN..

The Wisconsin episode focuses on a 2013 incident in which a teen was killed by a driver high on heroin. The teen’s mother initiated the restorative justice process, meeting with the offender in person in Deerfield, Wis. last year.

“Of the eight episodes, that is one of the most emotional,” says Cohen. “There’s not complete closure at the end of the show.”

Cohen says Jones, the series’ avatar and host, has a long history of activism, including a deep interest in prison reform. He was involved in the First Step Act, one of the few pieces of bipartisan legislation to pass Congress in the last year. The law includes improvements to prison conditions and programs aimed at reducing recidivism. 

“We’ve made a serious effort to give equal time to the victim and the offender in these stories,” says Cohen, who also notes that the stories feature a wide range of ethnic diversity. “This series is definitely a two-way street. We want it to be something that opens people’s minds. I don’t want to shove anything down people’s throats.”

Over the years, Cohen’s made a point of coming back to UW-Madison to screen his work—he screened “Facing Fear” for students and hopes to screen “The Redemption Project with Van Jones” here as well.  

“I lived in Vilas Hall,” he recalls of his time in Madison. “I took every production class I could. I made documentaries with [journalism professor] Lew Friedland.  A lot of what I learned there was critical thinking. And that’s what my career has been about—putting that on the screen.”