Healing Trauma dives into the inner struggle of former gang members whose abusive childhoods inevitably lead to an anger that resulted in a criminal lifestyle and landed them in prison. Upon their release, these former gang members found their redemption with Homeboy Industries, Father Greg Boyle, and the many re-integrating programs offered through the Los Angeles-based organization.
Healing Trauma follows the transformative stories of some of these former gang members as they share their childhood mental and physical abuse, growing up in the gang lifestyle, and the hope they now have through the healing power of therapy.
Sentencing justice means addressing the underlying systems that have created mass incarceration. Without sentencing justice, people – primarily poor people of color – will continue to be locked up and released in a vicious cycle that fails to address the root causes of systemic issues such as trauma, poverty, and racism.
This is the third film in Brave New Films’ Sentencing Reform series. The series features locally-led organizations that are working to end generational trauma through education, community-based services, employment and therapy. The need for sentencing justice highlights every personal story in the series; it’s a vital need so that the cycle of recidivism can finally stop.