Center for Restorative Justice Works

09/02/2026

Mark your calendars — sign-ups for our 2027 Get on the Bus season starts next week!

📍 First up: Avenal State Prison (ASP)
📅 Wednesday, September 9, 2026

If you know a family with a loved one at ASP, help us spread the word and encourage them to sign up for the chance to reconnect with the people they love.

We'll be posting sign-up details for each event, so follow along here to make sure you don't miss yours.

Tag a family member or friend who needs to see this. 💛

08/21/2026

That's a wrap on our 2026 Get On The Bus season!

Since April, our program has kept families connected in 14 California state prisons, from Calipatria State Prison in the south to Pelican Bay, nearly 400 miles north. Every mile of it happened because of a community that showed up: volunteers who arrived before sunrise, donors who kept the Monthly Giving Circle going, and staff who made sure our families were well cared for.

We watched reunions happen in visiting rooms across the state. We watched kids fall asleep on the ride home holding a photo they'll keep forever. We watched families remember, for one more year, that they belong together.

Thank you for making this season possible.

The bus is parked for now, but the work isn't. Our other programs, Women of Wisdom and Transition4Success, keep going year-round, and planning for our 2027 Get On The Bus season starts now. If you'd like to help us build next year's season, join our Monthly Giving Circle at crjw.org.

Thank you for a season we won't forget. 💜

08/20/2026

Last week, Liz, our Exec. Director, took a nice drive out to Palm Springs to meet up with our co-founder, Sister Suzanne. Every couple of months they connect in person to share updates and swap stories, making sure the heart behind this work never gets lost in the day-to-day.

25 years ago, Sister Suzanne Jabro, CSJ founded our program Get On The Bus with a simple belief: families belong together. We are grateful for Sister Suzanne, and her simple and loving intention that has transformed the lives of so many.

08/18/2026

You may know us for Get On The Bus but that's just one of the ways CRJW shows up for families touched by incarceration.

Meet the Women of Wisdom: community members who visit incarcerated women monthly. They share conversations, ideas, and healing, and most importantly, the reminder that someone on the outside is paying attention.

It's community in practice. Built on the belief that walls shouldn't mean invisibility, and that real change happens when people on both sides of them are in relationship with each other.

For the women they visit, Women of Wisdom is sometimes the only consistent visitor they have. For the volunteers, it's a humbling, heart-changing experience.

Want to learn more or get involved? Visit crjw.org

08/14/2026

Summer looks different when a parent is incarcerated. No road trips. No pool days together.

Join our Monthly Giving Circle to make visits possible. For 2.7 million children in America with an incarcerated parent, summer might be another long stretch between the last time they got to be in the same room as their Mom or Dad.

Get On The Bus exists to make those stretches shorter. To give families a day, or two, to be together. To eat a meal, take photos, play games and hug each other as hard as possible. Your generosity every month goes toward supporting these families.

We are winding down to the end of this Get On The Bus season and have already started planning for next year.

Every seat matters. Your gift is important.

Visit crjw.org/monthly-giving

08/10/2026

Julio is painting a worry doll. A tiny wooden figure kids can hand their biggest feelings to before bed, so they can feel a little less alone and their incarcerated parent can too.

For a child whose parent is incarcerated, there's a lot to worry about: whether Mom or Dad is okay, whether the next visit will really happen, whether it's okay to feel happy on an ordinary Tuesday.

Get On The Bus hosts one visit per participating prison at a time. But the children we serve carry these feelings every single day. That's why our team builds in activities like this. It is a small, simple way to help kids process what they're feeling.

08/04/2026

Some visits take longer to reach than others.

On August 8–9, Get On The Bus heads to Pelican Bay State Prison, the most remote facility on our visit schedule, sitting at the very top of California, near the Oregon border. For families making this trip, distance has always been one of the biggest barriers to staying close to their loved one.

We are so grateful we can help make these connections possible, because no matter how many miles stand between a parent and their child, we believe that bond is worth the drive. And ask any of our volunteers, they'll tell you the same thing. However far it is, they're happy to go the distance, every single time.

This trip is the last scheduled visit of our 2026 season, and it wouldn't have happened without the donors, volunteers, and staff who showed up for every mile of it, all year long. Thank you for making this season possible.

For some of the families on this bus, it's the only visit they'll have all year.

07/30/2026

We recently received this testimonial from a Chaplain who spent eleven years at High Desert State Prison and witnessed firsthand the impact of our program on the men inside. We are so grateful that we get to do this work and help keep families connected. Connection changes everything.

07/29/2026

07/21/2026

Every visit made possible. Every family supported. Every program that keeps running, it's because of you.

From the volunteers who ride with Get On The Bus, to the volunteers who show up for Women of Wisdom, to everyone hosting fundraisers, packing bags, making calls, and doing the quiet work behind the scenes, thank you.

You are helping families stay connected, and that matters more than words can say.

From all of us at CRJW, thank you for being part of this mission. 💜