Jim Sutton is a mentor, speaker, and writer for the cause of justice. Jim serves a spectrum of people who are justice-impacted. He identifies with prisoners, victims, returning-citizens, and law authorities, in context of family and community.
Jim is foremost distinguished on the basis of his life experiences. Jim was convicted of crimes in the early 1970s, reflecting a crime-spree when he was eighteen to twenty years old. Jim’s life continues through an array of rich and challenging experiences that are uniquely American.
As Jim sees it, people who are justice-impacted include victims and perpetrators of crime (especially in the context of restorative justice), those lost or failed within the system (including those subjected to inhumane prison conditions), and those seeking to return and live as free citizens.
Jim provides unique perspective in the course of helping people. Since his late teenage escapade, starting with his prison experience, Jim has lived a productive life. He is intimately aware of the long-term psychological effects of trauma, and the associated social dynamics and expectations as effect returning citizens. He holds experience-based opinion on the system’s tendency to punish beyond the point of someone having “done the right things” and/or “paid the price”.
Jim recognizes the state of our nation has eroded efforts to define and secure justice, and made more urgent the cause. Hence, he advocates at the transactional and systemic levels. His value proposition is most evident in the course of mentoring, with sensitivity to peoples’ inner fitness. He recognizes the criticality of peoples’ emotional well-being, and that negligence in this regard has left too many struggling and without viable means to improve themselves.
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