Empathy in Action

10/02/2026

October is FULL at the Transformative Justice Center! 💙

Our latest newsletter is out, and there are so many ways to connect with us this month—from film and art to music, healing, community, and our work inside CTF Soledad.

🎬 Oct. 10 — Going Inside: Empathy in Action at the Pinnacles Film Festival
🍂 Oct. 16 — Bridge to Freedom Benefit at The Power Plant Coffee
🎶 Oct. 22 — Wholehearted Chorus at Sunset Center
🎨 Oct. 24 — Incarcerated Artists Art Show

🧘 Plus weekly yoga, our 11th Step group, sound healing, women’s workshops & more!

And some exciting news: our fall Empathy in Action program is completely full, with 60 volunteers from Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties joining us inside.

Winter begins January 11, and sign-ups are now open!

There is so much happening—and so much possibility ahead.

Read our October newsletter below and come be part of it.
🍂

“Art. Music. Story. Community. Sometimes the most powerful forms of justice begin with simply seeing one another.” Megan, TJC Founder

10/02/2026

MEN IN BLUE: CTF SOLEDAD ARTISTS SHARE THEIR WORK WITH THE COMMUNITY IN UNIQUE OCTOBER EXHIBITION

Nine incarcerated artists featured in a month-long exhibition presented in collaboration with Empathy in Action and the Transformative Justice Center

MONTEREY, Calif. — October 2026 — Nine artists currently incarcerated at CTF Soledad are sharing their artwork with the Monterey County community this October through Men in Blue, a special exhibition presented in collaboration with Empathy in Action and the Transformative Justice Center.

The exhibition represents a remarkable opportunity for artwork created inside prison to reach the outside community. For the first time, prison officials have approved an art exhibition of this kind featuring work from incarcerated artists at CTF Soledad.

Men in Blue showcases the creativity, talent, and humanity of nine artists working across a wide range of mediums. Visitors will see works created in chalk, pencil, watercolor, oil and acrylic, as well as intricate crochet work. Select pieces will also be available for purchase.

The exhibition will be on display throughout the month of October at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula, with a special community art show on:

Saturday, October 24, 2026
1:00–3:00 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula
490 Aguajito Road, Carmel, CA

The public is invited to attend, view the collection, learn about the artists and experience a side of incarceration rarely seen outside prison walls.

“Art gives people a way to tell us who they are beyond a sentence, a number or a blue uniform,” said Megan McDrew, founder and executive director of the Transformative Justice Center and creator of Empathy in Action. “These men have created extraordinary work with limited resources. Bringing that work outside the prison walls gives our community an opportunity to encounter their creativity, their stories and their humanity.”

Empathy in Action brings community volunteers inside CTF Soledad to participate alongside incarcerated men in facilitated conversations centered on empathy, accountability, healing and human connection. The Transformative Justice Center extends that work into the broader community by creating opportunities for dialogue and bringing incarcerated voices, stories and creative work into public spaces.

Men in Blue continues that mission by creating a bridge between artists inside prison and the community outside.

ABOUT TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE CENTER & EMPATHY IN ACTION

The Transformative Justice Center is a Monterey County-based nonprofit dedicated to transforming the way communities understand incarceration, accountability, healing and reentry. Its signature prison program, Empathy in Action, brings incarcerated people and community volunteers together through dialogue, storytelling and shared experiences designed to build empathy and meaningful human connection.

For more information:
Transformative Justice Center
www.transformativejusticecenter.org
Megan McDrew
[email protected]

09/30/2026

On Monday night, we heard the song.

We closed our summer Empathy in Action program with 110 people together inside CTF Soledad—volunteers and incarcerated men—and nearly 30 performances.

There was so much laughter. So much music. So much joy.

We sang together. We cheered for one another. I sang Love Me at My Lowest and brought printed lyrics so all 110 of us could sing it together. We sang Redemption Song. Men and volunteers shared music, poetry, stories, talents, and pieces of themselves.

At the beginning of the night, I said something that I realized describes this entire program:

First, we hear each other’s stories. And then, eventually, we hear each other’s songs.

The other night, in prison, we heard the song.

There was no “us” and “them.” No volunteers and prisoners. No people from the outside and people from the inside.
For a few beautiful hours, we were simply human beings celebrating being alive—together.

And at the end of the night, people didn’t want to leave.
Men came up to me with tears in their eyes, telling me that Empathy in Action had changed their lives forever. Again and again, I heard that this was the best program they had ever experienced in prison—that nowhere else had they felt this safe to be vulnerable, this seen, or this connected to people from the outside.

Our volunteers expressed the same thing. They talked about how much they had changed through these relationships—how they came in thinking they were volunteering to give something and discovered how much they would receive. Several described Empathy in Action as unlike anything they had ever experienced.

One man came up to me and told me he loved me—as a friend. He said that through our relationship, for the first time, he has learned that he can love a woman as a friend, honor her, and treat her with respect. He told me that part of him has healed.

Another man came to me with tears in his eyes and told me this program had changed his life forever.

And then another.

And another.

This is what happens when people who have been taught to fear one another are given the opportunity to actually know one another.

And now 60 people are already signed up for our fall program.
Empathy in Action is growing because people are hungry for something profoundly simple: a place to be seen, to tell the truth, to practice compassion, to heal, and to remember their humanity.
But if this work is going to last, we need help.

Programs like this require books, materials, staff, transportation, administration, volunteer support, and the infrastructure to keep showing up week after week. Love may be at the center of this work, but love still needs resources to reach people.

If you believe people are more than the worst thing they have ever done, if you believe healing makes our communities safer, and if you believe spaces like this should exist inside our prisons, please consider supporting the Transformative Justice Center and Empathy in Action.

Help us keep walking through those gates.

Help us keep listening to the stories.

Help us make sure we get to hear the songs.

https://www.transformativejusticecenter.org/donations

https://vimeo.com/1007126772/ba2a6d1bf2

This is "Joe A_Guitar_Micro Documentary_20240906" by Humans Being Media on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

09/27/2026

Looking forward to another best film award! 🙏❤️

09/16/2026

Today I'd like to share the homecoming of Micah Harris...he was part of Empathy in Action from the beginning. A shining light in the darkness of Fremont dorm inside CTF Soledad where we held the program about 3 years ago. He held the space with humor, truth, and confidence. I'm honored to welcome him home and hear his story, from roots to rise. I hope to see you at the film screening my friend!

Just another hurdle by Micah Harris

Before incarceration, I was a young man who knew how to compete long before I understood how to understand myself. I grew up in Arizona, found my way into athletics, and eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Oregon, where I became an All-American 110-meter hurdler.

Track gave me a world where discipline, focus, and talent could change the course of my life. I ran at the Prefontaine Classic, competed at the Olympic Trials, trained at the Olympic Training Center, and came close to a dream I had carried for years.

But beneath those accomplishments, I was carrying unresolved pain from my childhood, my family, my environment, and the person I had learned to become in order to survive. I knew how to clear hurdles on the track, but I had not yet learned how to confront the ones inside me. Eventually, those unresolved struggles led me down a path that changed my life completely.

I spent 18 years incarcerated, and for a long time, that chapter was simply something I wanted to endure. But over time, I realized I had a choice: I could allow those years to define me, or I could use them to redefine myself. Prison became a laboratory for transformation. I studied myself and the people around me. I read, meditated, spoke, facilitated self-development work, and became more intentional about the man I wanted to become. The competitive mindset that had once helped me excel as an athlete became the same mindset that helped me survive, grow, and evolve in an entirely different environment. I began developing qualities I had not fully understood when I was younger—empathy, self-awareness, patience, and the courage to examine my life without running from it. I learned that strength was not always about being the toughest person in the room. Sometimes, strength meant being honest with yourself when no one else was watching. Those 18 years took a great deal from me, but they also gave me perspective, discipline, and a deeper understanding of what it means to rebuild.

When I came home in March 2024, I realized that freedom was not the finish line; it was the starting line. I had to learn how to live in a world that had continued moving while I was away. Employment, housing, technology, relationships, finances, networking, and the simple question of where I belonged became a new set of hurdles. I began rebuilding through work and eventually found myself helping others navigate employment and opportunity while creating new opportunities for myself. I stepped back into spaces I never imagined I would see again—fashion, sports, entertainment, events, networking, and entrepreneurship. I showed up at fashion shows, award events, gifting lounges, and professional gatherings not as someone asking for permission to belong, but as someone learning how to create his own lane. Each experience taught me something. Slowly, I began to understand that my past was not something I needed to hide. It was part of the perspective, resilience, and purpose I carried into every room.

That realization became the foundation for what I am creating now. Drip Line began as a clothing idea, but it has grown into something far more personal. It represents the line between who you were and who you are becoming—the space between your past and your next chapter. A hat can be a crown. A hoodie can carry a message. A brand can become a reminder that your circumstances do not get the final word. Today, I am building across fashion, entrepreneurship, real estate, wellness, sports, entertainment, and eventually event production, while continuing to use my story to help others believe that a comeback is possible.

I no longer see my life as three separate chapters—before, during, and after. I see it as one story, with every chapter preparing me for the next. The athlete taught me how to compete. The incarcerated man taught me how to reflect. Coming home taught me how to build. Now, I am learning something even greater: I do not have to spend the rest of my life proving who I was. I have the power to decide who I become.
The hurdles did not disappear. I became the person capable of clearing them.

Just another hurdle. Master your comeback.

09/15/2026

Empathy in Action tonight was fire. 🔥

About 35 volunteers from across the Central Coast and the Santa Cruz Mountains walked into CTF Soledad tonight and sat alongside 70 incarcerated men — more than 100 people coming together in circles to listen, reflect, and be real with one another.

Tonight, through Chapters 6 & 7 of Tattoos on the Heart, we explored kinship, compassion, the power of being seen, and what happens when we stop standing at the margins of one another’s lives. We talked about courage and grace...the courage it takes to tell the truth about who we are, and the grace it takes to allow ourselves and others to become more than the worst things we have done.

The strength the incarcerated men show and the love our volunteers bring into that space create an experience that is almost impossible to describe unless you have been there.
And tonight, the ending was extraordinary.

One of our beautiful volunteers read a poem. Another, Gordon Foxworthy, stood and shared how remarkable it is to sit alongside men who are so willing to be emotionally available, vulnerable, and honest. One of our brothers in blue read something he had written about compassion that was so deeply beautiful you could feel the room shift.

And then Lucia Torre and I began singing Amazing Grace.

More than 100 people stood up and sang with us.

In prison.

Together.

For a few minutes, there were no labels. No “incarcerated” and “free.” No volunteers and participants. Just human beings standing together, singing about grace...Amazing grace.

I genuinely don't think there was a more beautiful place to be in the whole wide world tonight than CTF Soledad.

This is Empathy in Action.

09/13/2026

Stephen is home.

This week, four men from Empathy in Action were released from CTF! They sat in our circles, shared their stories, listened to the stories of others, and allowed themselves to be seen as something far greater than their crime.

Stephen Reed is one of them.

Stephen is a veteran, a father, a student, and now a returning community member living in Santa Cruz. His incarceration cost him his family as he knew it, his freedom, and, for a time, his hope. Through Empathy in Action, he found something that can be incredibly difficult to find inside prison: people from the outside who looked at him and simply saw another human being.

I asked Stephen to write me a bit about him...he called and found the website for the TJC upon his release!

“My name is Stephen Reed, and I went from being a veteran with a wife and children to being a number in the CDCR system. I had lost my family and my hope. Groups like Empathy in Action showed me that there were still people in the world who saw me as another human being.

I am now free and living in Santa Cruz. I may be starting over, but I’m not alone anymore. I can move forward, pursue my degrees, and rebuild my life with the support of the Transformative Justice Center community. I am a story of the impact empathy can have on another human being.”

This is why Empathy in Action matters.

And Stephen’s story is not an isolated one.

Each of the four men most recently released told us that Empathy in Action helped them feel ready to leave prison. They weren’t simply preparing for a release date. They were rebuilding their sense of worth, practicing vulnerability, learning to trust again, and, perhaps most importantly, building relationships with people who would still be there when the gates opened.

Because our work doesn’t end at the prison gate.

These men are now fully embraced by the Transformative Justice Center community. The people who sat beside them inside are still here on the outside. They have a place to come, people to call, groups to attend, and resources to access. They have a community that already knows them, believes in them, and wants to see them succeed.

Empathy in Action isn’t just an eight-week prison program. It is a bridge home.

Stephen, we are so incredibly proud of you. Welcome home...

And to all four of our guys who came home this week: you are not starting over alone. We’re still here.

Please consider donating, sharing this story, or becoming part of the Transformative Justice Center community as a volunteer, partner, or participant.

Whether you give your time, your resources, or your presence, you help create the kind of community Stephen describes: one where people are seen as fully human, welcomed home, and supported as they move forward.

PS: I'll share more stories of our released brothers in blue as I get them.

09/04/2026

This is Empathy in Action.

These photographs show the heart and soul of what happens when we sit together, face-to-face, in small circles and simply allow ourselves to see one another.

Not as an inmate. Not as a volunteer. Not as a conviction, a title, a number, or a past.

As human beings.

These images are a tribute to what can happen when we see beyond the past, settle into the present, and keep an eye toward the future.

Week after week, people from outside the prison sit alongside people living inside it. We talk. We listen. We laugh. We wrestle with difficult questions. We share stories we don't always tell other people. And somewhere along the way, the lines that once seemed to separate “us” from “them” begin to disappear.

That is where empathy begins.

I believe there is beauty in everyone. And I believe there is beauty everywhere, even in the darkest corners of institutions that too often forget the humanity of the people living within them.
Empathy in Action is about remembering it.

It is about creating spaces where people are seen, heard, challenged, loved, and given the opportunity to imagine themselves beyond the worst thing they have ever done.
These photographs capture something that statistics never could.

This is what transformation looks like.

Photos from Empathy in Action at CTF Soledad, created by Humans Being Media.

09/03/2026

Our September newsletter is hot off the press! It's a fun read, promise! I spend most of every month thinking about what to include in the future month, time well spent as we have lots going on and need YOU to be part of it! We are full for fall in Empathy in Action but there are many other ways to be involved.

Love,
Megan

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” -Howard Thurman