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Troy Williams realizes he’s had some good luck in life. Not all good luck but some. 

The vast majority of people who are incarcerated suffer trauma and harm that can sustain for a lifetime. There’s little opportunity to heal or repair the broken parts of their lives inside the system to then be ready to thrive outside it.

But Troy, one of the newest members of our Trauma & Healing Network, refused to be defined by his worst moment. 

At an early age, he came to understand the added vulnerability he carried because he was Black in the U.S. When he was 7, Troy and his younger brothers were playing in the parking lot of a bowling alley when police took them into custody, accusing them of breaking into cars. He said they threatened to separate him from his brothers forever. 

Again, he was 7. 

But the way the officers treated him wasn’t unusual in an environment where the over-policing of Black boys was completely normalized.

His great-grandmother had taught him about racism and the threat of police. So when a group of gang members later chased him across town, he ran past the precinct and into a rival gang’s territory, where he was protected and soon became a member. 

The shorter version of the story is that Troy did some of the things that gang members are well known for. He ultimately spent a long stretch of his life incarcerated because of his participation in a series of robberies.  

In prison, Troy ultimately earned the reputation of a thinker. “There were a lot of men on the yard teaching me,” said Troy. “I learned the truth about our history.” He remembered one man who brought an entire duffel bag filled with books on history, philosophy, and legal issues. He thought he was supposed to pick one, but the man left the bag and told him to read everything. Through those books and stories, Troy seemed to discover a new perspective of himself as a Black man. 

By the time he arrived at California’s notorious San Quentin facility, Troy was ready to be newly defined. He took his love of stories and got involved in a theater program, a creative writing class, and a film project. He also found restorative justice. “I found a way to mesh these two concepts.”

Troy regained his freedom in 2014 and he’s been incredibly busy since then. He built Restorative Media, his own company that tells stories about healing and resilience. Today, he is the communications manager for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a nonprofit organization. He serves on a variety of boards and speaks publicly about his experiences. And now he’s a part of the EJUSA family. 

“To be connected with other people that have gone through the system and been impacted by it, and are working to overcome it is powerful and meaningful,” said Troy. “And it’s important for the work to be done in our community.”

He believes media can play an important role and give Black and brown youth that changed perspective he got from the duffel bag of books. “These are images I want young people to have instead of what’s in the media now. Our people need examples of people who have overcome.”

Given all that Troy has been through, the work he has invested in himself, it’s hard to imagine a person better suited to telling these stories. 

“If you look at me and all the great work that I’ve done,” he said, putting air quotes around ‘great work,’ “well, I’m just getting started. There’s other people who have guided me and are doing way bigger stuff. I’m not minimizing my work, but I’m elevating the shoulders I stand on.”

When Tonja Myles looked around her community and saw the people struggling with substance issues, she couldn’t help but see herself. Sharing the trauma with many of the people that she serves, Tonja is perfectly positioned to advocate for people suffering with substance abuse. 

She struggled with PTSD after years of unhealed trauma related to the sexual violence she experienced as a child and physical violence in adolescence.. Throughout the years she abused substances to numb the pain of her past, while people around her told her to “go to church and get her life right.” “My issues were swept under the rug,” she said. At her lowest point, she said she looked to God and promised to use her experience to help others.

Now, almost 38 years in recovery, Tonja has used her story to place her in rooms she normally wouldn’t be in. She uses the tagline “from the crack house to the White House” to show her journey from her lowest point to her partnership years ago with the Bush Administration concerning addiction. 

“Sometimes I’m the only Black person in the room, or the only woman in the room,” she said. She uses these opportunities to uplift the stories of those that aren’t in the room. “I appreciate the spaces I’m in, but I speak for the people that don’t have a voice.” She makes it a point to speak truth to power and be the most passionate person in those conversations.

Tonja started Set Free Addiction Services because people struggling with substance abuse in Baton Rouge needed “wrap around” services. Seeing a lack of support for this community, Tonja started serving on Fridays out of her own house. Now, she has the structure to support people and their families along the road to recovery. Set Free even helps to hold our justice system accountable for their role in substance abuse, by fostering relationships with police officers and faith leaders.

The city is still recovering from 2016, when three traumatic events overwhelmed the community. It started when police officers murdered Alton Sterling in the parking lot of a corner store, an incident that was caught on camera. Days later, as the city wrestled with tension, a gunman killed three police officers and wounded nine others in a horrifying response. Then, to make matters worse, a historic hurricane hit Louisiana. 

Despite these awful episodes and the continued accrual of trauma that Baton Rouge citizens experience, Tonja is optimistic about the future of the city. 

She has a long working relationship with the city’s mayor-president for over 30 years, and she works closely with the police chief. Tonja said they know about the importance of healing from trauma, a critical view for any city official to have. 

She said, however, “we can’t police people into non-violence,” in response to the outrage and frustration that community members had from the trauma of witnessing a Black man murdered by the police. Tonja believes change in Baton Rouge starts with the community. As long as the work is being done, she is confident that they’ll make a difference.

As a Trauma and Healing Network member, Tonja said she’ll bring some much needed comedic relief. “The work we do is hard and we need a laugh,” she said. She’s excited for the comradery and the collaboration that the network will bring. She wants to bring more awareness about mental health and substance abuse. In her words, she’s thrilled about “being a part of a team to help save lives.” Tonja has been saving her own life for 38 years now, and she doesn’t want others to have to go it alone.

I recently participated in the launch of a book to which I had contributed. The book, ”When You Hear Me, You Hear Us,” is a collection of poems and essays on youth incarceration and justice. Most of the authors are brilliant young people.

The Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop put the book together and interviewed me in 2020 for my piece. Naturally, I wanted to reread it before the virtual event, and when I did, I was shocked.

The interview happened months before I’d ever heard of EJUSA, before I had talked with the team or our board. Yet in telling my story, I was already anticipating a different system and a vision for that system that redefined what justice could and must be:

There’s a lot of harm done to people before they (cause violence). So I do hope, at least, that there’s some softening around how do we really get justice, and how do we define it differently, and how do we truly center the needs of survivors and victims in ways the traditional system hasn’t? So that we can meet this moment where, as a country, we’re reckoning with issues of race in ways that we haven’t before.

Revisiting my story, I remembered the excitement I felt as I explored EJUSA’s vision for the first time. I recognized that it was the foundation for building something new and better, a system that could deliver healing and safety after harm — exactly what my family needed after my father was assaulted many years ago.

I also thought about the definition of justice. I love that EJUSA has asked and answered an essential question…What is Justice?

If you appreciate literature and need some inspiration, I encourage you to buy “When You Hear Me, You Hear Us.” Our young people have something important to say.

NAE President praises Sam Heath for his “commitments to justice”

Sam Heath of Charlottesville, Virginia, has been appointed the new manager of the EJUSA
Evangelical Network, a platform for faith leaders across the political spectrum who seek to
transform the justice system by promoting responses to violence that are rooted in the values of
racial equity, redemption and healing.

Heath, an educator by profession, is an elder at Trinity Presbytery Church (PCA) in
Charlottesville where he has been the coordinator of major educational conferences, including
Race: Unity in Diversity, which came in the wake of the so-called Unite the Right Rally in 2017.
He also founded and co-chairs a Multiethnicity Ministry Team tasked with helping move Trinity
to be an increasingly multi-ethnic organization in both its color and culture.

“I learned about the failures of the criminal justice system firsthand by visiting, over many years,
a close friend who was imprisoned,” Heath said. “That experience, combined with a growing
understanding of the true story of race in this country and the realization that the system
mistakenly values retribution over restoration, triggered an overwhelming desire to do this work.”

Heath has worked closely with Rev. Dr. Walter Kim, former Pastor for Leadership at Trinity
Presbyterian Church (PCA) who is also president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“It is clear that Sam’s commitments to justice arise out of a deep love for Jesus and for others,”
Rev. Kim said. “He is keenly aware of the magnificent opportunities, as well as the persistent
obstacles, that some segments of evangelicalism have with matters of social justice. I trust Sam
for this work at this critical juncture in evangelicalism.”

Jamila Hodge, executive director of Equal Justice USA, the Evangelical Network’s parent
organization, also believes Heath’s arrival comes at the right time.

“Sam is a leader among the growing number of evangelicals who want a justice system that
reflects their belief that every person has immeasurable value and that every individual should
be treated with respect and dignity,” Hodge said. “Sam’s deep personal faith and commitment to
racial justice and agape love makes him the perfect person to lead this important work and
expand the Evangelical Network as a platform for those who want to build the solutions that
deliver healing and equity to all people.”