There are those among us who are shining light in the darkest of dark places. In this episode, we speak with Saskia Niño de Rivera, who is basically a one-woman revolution to reform the Mexican penal system. Through her organization, Reinserta, Saskia works with kidnappers, incarcerated mothers and children brought up in prison as well as teenagers released from prison who need extra support among others. 

After experiencing a family member’s kidnapping, Saskia at a very young age began questioning what happens in someone’s life to make them commit violence. That early recognition of criminals as human beings has evolved into her work that looks to improve from the inside out an institution that keeps people caught in a cycle of crime. 

Listening to her story, we were in awe at not only how much Saskia has done in her short lifetime to make a real difference in what many would see as an impossible system to change, but also how she looks to create change through igniting compassion. 


00.35 Who is Saskia?

2.32 “Basically she is a one woman revolution changing the entire mexican penal system” Kristen

3.20 “Mexicans are very much in contact with the violence in their country.” Saskia

4.00 “The different events of my life have definitely formed me and helped me to understand life in a different manner. I think the key is having the humility to look at the opportunities that you are confronted with on a day by day basis as opportunities. And once you fill with narcisism you don´t get to see those opportunites.” Saskia

5.00 Speaking from privilege, not just economically

6.10 Different type of realities that Mexico has. 

6.45 Kidnapping story 

7.20 Sunday is a family day for everyone
 “I started to see a pattern where the phone didn´t ring on Sundays. And I remember the third Sunday that it didn´t ring. I started to question myself, ´why aren´t the kidnappers calling on Sundays? What happens on Sundays that the kindappers don´t call on Sundays?´ And it was really interesting because Sunday is a family day. It´s a day you go to church. It´s a day you have family over in your house. It´s day of rest. Its a day of, in the catholic religion, which most mexicans have. It was interesting because it was the first ´aha moment´, if we can say if that way of, these people are not monsters that have two heads and six arms. They´re people just like any of us and the first reflextion was, ´What did these people go through in their life in order to think that they can take the life of someone in their hands and exchange it for money?´” Saskia

8.40 Profiling kidnppers in Mexico. 

9.50 “There has to be justice. But if we want to talk about prevention, if we want to talk about stopping the violence then we really have to think of justice and criminal justice from a different perspective and I think that is what we are trying to do.” Saskia

10.30 Work is based on empathy

11.10 Does violence equal crime? 

11.40 Growing up in violent environment and normalizing crime 

12.20 “These kids were recruited to kill by the age of 8, 9 and 10 years of age. My biggest reflextion on this has to do with if you have and eight year old kid that is commiting a crime and has a gun in his hand he is everything but guilty. There is a society around him that is completely guilty.” Saskia 

12.53 “In general, the violence that we live, and not only in Mexico but in many parts of the world, is seen from a punitive kind of glass. ´Once you commit the crime I am going to punish you, but whatever happens to you before is not my problem.´I think that is where we really have to make a reflextion on. It that the way to really stop the violence? Especially with your children.” Saskia 

16.50 What is Reinserta?

21.30 Does death penalty really create prevention?

22.40 Stop talking about the others and start talking about us

“The segregation of skin color, what kind of money you have in the bank, where you were born, how you speak, all these segregations and discriminations just separate us. When truth be told we are all looking at the world from a very alike point of view. We all want to live in a world where peace prevails. But if we don´t unify and we don´t understand that it is our responsibility and not someone else´s responsibility.” Saskia 

24.08 Success is based on how many people you help and not how much money you make

25.30 What happens to one happens to everyone. Live it as if it happened to you. 

28.00 “If we don´t feel offended by the fact that someone is going through that as if we were going through that ourselves then we lack of compassion. And if we lack of compassion there is no way, no way, we are going to strive for a better tomorrow.” Saskia

29.00 Mothers having their children in prison

30.00 Gender equality has affected the number of women in prison

30.45 Human rights vs security in prison (Mexico vs USA prison systems)

32.00 Reinserta creating non-violent spaces for children in prison and being released at 3 years old

33.00 Seperation of mothers and their children

35.09 “You can talk about a woman being a criminal. For you its a criminal, to someone its their mother.” 

35.20 Children released and their relationship with their parents who are still in prison

37.00 Tackling the problem from all angles. It all comes from children being exposed to systemized violence in your person. 

38.00 Empowering the people to take on the role of helping others 

39.00 Why children form violent backgrounds talk about their crimes with pride

39.54 “Working in the halfway house with these kids has been really interesting because when you ask them, ´yeah okay you are a super super good kidnapper at age 14, okay let´s get that out of the way. What else are you?´And when you question them on that it´s like Ì´m no one, literally I´m noone and the world hates because of what I´ve done and since I´ve been born I was taught to do this and this is who I am. And it´s like no, that´s not who you are, its what you were taught but you are so much more.” Saskia

40.00 Becoming something more than what they were taught to be

42.00 Humanizing people inside and outside of the system

43.00 Tribe story- when someone harms someone else its because they are harmed 

45.30 Changing as a mother 

47.00 Mothering in her job and mothering at home