Brewing second chances: Ateneo Law and PJPS launch Ex-Preso at the APS Atrium

The Ateneo Law School, in partnership with the Philippine Jesuit Prison Service Foundation, Inc. (PJPS), welcomes the PJPS Ex-Preso: Your Fresh Start advocacy cart to the Atrium, Ground Floor, APS Building.

More than a mobile café, Ex-Preso embodies a shared commitment to restorative justice — one that moves beyond theory and into lived encounter. By bringing the cart into its campus, ALS affirms that the work of justice does not end in the courtroom. It continues in accompaniment, reintegration, and the quiet rebuilding of lives.

Launched under PJPS’s PRL CARE Program (Companionship, Assistance, Reintegration, Empowerment), Ex-Preso creates a creative formation space for Persons Restored of Liberty (PRLs). While the cart offers freshly brewed coffee, its deeper purpose is formation — relational, psycho-spiritual, and communal. Here, livelihood is not merely economic activity but a journey of reclaiming identity and dignity.

Each barista behind the counter carries a story of resilience. Through mentoring, dialogue circles, spiritual reflection, and shared learning, PRLs are accompanied as they rebuild trust — in themselves, in community, and in the possibility of a future not defined by incarceration.

For the Ateneo Law School, hosting Ex-Preso is an expression of its mission to form lawyers who engage the law as an instrument of human dignity. In a school where students study criminal law, procedure, and constitutional guarantees, the presence of PRLs serving in the Atrium invites a deeper reflection: justice is not only punitive or procedural; it is also restorative and relational.

Ex-Preso thus becomes both café and classroom — a space where advocacy is made tangible.

Through this collaboration, Ateneo Law and PJPS invite students, faculty, staff, and alumni to participate in this shared work of reintegration. Supporting Ex-Preso is not simply purchasing coffee — it is affirming that second chances are possible and that dignity can be restored.

Amid conversations and passing classes, something steady and hopeful is being brewed.

One cup at a time, justice finds a human face.