Jason Cohen has had a lot of practice trying to be as unobtrusive and emotionally impervious as possible during sensitive conversations and events in strangers lives. Id be lying if I told you that we werent huddled behind the monitors with tears in our eyes during this project, Cohen, 47, said on a recent morning at his office in Berkeleys Saul Zaentz Media Center. Cohen was discussing his gripping new CNN limited series, The Redemption Project with Van Jones. Filmed over the last 18 months in towns and prisons in California and four other states, the [show takes] viewers inside the powerful, yet little understood, restorative justice process. Each week, victims of a life-altering crime (or their surviving family members) are connected in person with their offender for a bracingly honest conversation, in the hope of taking steps toward healing on both sides. There was a box of Kleenex at our video village where we watch, and Van had one as well, Cohen said. Hes been friends with Jones - the superstar CNN commentator, former Obama adviser and criminal-justice-reform advocate - for almost 20 years. Jones has spent 25 years working in criminal justice and is well versed in the ways restorative justice techniques promote real accountability. Jones says whats surprised him most working on Redemption Project is how simple the questions asked by survivors are. We spend $80 billion a year on the incarceration industry and sometimes ... our system still hasnt given people basic answers. Theres still so much healing to do.