Calling a circle....

from John Gehm's entry on Restore:

What does it mean when we say, “We’re calling a circle?” In the context of restorative practices I take it to mean that we are clearing a space where community can enter.  It may or it may not choose to do so.  But sitting in circle is the best we’ve got to silence the din and distraction of daily life and risk finding out that beneath whatever differences we may have on the surface we are connected deeply by what we have in common.  

Authentic community is rare and it is safe.  It is the opposite of that place we mostly inhabit filled with masks, anxiety, invisibility, power and imbalance.   Circles done well open a place for empathy, respect, empowerment, and direct communication for authentic ‘human being.’  Restorative circles are used for sentencing, for reconciliation, for healing, for celebration, for talking and for educating.

Mar 15, 2010    Circle , Practice , Country:USA

Offenders and their children

by Lynette Parker

I was saddened to see that a provision requiring judges to consider the impact on an offender’s children before ordering a custodial sentence was removed from legislation being debated in Scotland. The provisions were removed from the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill to allow more time to debate other contentious issues. While I don’t live in Scotland, I was disappointed by this move because the incarceration of a parent can negatively impact children in several ways:

• Financial instability and hardship (possibly increased)
• Instability in family relationships and structure
• School behaviour and performance problems
• Shame, social and institutional stigma

So, I wondered how a justice system informed by restorative values would respond to the needs of offenders’ children. Here are a few thoughts:

Mar 15, 2010    Correspondent:Lynette Parker

Death row lets victims' families down

from Jessica Reed's article in guardian.co.uk:

Most debates about the criminal justice system and restorative justice are criticised for not focusing enough on the impact that violence has on victims and their families. Those objections multiply tenfold when the issue at hand is capital punishment: bring up the subject and many death penalty supporters will say that executions are the only way to meet survivors' needs for justice and closure, and that to oppose capital punishment is to be anti-victim. "What if it was your own son or mother?" they ask. "Wouldn't you want the perpetrator die at the hands of our justice system?"

As it turns out, the truth is rather different. During last week's fourth world congress against death penalty in Geneva, the voices of murder victims' families painted a picture seldom seen in the media. For a variety of reasons, a growing number of families do not support capital punishment. However, all families face decades of legal appeals over the execution of the perpetrator – a truly agonising wait for anyone seeking closure.

Mar 12, 2010    Practice , System , Victim

The Sanctuary Model: A restorative approach for human services organizations.

From the 3 March Restorative Practices E-Forum by Laura Mirsky: 

The Sanctuary Model is a non-hierarchical, highly participatory, “trauma-informed and evidence-supported” operating system for human services organizations, which helps them function in a humane, democratic and socially responsible manner and thereby provide effective treatment for clients in a clinical setting. The model is entirely congruent with restorative practices, in that it is about working with  people instead of doing things to them or for them.

Not a specific treatment intervention, the Sanctuary Model provides a structure and common language for people in human services fields to communicate and collaborate with each other. Said Dr. Sandra Bloom, developer of the model: “Social workers, psychiatrists and nurses don’t share a common way of working with clients. The Sanctuary Model gets everybody on the same trauma-informed page.”

Mar 12, 2010   

Kitchener seniors’ programs get federal funding

from the article in The Record.com:

The Alzheimer Society and Community Justice Initiatives were awarded federal funding for two seniors’ programs.

The Alzheimer Society of Kitchener Waterloo got more than $18,000 for their Memory Fit program, which is a community based recreational program for seniors in the early stage of dementia and their care partners for peer support and social interaction.

Mar 11, 2010    Practice