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Joy in the dirty work of restorative justice
from the entry by John Lash on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange:
....The tension between the study of a topic and the subsequent conversion of ideas into actual work exists in all endeavors, something I have been thinking about as I prepare a training weekend for people interested in learning about restorative justice.
There is a purity in theory, a beauty reminiscent of the idealism of Plato and Pythagoras, that is fun to engage. Working in this realm is a kind of game, fun, yet ultimately empty without the willingness to get out in the world and get dirty. In a training environment we seek to balance this tension in a way that honors both aspects of reality. We want to transmit the underlying principles while also showing how things “really” work.
May 22, 2013 Process, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA, Community
An Outcome Evaluation of Minnesota Circles of Support and Accountability (MnCoSA)
from the study by the Minnesota Department of Corrections:
....The use of the COSA model with high-risk sex offenders began in a small Mennonite community in Canada in the early 1990s. Grounded in the tenets of the restorative justice philosophy, the COSA model attempts to help sex offenders successfully reenter http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/documents/9-12MnCOSAResearchinBrief.pdfthe community and, thus, increase public safety, by providing them with social support as they try to meet their employment, housing, treatment, and other social needs. Each COSA consists of anywhere between four and six community volunteers, one of whom is a primary volunteer, who meet with the offender on a regular basis. The results from several evaluations of the Canadian COSA model suggest it significantly reduces sex offender recidivism....
May 10, 2013 Case:Abuse, Offender, Reentry, Practice, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Case:Sexual, Policy, Circle, Country:USA
Community court set to go on trial
from the article in the Manchester Evening News:
A project where ‘community courts’ decide how to punish criminals is to be trialled in Stockport.
….Low-level criminals and their victims will be brought together in front of a special panel, which will decide what community punishment to dish out.
….Rebecca Green, from ROC, said: “We looked at Brinnington as we are already established in the community with the cafe and there needs to be trust there. “The area can be highlighted as having problems so this scheme will have a good impact there.
Apr 05, 2013 Process, Region:Europe, Country:England&Wales, Community
Could restorative justice bring education antagonists together?
from the article by Pat Schneider in the Capital Times:
It’s a painful irony for Ananda Mirilli that the School Board run she tried to use to call the community to come together to do better for Madison kids ended up embroiled in such controversy.
….Mirilli, a Latina who lost her bid for Seat 5 on the Madison School Board in the Feb. 18 primary, decided against a write-in campaign when primary winner Sarah Manski dropped out of the race just two days later. But Mirilli hasn’t given up hope that the election — despite Manski’s surprise withdrawal and the allegations of dirty politics and hypocrisy it incited — can yet be made an occasion to bring together people now sometimes working at odds to improve education in Madison schools.
And as the Restorative Justice Program manager at YWCA Madison, Mirilli is wondering if restorative justice principles might be the way to do it.
Restorative justice & stories for resilient families and happy individuals
from the entry by Lorenn Walker in Restorative Justice & Other Public Health Approaches for Healing:
Feiler discusses how one night he pondered: “What is the secret sauce that holds a family together? What are the ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy?” and went on to learn what he could to answer these questions.
His research led him to the work of psychologists Marshall Duke and Sara Fivush, which showed: “The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned.”
Rehabilitation is everyone’s responsibility
Recently, I watched a Vimeo video about the reform of the Solomon Islands Correctional Services. It starts with an individual describing his crime and how the local traditional justice would’ve responded with banishment. The current system wasn’t very different; the banishment happened with a prison sentence. From that point, different officials and community volunteers describe a process of shifting the system culture from punitive to rehabilitative. It’s a shift that focuses on needs and relationships.
Mar 14, 2013 Country:Solomon Islands, Region: Pacific, Offender, Reentry, Community, Correspondent:Lynette Parker
Review: The legacy of community justice
Reviewed by Dan Van Ness
There are really two subjects of this collection of articles. One is community justice, which continues to exert influence in the juvenile and criminal justice fields. The second and more important one is Dennis (Denny) Maloney. Denny was an influential, charismatic, larger-than-life leader in the restorative and community justice movement until his untimely death in 2007.
Mar 11, 2013 Justice, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Community, Book Review
Retaking our streets: Restorative justice in the city of St. Francis
from the article by George Wesolek in Catholic San Francisco:
....The fact that this mindless violence (even though there is a distorted, revenge-oriented gang rationale) is perpetrated by 14-year-old children in some cases, reminds us of futuristic predictions in novels such as “Clockwork Orange” and the like. Killing, for revenge and even for fun, is becoming embedded in the culture, an evil, systemic pall creeping through our streets and into our families and communities and settling there as an alien host. Families in this community live in fear.
Jan 25, 2013 Process, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Case:Poverty, Country:USA
"The public wants to be involved": A roundtable conversation about community and restorative justice
from the report by Robert V. Wolf for the Center for Court Innovation:
When participants were asked to list the goals of community engagement, six areas attracted broad support:
1. Empowering communities
While the concept of giving community members more power is a key ingredient of many initiatives, the nature of the power varies. In San Francisco’s Neighborhood Courts, community volunteers have the authority to determine guilt and can even dismiss cases while volunteers on Atlanta’s restorative justice panels can only adjust the terms of a sentence handed down by a court.
For defenders, empowerment involves education—specifically educating the public about the role of defense organizations and navigating the justice system. “Our goal is to help people understand what we do and clarify our role and to trust us,” said James Berry, of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. “We don’t feel an obligation to promote the police or prosecutors, but we do have an interest in helping people to understand what we do and how we help to balance the equation.”
Jan 22, 2013 Police, Government, Process, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA
Grace, forgiveness, justice
Recently, we posted an article reviewing the book The collapse of American Criminal Justice. I found a comment to the article posted on the Restorative Justice Online Facebook page to be very interesting:
“I find it interesting that Protestant America, who supposedly believes in free grace and forgiveness, are the first to espouse punishment for its own sake.”
Dec 25, 2012 Living, Correspondent:Lynette Parker, Community, Biblical
