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- Showing 11 posts filed under: Policy [–] published between Aug 01, 2009 and Aug 31, 2009 [Show all]
Prison Week's 2009 theme announced: Hold fast to hope
Prisoners' Week began in England and Wales in 1975. The Prisoners’ Week Committee, consisting of Prison Chaplains and other Christians involved in work with prisoners and their families, was formed to encourage prayer within churches and the wider Christian community for he needs of prisoners. This they did by producing each year a prayer and information leaflet for use on the third Sunday in November, designated Prisoners’ Sunday, with the week observed until the following Saturday. It had its beginnings as a Roman Catholic initiative by Bishop Victor Guazzelli, but quickly gained ecumenical support and became an ecumenical observance, receiving the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Westminster and the Moderator of the Free Churches Group.
In 1995, seeking to focus attention not only on the needs of prisoners but on all those involved the field of prison care -- prisoners' families, victims of crime, prison staff and many volunteers -- the week became known as Prisons Week, and the committee known as the Prisons Week Committee.
Is there a role for restorative justice in addressing public education issues in Mississippi?
This is in an interdisciplinary seminar, which will be conducted over the course of two semesters, and open to undergraduate honors students, law and graduate students. After a brief introduction into the concept of restorative justice, the first semester will be devoted to the study of existing data and research into other sources in order to gain a full understanding of the history of public education in Mississippi, with emphasis on how the issue of race has informed educational policy and the status of education in Mississippi today.
The second semester will consider potential remedies from a perspective of restorative justice.
Aug 25, 2009 National Reconciliation, Guidelines, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Country:USA, Minority
Community Justice Initiatives helps male sex abuse survivors, and offenders
From Johanna Weidner's article on TheRecord.com:
Just like female victims, male victims of sexual trauma struggle to heal, but there are many more barriers for men to get the help they need.
For people who have perpetrated sexual crimes, finding help is perhaps even more difficult.
Supporting those people who are overlooked, and often condemned, is a mission at Community Justice Initiatives.
Aug 21, 2009 Policy, Case:Sexual
"Building Social Support for Restorative Justice" has a survey for you to fill out
from the European Forum on Restorative Justice's Newsflash:
One of the projects the European Forum for Restorative Justice is currently engaged in is "Building Social Support for Restorative Justice". Having worked on the project for some months, and having successfully run the June Seminar for the mentioned project, we are now at the point of kindly requesting input in relation to the 3 main questions addressed in the research project:Hundreds hurt in California prison riot: What's wrong with California?
by Lisa Rea
As a medium security prison in Chino, California erupts in violence over the weekend injuring 250 inmates and hospitalizing 55, you have to ask what's wrong with California's prison system? As the details of this prison riot become available we read that it appears to be gang related violence: African American prison gangs versus Latino prison gangs. This is not new in the state's prison system. But what California has been wrestling with, or not, is its every increasing prison population. A fact, that frankly, California public officials -- governors, past and present, and California legislators, refuse to grapple with in any reasonable and intelligent way.
Aug 11, 2009 Policy, Politics, Correspondent:Lisa Rea
Intimate partner violence: Towards a sociological understanding
from Richard Record's entry on Sociological Dialogues:
Finally the Domestic Violence Act as an intervention by the criminal justice system is based on an adversarial system, where victims often have to defend themselves within the court setting, since perpetrators have the opportunity to make representations and place the victims under cross examination. The credibility of victims can therefore be broken down. Therefore there is the possibility that the woman who might need the protection order the most, will not get one granted due to her credibility being brought into question.
Aug 06, 2009 Policy, Case:Domestic Violence
Rape and restorative justice
from Kameelah Rasheed's entry on WireTap Magazine's blog:
On July 16 in Phoenix, Arizona, four boys ages 9 to 14 took turns
raping an 8-year-old girl for more than 10 minutes after luring her
into a shed with chewing gum. They held her down. They raped her
repeatedly as she screamed — "hysterical" screams that prompted an
emergency call. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the girl
partially clothed and the boys running from the shed.
The girl
as well as her four rapists are refugees from Liberia in West Africa.
The country is struggling to emerge from it's 14 year civil war, which lasted from 1989 to 2003. During the conflict rape was used as a weapon resulting in as many as three-fourths of women being assaulted.
The civil war forced more than 7,300 Liberians
to seek refuge in the United States. One such community of refugees
resettled in Arizona which is now home to nearly 1,200 Liberian
refugees. As one reporter noted,
Liberian refugees who have fled the war-torn nation say the Phoenix
case is a horrifying example of families trying to escape violence in
their own country only to find it again in their new home.
Aug 06, 2009 Policy, Case:Sexual
One step among many
from the No To Rape Blog:
The abolition of marital immunity for rape will not resolve all issues relating to marital rape. Far from it. Many other interventions are needed. Counselling, mediation, medical help and the civil law all have a part to play in responding to incidents, and education and a wider national conversation are needed to build a culture where all are conscious of the importance of seeking and communicating consent when engaging in sexual activity.
Aug 05, 2009 Policy, Case:Sexual
Overcoming speechlessness: A poet encounters "the horror" in Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Palestine/Israel
from Alice Walker's Blog:
In this essay, Poet Alice Walker writes of encountering "the horror" (as in Joseph Conrad's novel, 'The Heart of Darkness') in Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Palestine/Israel and finding her voice again after a period of speechlessness. Part of what has happened to human beings, she believes, is that we have, over the last century, witnessed cruel and unusually barbaric behavior that was so horrifying it literally left us speechless. We had no words to describe it even when we viewed it; nor could we easily believe human beings could fall to such levels of degradation; we have been deeply frightened. This self-imposed silence has slowed our response to the plight of those who most need us, often women and children but also men of conscience who resist evil but are outnumbered by those around them who have fallen victim to a belief in weapons, male or ethnic dominance, greed and drugs.
Restorative justice, survivors and the death penalty
by Dan Van Ness
Two interesting items appeared on my desktop today, both about the death penalty. One, titled Conn. Home Invasion Survivor Faces Long Court Case, begins this way:
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – At 52, Dr. William Petit faces years — perhaps decades — of emotionally draining court hearings before the two men charged with murdering his family in a 2007 home invasion may be convicted and executed.
He’ll have to listen repeatedly to the horrific details of the crimes against his wife, who was strangled, and two daughters, who were tied to their beds. All three died of smoke inhalation from a fire police say the intruders set as they fled Petit’s house after holding the family hostage for hours. Petit, a prominent physician who was beaten during the ordeal, will sit feet away from the defendants as they assert their rights and file appeal after appeal.
As lawmakers weigh the future of the death penalty in some states, officials are giving greater weight to the effect of prolonged death penalty cases on victims’ families. Petit realizes that the case might drag on for years, but he remains committed to seeing defendants Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky put to death.
Aug 04, 2009 Policy, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Case:Homicide
Harvard scholar versus Cambridge police
by Lisa Rea
Most of us have heard all about the police incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of Harvard Square. A Harvard scholar by the name of Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his home after a neighbor called the police concerned someone was breaking into the house. This occurred at 12:30pm after Gates had just returned to his home from an international flight to China.
Aug 04, 2009 Police, Minority, Correspondent:Lisa Rea, Guidelines, Community, Policy, Conflict
