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Offenders, victims resolve their own cases
from Shane Benjamin's article in the Durango Herald:
Zane Wells, 22, drank too much one night at El Rancho. In a stupor, he kicked a door and caused about $300 in damage.
He was arrested for criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. But instead of letting the courts resolve the case, he was selected to participate in a victim-offender mediation program, where he could apologize to the business owners and hash out a mutual resolution.
At first, bar owners Chip and Chris Lile were reluctant to participate in such a program. They felt victimized by Wells’ actions and wanted the courts to enact justice.
“My thoughts were, it was a way for somebody to avoid trouble with the courts and get out of what they did,” Chip Lile said.
Oct 29, 2009 Story
A new kind of justice
from Rebecca Webber's article in Parade Magazine:
From Fresno, Calif., to Hempstead, N.Y., hundreds of communities in the country are using “ restorative justice” to deal with criminals. Offenders must take responsibility for their actions and try to repair the harm they’ve done—by apologizing, returning stolen money, or doing community service, for example. “People find a way to right the wrong, and that’s the beauty of it,” says Beverly Title, who runs a program in Longmont, Colo. Restorative justice can work in lieu of the criminal-justice system or in partnership with it.
St Rita's College Clayfield rocked by cheating scandal
From Tanya Chilcott's article in Courier-Mail:
A leading Brisbane private girls' school has been rocked by a cheating scandal after a group of students was caught just weeks before graduation.
St Rita's College principal Dale Morrow said the incident, the first of its kind in her eight years at the Clayfield school, had been "a very difficult" time for all involved.....
....It is understood one girl attained the answers from a teacher's computer and passed them on.Angela's tears - A presentation on the São Paulo RJ projects in Rio de Janeiro
From the post at the Restorative Circles Blog
Yesterday was the first formal presentation of the São Paulo RJ project, 'Justiça e educação', to the justice and education communities in Rio de Janeiro. Most of those who have made these projects possible - in São Caetano do Sul, in Guarulhos, in Heliopolis, in Campinas and elsewhere - spoke, and even though the city was under the second day of torrential rain and it was the friday before a holiday weekend, there wasn't a free seat and many stood until the end.
...what struck me most were the talks of two school teachers. The newspaper this morning reminds us that more than half of Brazilian families live on less than US$5 a day. Many have far less. The schools these two teachers work in serve such communities - one in São Paulo city's largest favela, one on the semi-rural outskirts of Guarulhos, the second largest city in SP state. As Edivaldo, the first to speak, said quite simply: "Restorative Circles have changed my school. We might think of giving up other projects we have, but never this one. We do a lot of Circles, and from this you might think 'Oh, they have a lot of fights at the school', but no - we do a lot of Circles because the school has learnt that this is the way to have conflicts. So we stop violence. We bring it the Circle and then it's done."
Oct 13, 2009 School, Practice, Story, Country:Brazil, Region: Latin America, Teacher
Radical change
by Sandi Hawnt, a Sycamore Tree Project® facilitator writing in Inside Out, the newsletter of Prison Fellowship New Zealand:
When I shook his hand it was cold and sweaty. He was clearly nervous to meet me - much more than I was to meet him. I was impressed that he had waited for me. The others had all gone out for their allocated 'yard time'. Just one hour a day in Maxi - quite a lot to give up on the off chance that he might be included in the programme. Interviewing him was difficult - he was so desperate to be on the programme that he was almost paralysed with nerves. Every now and then he forgot what we were talking about and I became concerned that he might be unstable. As a new facilitator I did not want to have a safety risk on my hands, so I said no to him. However, this decision didn't sit right with me. I felt uneasy, sad... wrong.
Oct 12, 2009 Story, Region: Pacific, Panel Discussion, Country:New Zealand, Victim
