http://www.restorativejustice.org daily 1 2009-06-03T02:46:41Z http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/david-daubney-of-canada-presented-the-2011-international-prize-for-restorative-justice by Dan Van Ness David Daubney has been awarded the 2011 International Prize for Restorative Justice in recognition of the public policy leadership he has provided in support of restorative justice. The presentation was made during the Prison Fellowship World Convocation underway in Toronto, Canada from 28 June – 2 July, 2011. Daubney’s interest in restorative justice began twenty five years ago when he was a Member of Parliament, chairing the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice. The Committee was engaged in a year-long study of public and professional attitudes about crime and criminal justice. As it conducted hearings across Canada, its members began to hear about a concept that was new to all of them: restorative justice. They heard from grassroots organizations operating victim offender reconciliation programs in Canada and from crime victims who spoke about the personal healing they had received from their involvement in these programs. The Committee was so impressed that it recommended in its 1987 report “Taking Responsibility” – known to many as the Daubney Report – that restorative values and principles be incorporated into the Canadian Criminal Code. No publisher dvanness Court Government Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Legislation Policy Region: North America and Caribbean Country:Canada Politics 2011-07-03T20:44:29Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/restorative-terminology-a-modest-proposal by Dan Van Ness Howard Zehr suggests that at the core of restorative justice are the values of respect, responsibility and relationship. Respect for others, genuine responsibility that acknowledges the true extent to which my actions affect others, and a recognition that the universe is relational and not merely material, all are reflected in what we call restorative justice. But should we apply that term to all attempts to follow those values?For example, is civility restorative justice? I just received an email message from a group called Civilination whose mission "is to foster an online culture where every person can freely participate in a democratic, open, rational and truth-based exchange of ideas and information, without fear or threat of being the target of unwarranted abuse, harassment, or lies." In other words, they want online culture to reflect respect, responsibility and relationships. They believe their work is connected to restorative justice and wanted us to inform our readers of their important work (which we've now done!). No publisher dvanness Living Theory Definition Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Distinguishing 2011-05-02T13:38:14Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/circling-self-interest-and-democracy reviewed by Dan Van Ness Lode Walgrave begins his exceptional 2008 book Restorative Justice, Self-interest and Responsible Citizenship like many writers on restorative justice. He reviews the ancient and recent history of restorative approaches, proposes and explains a definition of restorative justice, and outlines various restorative schemes. He then contrasts restorative approaches from contemporary criminal practice and identifies ways in which the former resolves practical and ethical problems of the latter. The person who crosses this familiar territory with Lode is well rewarded because he writes with analytical precision, a scholar’s restraint, and the passion of someone with conviction. He has much to say that is worth hearing. He once again explains clearly why he favours a maximalist definition of restorative justice, one that is not limited to deliberative schemes but which applies only to harm caused by crime. He carefully and thoroughly builds his case against punishment and against restorative justice being considered an alternative punishment rather than an alternative to punishment. No publisher dvanness Definition Theory Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Distinguishing Conceptual Circle 2010-12-18T12:24:59Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/internally-displaced-people-in-colombia-victims-in-permanent-transition by Dan Van Ness I have just received a copy of a research study on the peace negotiations in Colombia: Internally displaced people in Colombia: Victims in permanent transition: Ethical and political dilemmas of reparative justice in the midst of internal armed conflict by Sandro Jiménez Ocampo, et al. From 2004 to 2007, the Colombian Government conducted peace negotiations with paramilitary groups. One of the issues negotiated had to do with the claims of people who had been killed or forcibly displace from their land, lands that were held by the combatants when the negotiations began. Forced displacement and deaths continued during the course of the negotiations, creating new claims. While reparation to victims was supposed to be a prominent outcome to the negotiations, the difficulties of negotiating peace in the course of a violent conflict together with the absence of the victims of displacement from the negotiation meant that there were claims of serious inadequacies with the results. No publisher dvanness Retribution Theory Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Victim National Reconciliation Region: Latin America Country:Colombia Restitution 2010-01-31T15:16:11Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/new-study-concludes-that-victim-awareness-programme-works by Dan Van Ness The Sycamore Tree Programme (STP), a victim awareness programme delivered by Prison Fellowship England and Wales since 1998, produces "significant positive attitudinal changes" in prisoners, making it less likely that they will commit crimes in the future. This is the finding of a new study that evaluated before and after questionnaires completed by 5,007 programme participants over the past three years. No publisher dvanness Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Other Country:England&Wales Victim Prison 2009-12-15T14:44:31Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/valuable-resources-victims-voice-safe-justice-and-lemonaide by Dan Van Ness I just came across several treasures that will be extremely useful to people who have been, who love, or who work with crime victims. The first is the website of Victims' Voice, a Canadian NGO sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee and whose purpose is "to address the revictimization of victims in the criminal justice system, to create understanding about victims among practitioners who work within the system and to give emotional and informational support directly to victims through victim-centered programs." The website has a number of resources that can be downloaded. And it contains links to two more sites, also sponsored by Victims' Voice. No publisher dvanness Practice Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Mediation Other Victim 2011-09-23T13:30:46Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/three-justice-orientations-or-two Howard Zehr, recently wrote in his Restorative Justice Blog: Stanford Law Professor Herbert Packer has argued that two opposing justice orientations dominate U.S. policy debates: crime control vs. due process. Could a restorative justice orientation provide a “third way?” that transcends these poles? The following identifies some assumptions of each. Crime control orientation: emphasis on order and security.... Due process orientation: emphasis on preventing misuse of the punishment system.... Restorative justice orientation - emphasis on repair and responsibility.... Read the whole entry. No publisher dvanness Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Distinguishing Theory Definition 2011-05-23T19:27:18Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/justice-and-mercy by Dan Van Ness The compassionate release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of participation in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has generated a great deal of discussion. And well it might; 270 people died when the plane crashed (259 passengers and 11 residents of Lockerbie). Al-Megrahi was the only person convicted of the terrorist attack. No publisher dvanness Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Forgiveness Victim Apology Offender 2009-10-22T16:05:48Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/finding-space-for-fido by Dan Van Ness This is not the story about a violent crime or even school bullying. But it concerns a problem contributing to the quality of life of people in a neighborhood, and of the dogs that some of them own. Dog owners in the Kingfield neighbourhood of Minneapolis want a place for their pets to run free. While there is no park in their district that allows this, some of them unleash their dogs anyhow. No publisher dvanness Process Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Community 2009-10-23T13:34:58Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/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. No publisher dvanness Policy Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Case:Homicide 2009-10-22T16:18:51Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/theory-of-trouble by Dan Van Ness The very interesting website Restorative Resources has this great quote from the organization's director: "If, by the time a student has graduated high school, they have not gotten into significant trouble at least three times and found a positive way to resolve it each time, I suggest that their education is incomplete." --Amos Clifford As the father of a recent high school graduate, I'm not sure that I would have wished for my son to get into significant trouble three out of the four years he was there, but I get Clifford's point. No publisher dvanness Limitations Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Support Practice Victim 2009-07-23T13:41:49Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/why-penal-reform-should-be-a-conservative-issue By Dan Van Ness As reported earlier on RJOB, the Commission on Prisons Today recently released its report, Do Better, Do Less. Among other things it argues for expanded use of restorative justice programmes and policies. One of the Commission members was Ian Loader, Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. In an article on conservativehome.blogs.com, the website of the British Conservative Party, he argues that conservatives should be at the forefront of penal reform. No publisher dvanness Policy Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Country:England&Wales Politics 2009-07-14T02:23:18Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/safety-with-dignity-alternatives-to-the-over-policing-of-schools By Dan Van Ness On July 8, 2009, three organizations -- the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Make the Road New York -- released a report on six New York City schools that have created safe and nurturing environments without relying on metal detectors, aggressive policing and harsh discipline. Based on the success of those schools, Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to the Over-Policing of Schools offers seven recommendations for replicating their experience in other NY City schools. No publisher dvanness Policy Correspondent:Dan Van Ness School Secondary 2010-08-05T19:10:37Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/kenya-annans-is-one-of-many-options By Dan Van Ness In the aftermath of the post-election violence in Kenya in late 2007, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan mediated an agreement between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to form a power-sharing administration. A government-appointed commission investigated the violence and in October 2008 gave Annan a list of suspects in the killings along with proof. Since then, the government and the International Criminal Court have negotiated about how to address prosecution of the perpetrators. Earlier in July they agreed that the ICC will set up a court in Kenya to try the suspects. At that point, Annan turned over the list of suspects to the ICC'sChief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. In commenting on this development on allAfrica.com, L. Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, made some interesting observations about the kind of justice that Kenyans need: No publisher dvanness Correspondent:Dan Van Ness National Reconciliation Country:Kenya 2009-07-14T01:55:46Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/building-restorative-cultures by Dan Van Ness Yesterday I wrote about the media treatment of a paper delivered by Dr. Hillary Cremin warning that restorative justice programmes alone are not enough to address bullying if there is not also a culture change at the school. One newspaper reported that this meant that "trendy" restorative justice doesn't work to stop bullying. My entry yesterday considered the difficulty of working with media to present a nuanced argument when they are looking for soundbites to sell papers. Today I want to consider another issue, one that Dr. Cremin raised in our correspondence: No publisher dvanness Limitations Correspondent:Dan Van Ness Report Evaluation Theory 2009-07-14T17:41:38Z News Item