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- Showing 11 posts published between Oct 01, 2010 and Oct 31, 2010 [Show all]
Prisons, rehabilitation and justice
by Lynette Parker
Recently, I read an article about the struggles faced by the state of Florida after the US Supreme Court banned sentences of life without parole for juveniles who do not kill anyone. In the discussion over the need to revisit cases and re-sentence the offenders, one retired judge was quoted:
“There are no resources in prisons for rehabilitation,'' the former judge said. ``You give him 30 years, and he'll get out when he's 45, what's he going to do? Re-offend. Some people, regardless of their age, need to be put away forever.”
Oct 15, 2010 Dialogue, Offender, Community, Other, Victim, Prison, Correspondent:Lynette Parker, Transformation, Conflict, Restitution
Huikahi Restorative Circles: Group process for self-directed reentry planning and family healing
from Lorenn Walker's article in European Journal of Probation:
....The Huikahi Circle is a facilitated reentry planning group process for individual incarcerated people, their invited supporters, and at least one prison representative.
The incarcerated person determines what they want and the group helps her determine how best to achieve her goals. It can result in better outcomes for people leaving prison or drug treatment programs than case planning and case management where professionals make decisions for others.
Oct 14, 2010 Offender, Reentry, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Report, Evaluation, Country:USA
My story
My 19 year old Son David was killed at the hands of a drunk driver on July 19th 2009. :(
He was a Track and Field star here in Colorado Springs at the collegiate level and high school level. As a freshman in college he broke 9 school records, and in his senior year in high school he broke a 30-year record at the 5A State meet in the 200 meters.
I raised him on my own and he was my best buddy, an old soul. He kept all his medals in a shoebox underneath his bed. Very humble...
Oct 13, 2010 Story
One week left to sign up for Restorative Justice!
from the European Forum for Restorative Justice:
The deadline for the Forum's online petition to be submitted to the European Commission and the European Parliament has been postponed to 15 October!
Until now our (and of course your) action has resulted in 1700 signatures in a little over 3 months!
But we can do better!
Archbishop's lecture on prison reform, restorative justice and community
from the article on The Archbishop of York's blog:
Dr John Sentamu questioned the deterrent effect of imprisonment, severity of sentencing, the pivotal role of communities and the need for restorative justice in his Prisoners Education Trust Annual Lecture.
Dr John Sentamu said, "We should be pained and troubled by the size of our prison population in Britain, the sheer number of individuals who have given up on community – and feel that community has given up on them. We need to show love and compassion while ensuring justice is served and seen to be served".
Oct 11, 2010 Country:England&Wales, Offender, Community Service, Community, Gang
Michael Vick, Bill Simmons, forgiveness and restorative justice
from Eliyahu Fink's post on Pacific Jewish Center:
Bill Simmons (aka The Sports Guy) wrote a recent [espn.com] column about Michael Vick and his comeback.
....Simmons writes that Vick emerged as the “feel good story” of the NFL. But his wife disagrees. The Sports Gal cannot forgive Vick. The Sports Gal says that if you love dogs, you cannot possibly forgive Vick. Sport Guy retorts that Vick did everything humanly possibly to pay for his crimes, apologize and rehabilitate his life. He lost EVERYTHING. He said he was genuinely sorry. He is fixing what he broke. Vick is a real Restorative Justice story. And Bill Simmons forgives him. Mrs. Simmons loves dogs too much to forgive Vick.
The article is a great read and I recommend reading it.
Oct 08, 2010 Forgiveness, Victim, Apology, Offender
Restorative Justice Dialogue: An essential guide for research and practice
reviewed by Eric Assur:
Inviting Howard Zehr, known as the grandfather of restorative justice (RJ), to write the forward of this book is reflective of the wisdom of the two authors, both social work professors and founders of peace and justice programs in large university settings. Zehr compliments Umbreit and Armour for writing a valuable ‘state of the union’ book to summarize how the discipline has grown in thirty years.
It is difficult to find flaws in this eleven chapter review of the philosophy, practices and programs which fit under the rubric of RJ. Unlike an anthology or collection of journal articles or chapters written by many authors, this book reflects the smooth writing style, with a few helpful tables and easy to follow figures, of the Umbreit-Armour team. They offer the up to date and well documented wisdom of many subject area experts in a comprehensive and cogent fashion.
Oct 07, 2010 Conference, Practice, Book Review, Mediation, Circle, Correspondent:Eric Assur
From death row to elusive freedom
from the article by Ron Keine on Other Words:
Now I can eat eggs every morning. But every night I relive my death row experiences. Every day, I still struggle to contain the anger rising inside of me.
Frankly, every time I awaken from this nightmare of finding myself back on death row, I'm embarrassed. I have been out for a long time. I should be over it by now. But every time I get lost in a book or daydream, when I wake up in the morning, or look up from a crossword puzzle or read a newspaper, the feeling creeps up on me. I'm back on death row. And I am not alone.
Free online course about conflict resolution, mediation, peer support, as well as strategies for improving the school and classroom climate, from 5 October to 9 November.
from the post by Anneke Van Hoek on the LinkedIn group on restorative justice, justice and reconciliation:
The course will be moderated by Helen Cowie and Pat Colliety from the University of Surrey (United Kingdom). It is free of charge and will take place online using the resources of the teachers' course from the EU-funded project VISTOP project (http://vistop.org/).
Participants are expected to read the course materials throughout each week in their own time. The group of students will meet "face-to-face" each week for synchronous meetings at the virtual Anti-Violence-Campus in the virtual world of Second Life to engage in the topic for that week.
Final report from the International Conference on Restorative Justice and Victim-Offender Mediation
from the final report translated by Virginia Domingo:
The First International Conference on Restorative Justice and Victim-offender mediation was held in Burgos in March 2010, organized by the Victim-offender Mediation Service in Castilla y León (Burgos) with the collaboration of the University of Burgos, the city hall and the European forum for Restorative Justice. This was the first international conference organized in Spain on this subject. It was very successful and 250 persons from different parts of Spain and other countries such as Portugal and Mexico attended the Conference.
Oct 04, 2010 Country:Spain
Response by Dr Martin Wright to European Commission consultation document: Taking action on rights, support and protection of victims of crime and violence
From the response by Dr. Martin Wright:
The key to this reply is in the last answer: that in principle restorative justice practices should be available to all victims, subject only to the safeguards mentioned in the reply to Question 17. Restorative processes are in the interests not only of victims, but also of offenders and the community.
Victim-offender dialogue is valuable as an end in itself as well as a means to an end. For many victims, action to make the offender less likely to re-offend is at least as high on their list of priorities as monetary compensation or reparation through work. When the victim and offender agree on one of these methods of reparation, it is incumbent on the community to provide the resources to enable offenders to carry them out.
Oct 01, 2010 Region:Europe, Support, Mediation, Correspondent:Martin Wright, Victim, Policy, Other
