Can restorative justice help balance the scales for African-American youth?

from the article by Rebecca M. Stone in the Miami Herald:

Darryl is a 12-year-old African American boy whose mother, Ariel, is a single parent. Ariel left high school after becoming pregnant with Darryl and has struggled to find anything but minimum wage jobs to support her family.

One day when he was out with another friend, Darryl and his friend snuck into the neighbor's house and stole a video game. The neighbors called the police.

One might conclude that the future does not bode well for Darryl. In fact, we probably would not be surprised if we were to learn later on that he was in prison. However, there is much more to his story, and much to learn from it. The police response ultimately resulted in a restorative intervention and provided Darryl with an alternative approach.

Nov 04, 2011 Minority, Guidelines, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Country:USA

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Dade County schools hit upon alternative measures of punishment through restorative justice

from the article by Jimmie Davis, Jr in the Westside Gazette:

It’s easy for administrators at Miami-Dade County Public Schools [MDCPS] to suspend and expel students for misconduct, but the underlying is-sue of why pupils misbehave will not be resolved.

So instead of rushing to ruin a kid’s career, the Educational Transformation Office [ETO] has embraced Restorative Justice at some of the “Rising 19” schools to address the root causes of why kids act out. In particular African American and Latino students are getting kicked out more than Caucasians, which leaves them vulnerable to getting into more trouble and they end up catching a charge and facing time behind bars.

Nov 03, 2011 Policy, School, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA

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