Limiting DNA testing and denying justice to victims

from Lisa Rea, writing at Change.org:

But for God’s sake, if we know we have hundreds or thousands of innocents behind bars must we not do everything in our power to set them free if we live in a civilized society? Absolutely. This court ruling will now make this work harder and slower.

As I said earlier, crime victims are hurt - not helped - by this ruling. The challenge on top of this urgent need to free those who are wrongfully convicted is to remember then that someone who is actually guilty of that crime is free at large. Ask a crime victim how they would view that fact. Having worked in the restorative justice field for 15 years I can tell you that crime victims want the system to get it right. There can be no restoration of crime victims, nor can there be offender accountability - two key elements of restorative justice, if the real perpetrator is not caught.

Jul 23, 2009 Retribution, Theory, Country:USA, Correspondent:Lisa Rea

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An interesting reason to use restorative justice

By Dan Van Ness

"We're looking at thousands of dollars in damage and the courts would never impose that on first offenders. Nor would there be any sort of punitive action taken. With the restorative justice forum, the expectation - and my belief - is that they are going to be dealt with much more harshly through an RJ than they would be in the provincial court system or the youth courts. The courts would probably simply give them a conditional sentence and send them on their way. With the RJ forum we're looking at restitution and we'll be looking at some community input.

"We have the OIC's (Officer in Command's) support and we have the City's support and we're putting together a package in order to make sure that this doesn't fall on the taxpayers' shoulders. City council as well as residents in the area are going to be involved in the forum."

Jul 14, 2009 Retribution, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Theory, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:Canada

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We live in a relational and moral universe

by Dan Van Ness

At the 2^nd National Conference on Restorative Justice in San Antonio, Jennifer Llewellyn spoke of the importance of relationships. “We live in a relational universe,” she said. This is why restorative justice is so powerful – it addresses something real, something that is part of the fabric of life itself. Relationships are core to who we are.

Jul 10, 2009 Retribution, Definition, Theory, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Distinguishing, Conceptual

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