Conflict Resolution

Articles about teaching conflict resolution skills to prisoners and on the use of restorative justice process to resolve conflict inside prisons.

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.”

Prison Ombudsman seeks apologies from staff for unfair treatment of prisoners

by Stephen Shaw, England and Wales Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writing in Inside Time: As Ombudsman, I have tried to pioneer a restorative approach to complaints investigations. If a prisoner has been treated unfairly, a properly worded apology from the staff concerned is the best way of putting things right.

Workman, Kim. The Future of Restorative Justice – Control, Co-option, and Co-operation

This paper explores the history of restorative justice in New Zealand and lays out a course for the future.

Gale, Kathleen. "Restorative Justice: How Alternatives to Violence Project Works"

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) began in NYS in 1975. It consists of experiential workshops that allow participants to develop community and creative responses to potential violence in their daily lives in prison and after release in NYC through Landing Strip. We summarize three previous evaluations of AVP in the States of Delaware and Maryland showing the community building and restorative effects of the project. This paper advocates evaluation of AVP and Landing Strip in NYS. (author's abstract)

Love, Bill. "Program Curbs Prison Violence Through Conflict Resolution"

But good relations between inmates and staff are important to maintaining safety and order in an institution. The DOC is learning that communication and conflict resolution are effective tools for managing their inmate populations. (excerpt)

Walrath, Christine. "Evaluation of an Inmate-Run Alternatives to Violence Project: The Impact of Inmate-to-Inmate Intervention"

The Alternative to Violence Project (AVP), a nonviolence training program run for inmates by inmates, represents at attempt to combat institutional violence. The program provides alternatives to violent behavior; it decreases the rate of violence among and within the prison population and may translate back to the community on release. An impact evaluation of on AVP was conducted in a medium-security corrections facility in Maryland. Despite limitations, the results from this evaluation demonstrate a positive impact on anger and self-reported confrontation for inmates who completed a basic level conflict resolution as compared to those who did not. The power of the institutional environment, the need for continued intervention with offenders, and future directions for correctional-setting based evaluations are discussed.

Newell, Tim. Restorative Practice in Prisons: Circles and Conferencing in the Custodial Setting

Tim Newell, former prison governor in England, states that restorative approaches to crime and conflict resolution represent a cultural challenge to attitudes and assumptions that dominate prison governance and dynamics. Nevertheless, the problem-solving approach of restorative justice has much to offer. Restorative justice can be a culture-changing process for prisons toward becoming more effective in meeting the long-term needs of offenders, victims, and communities, as well as being a more harmonious environment for prisoners, staff, and management. Against this background, Newell discusses organizational and cultural change, paradigms and organizational structures, and the application of restorative ideas in prisons.

Liebmann, Marian. Cultures and conflict

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) started in the mid 1970s in Greenhaven Prison, New York (USA), when a group of inmates asked local Quakers to help them stem violence in the prison. A workshop was devised to teach conflict resolution to inmates, and this model has been used in many prisons in the United States and other countries. In September 2000, at Wadham College, Oxford, an AVP International Conference was held, with people from many countries participating. In this article, Marian Liebmann reports on the conference. The conference included workshops on many relevant topics - including "Cultures and Conflict" - as well as a visit to Grendon Prison.

Bitel, Mark. The Alternatives to Violence Project -- A path to restoration

The Alternatives to Violence Project grew out of an initiative to reduce violence at a maximum security prison in New York State in 1975. In this paper Bitel explains how this project operates within a restorative justice framework. He sketches the history of the project and how it operates in prisons. He also describes the project’s model of change. Specific aspects of the project’s principles and practices that he discusses include the following: restoration and healing; rebuilding self-worth; creating a supportive community; taking responsibility; and conflict transformation versus conflict suppression.

Windt, Szandra and Barabas, Tunde and Fellegi, Borbala. Resolution of conflicts involving prisoners: Handbook on the applicability of mediation and restorative justice in prisons.

...this Handbook sees to support the preparation and implementation of the prison mediation pilot programme and to facilitate dialogue between stakeholders (offenders and victims, directly and indirectly affected family members, professionals, and members of the immediate and broader community). The Handbook is designed for professionals who think they can help perpetrators of serious crimes, their victims and others affected deal together with the damage caused by a crime, understand and clarify the needs of all affected people, and find ways to repair the damage done by participating as impartial mediators. (excerpt)

Restorative Justice Consortium.. Restorative justice and prison staff

In that restorative justice aims to repair the harm caused by a criminal act, it addresses both the offender and the victim. One of the chief ways it can do this is through a victim offender meeting or conference. Restorative justice is also being expanded to handle conflict and harm in contexts other than crime. For example, this kind of conference or mediation is increasingly being used to deal with workplace complaints and disputes. In this article the argument is made that restorative processes or mediation could be used in the Prison Service in England. Hence, the article covers the stakeholders and restorative processes that could be applied to complaints and conflict in this setting.

Roeger, Debbie. Resolving Conflicts in Prison

In this article Debbie Roeger reports on Opening Doors of Ohio, Inc., of which she is the founder and executive director. Opening Doors is a not-for-profit organization designed to support conflict resolution in Ohio prisons. The impetus for founding Opening Doors came from a decision by the management of Marion Correctional Institution to change the cultural view of how conflict had been historically addressed and resolved in the prison. It involves skill-building programming for prisoners and staff to learn new conflict resolution skills, as well as alternative processes (including the option of mediation) to resolve actual conflicts in prison.

Nair, Roshila and Flanders-Thomas, Joanna and Giffard, Chris. Advancing a Human Rights Culture in our Prisons: The usefulness of a conflict resolution approach

In 1998, the Centre for Conflict Resolution was invited by Pollsmoor Prison to run conflict resolution workshops for staff members working with juveniles in the Admission Centre. Pollsmoor Prison is the largest maximum security prison in the Western Cape of South Africa. The staff of the prison had identified conflict resolution as an important part of transformation in the prison, especially to reduce violence and to build better relationships among prisoners, staff, and management. The authors of this article report on the Prisons Transformation Project of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, a project influenced by the initial work with Pollsmoor Prison and by the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report.

Halstead, Sam. Educational Discipline Using the Principles of Restorative Justice

This article shows how restorative justice techniques can be used with students in correctional and alternative education settings.