Staying Restorative

Articles and other resources on self care for restorative practitioners and advocates.

Restorative justice circles: Meeting the social brain needs, developing humanity

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: A power point from the National Association of Social Workers was recently forwarded to me. A great presentation I didn’t hear directly, by Johnathan Jordan, mindfully change. Some pieces immediately resonated and I can see how Restorative Justice Circle process promotes and leverages brain based change!

The Howard League as victim of crime

from Frances Crook's (CEO of the Howard League) blog: The Howard League is a victim of crime. Our credit card was used to pay for stuff for someone who clearly had got hold of the details fraudulently. We think what happened was that when we had a supplier in to do some work on the building (I am not being too specific here for obvious reasons, but telling the story as a warning to others) they phoned through the details to an associate. The details were used several times and we would have picked it up at the end of the month, but the fraudster got over-confident and used it for a sum of over £1,000 and the bank noticed and put a stop to it. We are going to be reimbursed so the charity will not be out of pocket.

Learning from Rwanda

from the article by John H. Stanfield, II in Tikkun: ....How do you mend a country when intimates killed intimates in such tightly knitted communities? How do you do justice when thousands of people were perpetrators and where you only have so much prison space? How do you do it? Rwanda is doing it through a largely homegrown restorative justice methodology.

Restorative justice and coercion

by Lynette Parker: Recently, I had a brief Twitter conversation with HMP_Chaplain about restorative justice and coercion. HMP_Chaplain commented on a statement by a Sycamore Tree Project facilitator in England and Wales that “if they make RJ compulsory she will pull out. I responded in a couple of Tweets: “Can understand...voluntariness is essential in RJ. Coercion can stand in the way of dialogue but doesn’t have to.” “Also RJ is more than a process its a way of thinking that can inform all interactions with offenders.”

Women key in making peace

from the article by Yvette Moore: ...."The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Wow, finally an acknowledgement that, first, we [women] are the ones that bare the greatest brunt of all of the world’s conflicts,’” Ms. [Lehmah] Gbowee said, sharing her initial reactions to the news she and two other women had received the [2011 Nobel Peace Prize].

Choosing to change: Transitioning to the transformative model in a community mediation center

from the chapter by Jody B. Miller in Transformative Mediation: A sourcebook: Understanding that transitioning to the transformative framework would be a long journey, we committed to that path. As a staff, we began to attend trainings and apply what we learned to cases at the Center. We attended our first transformative Mediation Training in 2001, with Baruch Bush, Sally Pope, and Judy Saul, and it became clear what had been missing: a mediation practice grounded in premises and principles about people in conflict. It all began to make sense when we came to understand that crisis is a conflict in human interaction, and that conflict has an effect on one’s ability to stay strong in self and connected to others. I had been a practicing mediator for more than 11 years and it was the first time that I learned mediation from a theoretical perspective – one that articulated clear underlying beliefs about people and their abilities, conflict and its effects, as well as what our purpose as mediators was and what it wasn’t.

Don't send that email. Pick up the phone!

from Anthony K. Tjan's entry on HBR Blog Network: Like many readers, I have experienced too many unproductive strings of back-and-forth emails or texts that should have stopped in round two, but continue. The problems with trying to resolve sensitive matters over email or text are quite obvious:

Review: Walking the talk: Developing ethics frameworks for the practice of restorative justice

by Lynette Parker While restorative justice is a theory that encompasses a set of values for how justice should be done, maintaining those values and the restorative focus can become difficult in day-to-day practice. People working in restorative justice organisations – whether staff or volunteers – make a myriad of decisions related to practices each day. Such decisions may be related to work with clients, work with other organisations or internal processes and interactions. How can they make these decisions while maintaining the integrity of their restorative justice programme? Susan Sharpe seeks to answer this question with Walking the talk: Developing ethics frameworks for the practice of restorative justice. In the 62 page publication, Sharpe sets out a process that organisations and individual practitioners can use to develop an ethics framework to empower and guide decisionmaking. In doing so, she avoids the contentious issue of setting standards by developing the steps in a process that each organisation can use to develop a framework that has direct meaning for it and the various issues that it faces.

Elements of attitude, for effective Circle-keeping

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: Elements of attitude . . . . . . for effective Circle-keeping We above me. Carefully consider that you are leading a group process. Pay attention to the social and emotional climate of all members in the group. Put aside your needs, and focus on the needs of the collective.

Practitioner Register launched in UK

by Lizzie Nelson The Restorative Justice Council (RJC) has launched a new Practitioner Register. This has been a long time in coming – the RJC worked since 2004 on Best Practice Guidance, which finally in 2010 was turned into National Occupational Standards (these exist across all sectors in the UK, so are a benchmark of skills and knowledge). Based on this we have now been able to develop Practitioner Registration. Pracititioners will be able to register with the RJC either by taking an award based on the National Occupational Standards (an award that assesses both their knowledge and their skills on the job) or by providing direct evidence to us that their practice meets the National Occupational Standards (a kind of grandfathering system, if that means anything to you!).

To teach Restorative Justice, have “treats” repair harm and remember best practices

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: A few of the practices I use to enhance the “Restorative-ness” of teaching Restorative Justice: 4 stages of Circle. Each class/CIRCLE includes an open and close, a getting acquainted question, a building relationship question and for our issue, we talked course content. The taking action phase of the Circles was the “check-out”, “take away” or “reflection” on the class period. One thing I remember, is that college students seemed to enjoy original thought. We would have different aspects of the class time, or different perspectives presented when we did this ending. It also allowed for students to relate to each other and have a different understanding on the topic taught that day. The students taught each other what they learned.

In the society, community and family of Restorative Justice, 3rd National Conference 2011

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: I have attended 3 of the 3 National Restorative Justice Conferences. I am typing this blog from the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Raleigh, host of the most recent meeting. I stayed tonight, the conference ended at noon. Instead of being surrounded by familiar faces, and at the very least, people in orange lanyards, I am here alone. I am feeling lost in a mystery of something much bigger than myself. This is a feeling that only being alone, without lonliness can provide. My adventure began by picking up Kay Pranis, and traveling out of Minneapolis together. I love Kay, she really embodies the spirt and essence of a restorative justice circle practitioner. We were joined at the gate by Mark Umbriet, and I sat speechless, as the conversation included comparisions of criminal justice reforms, via restorative justice and health care, plant care, food systems and health. I was practically tongue tied as my thoughts drifted from the conversation to the the experience of sitting with these two pioneeers of this movement. They so very humbly, chatted with me about these issues.

7 steps to stopping violence in relationships

from Ken Kimsey's entry on Fairness Works: A seven-step tutorial for people involved in relationship conflicts is available online, free of charge, from the Conflict Resolution Information Source. Intended for educators and instructors, the course was designed by the Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Working with relationships, be mindful of your own sense of justice.

from Kim Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: ....An example of justification in a case: Both parties charged with disorderly conduct. Two young women fought. One threw something at the other, and that “started” it. Further back in time, they were friends, friend A & B. Friend A’s boyfriend cheated on her with Friend B. The friendship ended, the judgements did not, the disagreement escalated, the fight, the court, then restorative justice. When processing the situation restoratively: 1) acknowledge you caused the harm 2) understand from someone elses point of view 3) recognize where you had a choice 4) make amends and 5) take action to change.

Justice program rooted in community, not courts

from Andrea J. Cook's article in the Rapid City Journal: When the South Dakota Supreme Court decided that the court system should take a restorative approach to dealing with crime, it expanded the system's approach from one that focused solely on the offender to one that considered consequences for victims, Horner said. Until victim's rights legislation was on the books, victims were often pushed into the background. Since [the Center for Restorative Justice's] creation, the main goal has been to keep the center community-based, rooted with the community and not the court system, Horner said. "We've worked hard to keep it separate but connected to the court system," Horner said.

I’ve hit my emotional limit

by Lynette Parker As a restorative conferencing facilitator, I often receive the brunt of a lot of strong emotions. This happens most when I’m making first contacts with individuals are in the preconference interviews. I can’t count the number of times I’ve called a victim to introduce the programme to receive a twenty minute monologue covering everything from the pain of the crime to their frustrations with the criminal justice systems to questions about how to move ahead. These emotions are very real and the person expressing them needs to be able to do that. Just recently, I was the recipient of such victim from the daughter of a crime victim. At one point she apologised for dumping her anger and frustration on me as I was only doing my job. I quickly responded that it was okay, that was part of my job. And, quite frankly, it is a part of the work. Even in what might seem to us to be “minor” crimes; we can encounter very strong emotions from those we are serving. This makes facilitator self-care very important.

No script for the journey

by Lynette Parker I recently started reading The spirit and art of conflict transformation: Creating a culture of justpeace by Thomas Porter. Early in the book he says, “The work of conflict transformation is best described as the art of improvisation. Human interaction cannot be programmed, and there is no script for this journey.” Mentally, I said, “You’ve got that right.”

Crossing the divide

from Howard Zehr's Restorative Justice Blog: It has often been my experience that restorative justice can span the conservative-liberal divide. Concerns for victims and for reducing the costs of imprisonment are often common to both. The concept of offenders facing up to what they have done makes intuitive sense to many. Values such as responsibility, respect and relationship are often shared along the spectrum. What we mean by these values and ideas, however, and what motivates us to embrace them, are crucial issues. The lessons to be gleaned from the movement against indeterminate sentencing in the U.S. are instructive. Eventually both progressives and conservatives came together to replace indeterminate sentences with determinate sentences motivated by a just deserts philosophy. The resulting lengthened mandatory sentences dramatically increased the prison population. While there was some confluence of policy positions, the underlying values and motivations of the various parties were quite different. The results have been in many ways catastrophic.

Who takes ownership of a restorative justice programme?

from Ken Webster's article in Resolution: ....At the European Forum for Restorative Justice’s 10th Anniversary conference in Bilbao,Spain in June 2010, retired Concord,Massachusetts Police Chief LenWetherbee and I presented a session with the above title. I spoke about the issues that set a community/statutory agencies partnership approach to restorative practices apart from those that are managed and delivered solely by the statutory agencies. Len gave an example of such an approach, speaking about the community/statutory agencies partnership Communities for Restorative Justice (www.C4RJ.com) project in Concord and how effective a non-profit partnership of community members and police departments can be.

Making progress in restorative justice: A qualitative study

from the abstract of a thesis by John R. Bacon: This is an exploratory study into how restorative justice (RJ) facilitators made progress before and during a RJ conference. It draws specifically on the experiences of Justice Research Consortium (JRC) facilitators who participated in one of three Home Office funded trials between 2001-4, and the only trial to employ a randomized control design based on the RJ conference model. Qualitative data was collected via focus group meetings and individual interviews.