United States

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Austria. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Restorative justice behind bars

from the article by Stacy Howard on the Criminal Justice section of Seattle University's website: This summer, Seattle University's Criminal Justice program took students out of the classroom and into prison cells. SU’s criminal justice chair and a sociology professor teamed up to create a new pilot course that provided a unique learning experience for students.

An outcome evaluation of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative

from the research brief produced by the Minnesota Department of Corrections: To evaluate the effectiveness of the InnerChange program for male inmates at MCFLino Lakes, the DOC examined recidivism outcomes among 732 offenders released from prison between 2003 and 2009. There were 366 offenders who participated in InnerChange, had their recidivism risk assessed, and had been released from prison during the 2003-2009 period. Offenders whose recidivism risk had been assessed and had been released during the 2003-2009 period, but did not participate in InnerChange, were matched to those in the InnerChange group on commonly-known risk factors. Multivariate statistical analyses were performed to further control for other factors besides InnerChange participation that may have had an impact on recidivism. These measures were used to ensure that any observed differences in recidivism between the 366 InnerChange participants and the 366 offenders in the comparison group were due strictly to participation in InnerChange.

Undue influence: The power of police and prison guards' unions

from the transcript of the report by Andrew Stelzer for National Radio Project: Police officers and prison guards hold tremendous political sway. Their unions support or opposition can make or break a campaign for office. And their advocacy for better pay, more power, and more jobs has been a major factor in the expansion of the prison industrial complex. For decades, they’ve helped build America’s build America’s criminal justice system. Now that system is changing. Can law enforcement unions change as well?

Colorado Victim chooses restorative justice and meets with offender

by Lisa Rea This is an excellent article, well written with the right emphasis and explanation of restorative justice, telling the story of Sharletta Evans. She chose to meet the man who killed her young son. This was made possible after the passage of legislation carried by Representative Pete Lee.

Restorative justice for veterans: The San Francisco Sheriff 's Department's Community of Veterans Engaged in Restoration (COVER)

from the article by Sunny Schwartz and Leslie Levitas: ....Veterans represent a rapidly growing segment of the jail population whose characteristics mirror those of the general jail population and include histories of substance abuse, inconsistent work histories and challenges related to maintaining family relationships. Like most prisoners, they receive few services while incarcerated to address the myriad of health, mental health, and psychosocial issues that contribute to their incarceration and pose challenges upon release. The military discharge status of most justice-involved vets—less than honorable—makes them ineligible for many of the benefits and services offered by the Veterans Administration (VA).

Restorative justice and its effects on (racially disparate) punitive school discipline

from the paper by David Simpson: ....Finally, I investigated whether the implementation of Restorative Justice significantly reduced racial disproportionality in school discipline vis-à-vis African American students. In particular, I analyzed whether the disparity in black suspension percentage as compared to white suspension percentage—measured by the difference between black suspension percentage and white suspension percentage)—was reduced by a greater amount in schools that implemented Restorative Justice than in those that did not. I confined my analysis on this point to only those schools that had white as well as black enrollment of over 20 students. I did so because otherwise small fluctuations in total suspension numbers and/or enrollment numbers would have improperly skewed my results.

Restorative justice for juvenile offenders

from the entry by Harold Dean Trulear on Think Christian: The recent Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, which concerns the imposition of life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders, offers an important opportunity for people of faith to revisit our civic responsibilities with respect to children and youth.

New home for juveniles recruited to drug trade

from the article by Julian Aguilar in the New York Times: Freddie knows he is lucky. If he were six months older, he could be in a state prison. Or he could have been labeled a snitch and treated as such by Mexican cartel operatives.

Punishment v. restoration: A comparative analysis of juvenile delinquency law in the United States and Mexico

from the article by Beth Caldwell in the Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law: ....Within Mexico, the State of Oaxaca has developed a code that incorporates these human rights principles and sets forth procedures for using restorative justice conferences as an alternative to the adversarial court system.... Oaxaca’s approach exemplifies the restorative model contemplated in Mexico’s national constitutional reforms.

At last, truth and reconciliation for Maine's Indian Adoption Project legacies

from the article on ICTJ.org: Friday, June 29, was both a "great day and a sad day" for the US state of Maine, in the words of its governor, Paul LePage. It was a great day because Maine was taking an historic step to address the legacies of the 1950's and 60's Indian Adoption Project, a program which removed hundreds of Native American children from their families and tribes and placed them in the state-run foster care system.

Denver woman feels the power of restorative justice after son murdered

from the article by Kevin Simpson in the Denver Post: ....When legislation last year cleared the way for a pilot program in restorative justice with the Colorado Department of Corrections, Evans — who had testified on behalf of the measure — embraced the opportunity to go first. She and her older son Calvin Hurd, who was 6 when gunshots peppered the car where he sat sleeping with his brother, began more than six months of preparation for a direct dialogue with Johnson. Part of that involved revisiting the crime. Evans had driven with her two children to a northeast Denver duplex to pick up her grandniece because there had been a drive-by there the previous night. She left her sons in the car.

The United States Peace Index

from the website of the Institute for Economics & Peace: The United States Peace Index (USPI) is the first national peace index and is the only statistical analysis that offers a comprehensive nation-wide measurement of crime and its costs to all 50 states. The index uses five key indicators to measure peace: the number of homicides, the number of violent crimes, the incarceration rate, the number of police officers and the availability of small arms.

Bullying not just a school issue

from the article by Joyanna Weber in the Cleveland Daily Banner: For first time offenders, the juvenile court can try to mediate a resolution without the issue going to a courtroom. This is accomplished through mediation, informal adjustments and restorative justice. Restorative justice gets the victim and the accused and their parents in a room to discuss the issue before it can make its way to court.

School's disciplinary message: We want you here

from Anne Stuhldreher's article in the San Francisco Chronicle: The head of security at Richmond High School is Darryl Robinson. But everyone there knows him as "Coach D." When he started 15 years ago, fights broke out nonstop. Students roamed the halls. And things didn't improve much over the years. Robinson remembers standing in front of a classroom and asking how many students had ever seen someone get killed. "Every hand in the room shot up," he said.

Restorative justice at OWS

from the post by Stephan Geras on ZNet: ....However these “deeply personalized” new democratic processes will of necessity encounter obstacles and trip blocks which can bring to the surface individual and collective hurt or trauma; or in other words conflict which can obviously be strong enough to provoke violence. What’s referred to as the “cycle of violence” I interpret to mean that violence of any kind is internalized, whether it’s one on one or it’s a result of systemic mechanisms of oppression.

Marin grand jury calls for more alternative justice programs

from the article by Gary Klien in the Marin Independent Journal: The Marin County Civil Grand Jury is calling for broader use of "restorative justice," a law enforcement philosophy that emphasizes reconciliation over punitive retribution. In a new report, "Restorative Justice: Its Time Has Come in Marin County," the grand jury acknowledged that the practice strikes some as "soft on crime."

Voluntary participation in restorative practices

From the Restorative Justice Facilitator Code of Conduct and Standards of Training and Practice adopted by the Colorado Restorative Justice Council, April 2012: A restorative justice facilitator shall conduct a restorative justice practice based on the principle of voluntary participation for all participants. Voluntary participation means that the participants in the restorative justice process have come to the meeting by choice.

Study: Zero tolerance policies may have negative health implications for students

from the article by James Swift in Juvenile Justice Information Exchange: A new report based on research of three California school districts suggests that school children exposed to so called, “zero tolerance” policies may be taking a toll on their mental health and wellbeing.

For prisoners, hope and help behind bars and beyond

from the article by Dean Bucalos in the Courier Journal: What has been missing in the panoply of services provided to ex-offenders is grassroots, community involvement. When people are released from prison, they have the promise of often questionable and impermanent housing. Most have no money or the security of employment. Often, they return to environments that were partially responsible for leading them to make poor choices and commit crimes. Having faced this reality, those involved with our prison congregation have answered Russell’s question posed by Leonard Pitts, “What are we going to do to help him when he gets out?”

Baltimore's oldest black cemetery finally restored, with help of inmates

from the article by Justin Fenton in the Baltimore Sun: ....After decades of neglect, interrupted occasionally by well-meaning but ultimately fruitless cleanup efforts, the cemetery in South Baltimore was officially rededicated Monday, due in large part to the labors of an unlikely group: state prison inmates. As part of a program to put those serving time to work on meaningful projects, more than 40 prisoners have worked on the four-year effort to transform the cemetery's 34 acres.