Lisa Rea
Lisa Rea has an extensive background in public policy as a former staff person in the California Legislature, a legislative advocate for a variety of public and private sector organizations, and a specialist in advocacy, media relations and legislative grassroots organizing. She has worked in the public and private sectors in the area of health care, welfare reform, and environmental advocacy.
Lisa Rea is a national restorative justice expert with 15 years of experience on the state, national and international levels. In the ‘90s she served as state director of Justice Fellowship-California, the criminal justice reform arm of Prison Fellowship. As a government relations consultant she worked with Prison Fellowship International on various justice initiatives around the globe including testing an intensive in-prison victim offender pilot in a Texas prison in 1998.
In 2001 Ms. Rea founded The Justice & Reconciliation Project (JRP), a national restorative justice organization based in California working with victims of violent crime. JRP worked to promote policies based on victims-driven restorative justice encouraging offender accountability and urging expansion of programs to allow direct victim offender dialogue. JRP provided a forum for victims to tell their stories giving victims a greater voice in the restorative justice movement. JRP has been at the forefront of the restorative justice movement in the United States advocating for systemic reform on all levels of the criminal justice system with direct input from victims.
Rea has lectured on restorative justice at conferences in the United States, Bulgaria, New Zealand and Puerto Rico and was an invited speaker to the 2007 Winchester International Restorative Justice Conference in the United Kingdom. She has been a frequent guest on state and national radio and television shows including National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation, California Public Radio “Insight”, Catholic Radio (Bob Dunning Show), and Lifestyle Magazine which airs on Trinity Broadcasting Network in the U.S.
Lisa Rea ran for Congress in California’s 4th congressional district in the 2006 Democratic primary. Lisa is currently a principal at Rea Consulting, a government relations firm doing advocacy, media relations, and grassroots organizing. She continues to provide consulting assistance in victims-driven restorative justice.
You may contact Lisa directly at reaconsulting@comcast.net.
Lisa Rea is the Founder and President of Restorative Justice International (RJI), a global network and association dedicated to victims-driven restorative justice.
Find RJI at http://restorativejusticeinternational.com or via linkedin.com. Contact RJI at restorativejusticeinternational@comcast.net.
Lisa Rea's blog entries:
- Wall Street Financier Bernard Madoff sentenced to 150 years in prison: restorative justice would think of the victims first
- I am often asked to give an example of how restorative justice would work in the real world. The Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, one of the largest corporate fraud schemes in U.S. history, is a great case in point. Bernard Madoff was sentenced on June 29 to 150 years in prison leaving thousands of victims behind. What will become of them? If restorative justice were applied to Madoff case what would it look like? Complicated? Absolutely. But that should never prohibit the application of restorative justice to any crime.
- It's not okay
- By Lisa Rea I have worked as an advocate for restorative justice and criminal justice reform working with both offenders, and their families, through Justice Fellowship as its state director in California in the 1990's, and then working with victims of violent of crime through the creation of The Justice & Reconciliation Project (JRP), a national nonprofit seeking to provide a forum for victims to tell their stories. I can tell you I have seen crime from both perspectives. Advocates who represent victims and advocates who represent prisoners would both agree on one thing: prison rape is never okay. That is why the actions of a federal prison rape commission are so important.
- Advocating for restorative justice before a legislative body: How to make the case
- The legacy of clergy sexual abuse: A cry for restorative justice
- I first became active on the issue of clergy abuse of children in 2001 after reading a local story in Northern California of a high profile school superintendent who told his story to our local newspaper of being abused by the family priest when he was a child. I read that man’s brave story on the front page of our little newspaper over a morning cup of coffee. But I can remember the impact then, as I do now, a reaction of shock, disbelief, and anger. How is this possible? What can we do? And how can we do nothing?
- Lisa Rea: Restorative Justice: Restoring Victims and Communities.
- From the article by Lisa Rea and Theo Gavrielides: Victims-driven restorative justice is built on the premise that an offender needs to see the direct impact that his crime had on his victim and on the community, and should be given the opportunity to make amends and seek to provide a form of reparation to those he injured. Through the voluntary participation of both the victim and the offender engaged in an honest and constructive dialogue (i.e. mediation, family group conferencing, circles, etc.) facilitated by trained professionals, the participants benefit from the information exchange.
- Lisa Rea: Speaking at a California prison during victims awareness week (part 2)
- I had a few more thoughts on my speech at a California prison during victims’ rights week. As is often the case conversations with the inmates are the most telling. Often these exchanges are so very quick not to be meaningful but sometimes they are more.
- Lisa Rea: Speaking about victims-driven restorative justice at a California prison during Victim Awareness Week
- You always learn something when you speak on restorative justice at a prison. This experience was no different. During the week in California called “Victims Awareness Week” I was invited to speak in prison on restorative justice. I brought Cheryl Ward-Kaiser, victim of violent crime and a champion in California for victims-driven restorative justice since the 1990’s. We were a tag team that day which made our presentation all the more powerful. Although the events planned for the week were to teach about victim awareness, few victims of crime were coming to the prison.
- Lisa Rea: Justice, forgiveness and victims of crime
- I cannot think of a more explosive topic of discussion inside the victims of crime community than that of forgiveness. Working with victims of crime particularly in the U.S. has been a wonderful experience for me; however, it is also very tough work. Maybe it's tough because the words we use often can have different meanings to different people. I have learned this particularly true of forgiveness.
