A new commission for restorative justice to deal with difficult past practices of abuse and violence in Sri Lanka
May 9, 2010
….Perhaps in the situation that Sri Lanka is now trying to address it would be useful to recall some other attempts by other countries to go in this direction. In the years following the Second World War the German society was faced with a period of severe psychological and social...
Read More
Proposed “three strikes” legislation in New Zealand
May 5, 2010
The Bill departs from the central principle of just sentencing, which is proportionate response to wrongdoing. The “three strikes†regime, to some extent on strike two and especially on strike three, ignores the nature of offences, which include conduct that ranges from the...
Read More
Trauma care in April
May 3, 2010
PFR operates a ministry to a group of 35 widows with HIV/AIDS. Many of these women were brutally raped as a genocide weapon by men infected with HIV/AIDS and most of the women lost their husbands in the 1994 genocide. The trauma the women have experienced is horrific and they are in great need...
Read More
Equity leaders learn how to take restorative justice beyond the circle
May 3, 2010
“I’ll be honest, most people in the Board will never do a full restorative justice circle,’†Sir Winston Churchill vice-principal Timothy Powell-McBride told an HWDSB Equity Leaders’ Workshop on restorative justice yesterday. “But I tell you: this has...
Read More
What if … restorative justice?
May 3, 2010
Victims are given the chance to articulate to offenders the ways in which they were hurt by the crime. This is an opportunity that they often are not afforded in our current court process, and one reason why the majority of victims find the current justice system unsatisfactory. ...
Read More
Being a trustworthy person and a trustworthy non-profit.
May 3, 2010
….People participating in Restorative Justice, seem to get more when they understand that the intention behind the process is one of help or healing. It seems our process can go further and deeper when people see Restorative Justice as competent. Some victims are able to step...
Read More
Best Practice Guidance for Restorative Justice Practitioners and their Case Supervisors and Line Managers (Scotland)
May 3, 2010
This ideal leaves it open as to (a) when restorative justice is done, (b) what kind of restorative justice process is used, (c) whether those involved decide to participate, or (d) what needs to happen in addition to restorative justice. The application of restorative justice is, in this...
Read More
Twilight for campus legal codes? Talking circles aid the aftermath of destructively drunk students and more.
May 3, 2010
Even before the semester-long course was over, Bacon was applying restorative justice principles and techniques to cases referred to JMU’s Office of Judicial Affairs, which he directs. In the last 18 months, Bacon has offered students the option of participating voluntarily in...
Read More
Justice, reconciliation and peacebuilding: Seen through African eyes
May 3, 2010
….In each of these African countries were peace has returned and the country is moving on, the question still remains, what do you do with the human rights abuses? The irony of the debate is that the liberal peace system is in crises. The justice it presents as a pre-requisite for...
Read More
Norway builds the world’s most humane prison
May 2, 2010
Halden’s greatest asset, though, may be the strong relationship between staff and inmates. Prison guards don’t carry guns — that creates unnecessary intimidation and social distance — and they routinely eat meals and play sports with the inmates. “Many of the...
Read More
Text of Virginia legislation concerning victim visits with prisoners
April 30, 2010
VIRGINIA ACTS OF ASSEMBLY — 2010 RECONVENED SESSION CHAPTER 844 An Act to amend and reenact §§ 19.2-11.4 and 53.1-30 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the victim of a prisoner visiting the incarcerated prisoner. Approved April 21, 2010 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of...
Read More
UK restorative justice pre-election special report from Restorative Justice Consortium
April 30, 2010
The Labour Party made a commitment to “bring in a Restorative Justice Act to ensure it is available wherever victims approve it” in their manifesto (Labour party manifesto page 5:3). The Liberal Democrats manifesto pledged that they will “Champion restorative justice...
Read More
Making sure no child offender is left behind
April 26, 2010
Lorenzo Wakefield, a researcher at the Children’s Rights Project at the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, believes it is unfortunate that the first test case for the Child Justice Act, involving the 15-year-old boy arrested for the murder of Eugene...
Read More
Senate Concurrent Resolution: Requesting the Department of Public Safety to factilitate the delivery of the Huikahi Restorative Circles Program in Hawai’i Correctional Facilities.
April 23, 2010
WHEREAS, according to a study of United States Departmentof Justice statistics conducted in 2002, fifty per cent ofAmerican inmates will return to prison within two years of theirrelease; and WHEREAS, a restorative circle is a group planning processfor individual inmates, their families, and...
Read More
Va. OKs bill to let violent crime victims meet with death row inmates
April 23, 2010
Even in states that offer victim-offender meetings, “there are a thousand bureaucratic road blocks put in the way,” said Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, a national prison ministry. “The system has a paternalistic view that they know better than the victim,...
Read More