Restorative justice and the Rwandan genocide
April 1, 2010
First, it has contributed to the offenders’ willingness to admit what they have done, to answer questions, and to apologize deeply. Second, it has reminded people of the importance of forgiveness in this process. The forgiveness I speak of is not simply offered by victims of the...
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New study finds restorative encounters produce gravitational inversions; weight loss and carbon footprint implications explored
March 31, 2010
Responding to the study, some restorative justice researchers recalled uncovering data as far back as the early days of victim offender mediation that may have suggested this link between restorative justice and gravity. In his first studies, Mike Umbright reported that victims used phrases...
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Police apologise over child murders probe
March 31, 2010
….The review carried out by Central Scotland Police found that Strathclyde officers who had dealt with Ms Ross had “lacked respect”. They initially treated her concerns as a “non-urgent” case and did not visit Kalyanjee’s flat, which was close to the police...
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Therapeutic jurisprudence, restorative justice and brushfire arson
March 31, 2010
…. It is simply not viable to set up a problem-solving court specialising in arson offenders. The numbers do not justify it. For example, over a five year period from 2003-2004 until 2007-2008 there were only 237 people dealt with for arson (structural and bushfire arson) in Victoria....
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Restorative Justice Centre’s submission to Ministry of Justice on victims’ rights
March 29, 2010
Vindication: 11. Victims of crime usually feel that they have been wronged, and are likely to feel anger and hurt about that. They may feel vindicated in part by the conviction of the offender – ie by his being held accountable through the courts – but the sense of vindication is...
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Boys pay for crime with school chores
March 28, 2010
It was agreed that the boys would carry out some work at the school as recompense for their actions. They apologised to the Head Teacher of the school and set about carrying out chores on the school grounds over two days during the half-term holidays. These included digging over and...
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Tips to sustaining a restorative justice program, from the front line.
March 28, 2010
1.) Hungry dogs hunt harder…. I have checked my percentages of success and failure when it comes to applications, this analysis let me know, to be safe, I need to write for 50% more than what I might expect to get. This gave me a target. A specific measureable target…....
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Prisons in the sky
March 23, 2010
Three observations: First, there are some excellent resources for those wanting to study fads in the design of prisons. Norman Johnston’s Forms of Constraint: History of Prison Architecture, is a classic work demonstrating how societal attitudes toward prisoners and their reform has...
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Crime victims get right to apology
March 22, 2010
But it would only go ahead if victims wanted the apology and were happy to face the culprits. A senior Labour source said: “We need to make offenders face up to the impact of their actions.” The plans “to ensure that all victims of crime would have the right to an...
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Tough on crime but short on logic
March 21, 2010
….All this is happening at a time when Canada’s crime rate is at a 26-year-low; when a dozen cash-strapped U.S. states are closing jails, reducing sentences and diverting drug addicts from prison; and when there’s a growing body of evidence – including a...
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More kumbaya, fewer criminals?
March 21, 2010
The evidence isn’t merely anecdotal, Brooks adds. The British Ministry of Justice sees an average 27 percent decrease in recidivism among the convicts who go through restorative conferencing. Meanwhile, the victims’ incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder drops by 32 percent...
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Mugging victim Zoe Harrison ‘helped to recover’ by meeting her attacker Aaron Burns via restorative justice
March 21, 2010
….The benefits appear to be considerable. Paul Fawcett of Victim Support says: “It is widely accepted that when restorative justice is done right it has a positive effect on reoffending and also has benefits to victims. “It allows them to get things off their chests. It...
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Parole denied for repeat drink-driver who killed woman
March 21, 2010
In October 2006, Barclay was disqualified from driving, but when stopped for driving with excess breath alcohol he gave his new identity issued under the witness protection scheme. Two months later, while disqualified under both names he drove again, killing Miss Ashton. In denying...
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Restorative justice in higher education
March 21, 2010
So why blog about this event here? Well, the field of restorative justice, and its “grandfather,” Howard Zehr (heavily involved in this event today, and the subsequent training), are a big part of why my family ended up moving to Virginia from our happy life in Iowa. So in the...
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New UNC Senator laments tragedy of T&T prison system
March 21, 2010
….She said the offshore prison at Carrera Island prison lacks a water system and prisoners empty buckets of raw faeces into the sea daily through a hole in the prison wall, which she said they also use as a toilet. “Grown men and women without sanitary facilities are forced to...
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