Restorative justice stops fights, keeps kids in schools
March 7, 2010
….”When zero tolerance was used within schools, that was pushing students out and suspending them for minor offenses,” Nunez said. Students like Salazar would find themselves in deep academic holes with little motivation to get out. “Getting suspended made me fall...
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Knife robber meets victim
March 7, 2010
….Zoe said: “I was not sure if I wanted to do it at first, but I wasn’t scared of him any more and I wanted to know why he did it. “I thought it would benefit me and other people too, because it might make him less likely to reoffend.” Zoe said she had felt...
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Dispute Resolution Foundation gets $34 million injection from EU
March 7, 2010
It will also provide capacity building training to community personnel that will help them to strengthen their local justice systems, and empower community members to take control of their lives, enhancing national security and good governance. One of the activities under the project is a...
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Locking up non-violent youths costs millions and does little to reduce crime
March 7, 2010
As yet, however, this momentum has not been matched within the formal youth justice system. Despite this, policymakers in England and Wales need not look far for evidence that restorative justice can work, as, since 2003, Northern Ireland’s youth justice system has placed restorative...
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Why is criminal justice only partially privatized?
March 7, 2010
Both private policing and restorative justice emphasize the experience of the crime victim, and both grow out of frustration with the public enforcement system. Just as private couriers respond to shortcomings at the U.S. Postal Service, private policing and restorative justice appear...
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Can restorative justice become too routine?
March 7, 2010
I’ve thought about this with some cases I’ve received as a volunteer restorative conferencing facilitator. The jurisdiction I volunteer in only allows for restorative justice post-sentence. I’ve written before about the issues and questions involved in ordering a...
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Greg Wilhoit: The story of an innocent man
March 4, 2010
Greg was fully exonerated and released from prison in 1993. Best seller author, and former trial attorney, John Grisham writes about Ron Williamson and Greg Wilhoit in his excellent book The Innocent Man (Bantam Dell; 2006). Williamson and Wilhoit were cell mates on Oklahoma’s death row...
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After murders, families find a healing path
March 3, 2010
….Their distance became physical as the sisters married and moved to different locations around the United States and world. Yet, eventually, each woman began to let out the darkness that had enveloped their lives. In the journey from violence to healing, one of those steps is telling...
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What role should crime victims play in plea bargains?
March 3, 2010
There’s a problematic conflation throughout the article of “victim’s rights,” which is a largely ephemeral, political idea, with legal rights of defendants accused by the state, which are enshrined in the US Constitution. The Press article is rife with examples of crime...
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Africville apology is a start, not an end
March 3, 2010
….While other parts of the city of Halifax, which had amalgamated Africville, was receiving investments for modernization efforts, the racially isolated community of Africville was left to ruin. The final result of 150 years of unequal opportunity, municipal neglect and institutionalized...
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Amnesty and justice in Afghanistan: “a nose made of dough”
March 2, 2010
….The Afghan amnesty law refers to similar processes in other post-conflict states, particularly the South African reconciliation process which is considered to be a relatively successful programme. In South Africa the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body that...
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True community policing means restorative justice
March 2, 2010
….This is where Restorative Justice comes in. Restorative Justice (RJ) is a philosophy that believes in the power and influence of individual communities to work together toward improving the lives of everyone living in that community. In practice, RJ is collaboration between the...
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Restorative justice: Updating Jirga in NWFP Pakistan
March 1, 2010
These photos, taken in Mardan, 45 kilometers from the provincial capital of Peshawar, show such relationship building. Malik Naveed (pictured speaking at podium),is the top police official for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), one of the border areas gripped by the “war on...
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Core capacities of restorative justice practitioners
February 26, 2010
Let me say first that there seems to be a fundamental paradoxical question here: How does one maintain a profound respect for whoever and whatever people are – including their needs, priorities, values, directions, stagnations, resistance, armoring, lack of movement, etc. – while...
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Getting feedback is awesome, we should give it more often, directly.
February 26, 2010
See the plates were direct and to my face, I can really do something with that. The phone call came as a professional courtesy and in a few days I’ll know more about that. For now, I know someone has feedback about me, they just gave it to someone else to give to...
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