Virtual Offices
January 3, 2010
If you have suggestions or leads, please contact her...
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Response to the (UK) Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour
December 29, 2009
….The consultative document rightly begins with prevention, and it is important to recognise that the majority of pressures towards crime relate to social factors outside the criminal justice system. It is also arguable that measures to combat these forms of deprivation (such as...
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Having no boundaries works . . . when it comes to volunteer recruitement
December 28, 2009
I was trying to call the high school and on two occasions I dialed a 6 where I needed a 3. I did this in the last month, from both my work line and cell phone. No answer on the line and I realized my error in dialing. I thought to myself, the person is...
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Restorative justice talking circles: The simplest of questions can connect us
December 28, 2009
wonder what ‘fluff’ this person felt. Maybe it was the values, and maybe it was a connecting question. I error on the side of building up of connecting people a little before addressing the harm. To me the more you know about someone the more you have something to...
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Why restorative justice helps us with “belonging”
December 28, 2009
The response by participants has really touched me. One young person shared a traumatic story about an incident of threats and abuse by a parent. We all silently absorbed that story, because it was Circle. Later the “taking action†stage, was full of comments...
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Two local women celebrate the circle in new book
December 21, 2009
The first circle experience that Winter and McCreight had was when they were both involved in a community-based restorative justice program that was going on in the area during the late 1990s. It was used to come up with a consensus for punishment or consequence. It was used for less serious...
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Mercy urged for child charged in Jakarta murder
December 21, 2009
….Arist Merdeka Sirait, secretary general of the commission, also known as Komnas Anak, said the charge and the law on which it was based was inappropriate. If tried, he said, the boy should only be charged with the Criminal Code article on violence leading to death. The charge carries a...
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Short prison sentences for young ‘should be axed’
December 21, 2009
….The independent research, commissioned by the T2A Alliance, found that that if all low-level, non-violent young adult offenders in a typical year were made to engage with their victims and make amends via restorative conferencing rather than being sent through the criminal justice...
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Better not bitter says activist Mukoko
December 21, 2009
Mukoko’s story broke out in news media around the world when state officials bundled her out from her house in December last year, blind folded her and took her to a secret location where she was interrogated and accused of being a political detractor amongst other trumped up charges....
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‘Solution circle’ starts healing at Boulder’s Justice High
December 21, 2009
Sena, who was nominated by staff members to be trained as a restorative justice facilitator, said he expects the program to go a long way in keeping kids out of trouble. “It’s not really a punishment,” he said. “It makes them recognize what they’ve done and...
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In its mania for jailing people, Britain has declared trivial offences crimes
December 21, 2009
In a little-reported case at Oxford crown court on Monday, a 60-year-old businessman named Philip Bowles, with no previous conviction, found himself jailed for supposedly switching a VAT liability between two companies. He bitterly protested that he was unable to mount an effective defence...
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Rethinking school discipline
December 21, 2009
Suspensions and expulsions have been on the rise since 1999 when several black students were expelled from Decatur High School, triggering a national debate on race and discipline. Since that year, suspensions of black students have increased a remarkable 74.5% statewide while suspensions of...
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ZAMBIA: Justice delayed becoming justice denied
December 16, 2009
….Sakala admits there are too few courtrooms and even fewer magistrates. “I have files full of complaints on delayed judgments and adjournments,” chief justice Sakala said earlier this year. He accused the local court justices, magistrates and judges of frustrating...
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Restorative justice from a survivor’s perspective
December 14, 2009
One of the things I always told offenders was that when we do something which harms another, we need to apologize for our harmful actions. I emphasized that the ultimate apology is how we live the rest of our lives (have we learned from the harm we caused so that we don’t repeat the...
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