Let mana grow
November 22, 2009
….A few days later Roy Ferguson, New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, sent me an email with a story that underlines a more inclusive approach to accountability. A couple of years ago the organization American Humane gave an award to New Zealand for what they called “New...
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City programs honored during excellence awards’ 20th anniversary
November 22, 2009
….Population Category Under 50,000: Estes Park, Colo., “Estes Valley Restorative Justice Partnership.†….Estes Park: The “Estes Valley Restorative Justice Partnership†applies the principles of restorative justice to the criminal justice system to improve...
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Vicar forgives daughter’s killers
November 19, 2009
….Roger Smart, prosecuting, said: “Rosi fell to her death having, in fear of further violence… clambered out of a third floor window. “Rosi leapt to her death from the kitchen window of Kemi’s flat to escape from a prolonged period of physical and verbal...
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Perspective: Compassion can change the world
November 18, 2009
Yet Vermont’s judicial system now responds to this kind of juvenile criminal behavior with a process called restorative justice. Restorative Justice (RJ) is used to divert cases from the court system into a conference that includes truth telling, acknowledgment of any harm done,...
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“I’m a dominating bully”
November 18, 2009
“I feel people are bullies because they have nothing better to do,†said Kenyonna Glass, an eleventh grader. Shanique Harvey, a senior, said kids act like bullies because they think it helps get them in with the popular crowd. Lavonte King, a freshman, said he had been both a bully...
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The odds are against ex-offenders
November 18, 2009
I was having lunch with Emmett Solomon because friends of mine had recently welcomed home a son from five years in the penitentiary. Their son’s story is not unfamiliar. He developed a drug problem as a teenager that he was never able to whip. After four or five run-ins with our court...
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Community justice: Not to you or for you, but with you
November 18, 2009
Restorative practices are not a means to do something to someone or even for them in order to facilitate constructive changes. Restorative justice and restorative practices are intended to be a multi-party transformation to facilitate healing and community safety. But to succeed, authentic...
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Restorative justice: From principles to practice
November 16, 2009
For those of you who might be reading this with a healthy degree of skepticism I can tell you that I was able to use restorative justice principles in a very practical way days after Alana & Teresa visited the school. Four IPS students had crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour...
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How does healing happen?
November 16, 2009
As Margaret Coel recounts in her book, Chief Left Hand, most of the Eastern Slope of Colorado Territory was recognized as Cheyenne and Arapaho land in the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie. Boulder Valley was the winter home of Chief Left Hand’s band of Arapahos. But when gold was discovered,...
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Stop bullying now
November 16, 2009
He was a mean dude in every respect, and reveled in making others cower. I took his threat seriously. In fact, I faked being sick in class so I could be sent to the nurse’s office. But I never went there. I ran straight home instead–fearful, full of...
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Restorative justice: A farfetched idea for the Caribbean?
November 16, 2009
The proposal of restorative justice as a means of dealing with some of our problems is premised on the evidence that determinate sentencing and the currents means of keeping law and order are failing in the Caribbean at the same time as we grapple with the growing disorder in societies which...
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Implementing restorative justice: A guide for schools
November 12, 2009
The guide topics include: Why should schools use restorative justice? School safety Criminalizing school misconduct Using restorative discipline Fostering a restorative school culture School restorative justice programs Circles Mediation and conferencing Peer jury Challenges to...
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Supreme Court weighs life sentences for juveniles
November 10, 2009
….On the steps of the Supreme Court Monday, Stevenson said his client was convicted primarily with the testimony of two older accomplices who got very light sentences. Stevenson suggested that Sullivan is the classic case of a kid too young, too poor and too intellectually impaired to be...
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Imprisoning a child for life
November 10, 2009
….The rush to try more and more children as adults began in the 1980s when the country was gripped by hysteria about an adolescent crime wave that never materialized. Joe Sullivan, the petitioner in Sullivan v. Florida, was sentenced to life without parole in 1989 — when he was...
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Promoting international support for community-based justice mechanisms in post-conflict Burundi and Uganda
November 10, 2009
From the Conclusion: There is a concept that exists in much of Africa that we do not have in the West, called Ubuntu in Southern Africa. It is a sense that humanity shares a common spirit and that when one individual is violated, the whole of humanity feels that pain. Archbishop Desmond Tutu...
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