crime prevention Inspiration Public health Restorative Justice Solution-Focused Uncategorized

11th Annual Parole Completion Celebration

On the evening of October 9, 2019 we were privileged to provide the 11th annual celebration honoring people who were discharged from parole in Hawai‘i this year and those who helped them. The event was held in the magnificent Ali‘iolani Hale (Hawai‘i Supreme Court) in Honolulu. About 65 guests including those being discharged from parole, their loved ones, judges, lawyers including public defenders and a couple candidates for the 2020 election for prosecutor for the…

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Communication drug rehabilitation Non-verbal communication Psychology of possibility Solution-Focused Trauma Victims

Our posture can change our mind and behaviors: important for restorative justice and healing

Fascinating research by Amy Cuddy, social psychologist at Harvard Business School, has important implications for restorative justice interventions and for healing. Professor Cuddy and her colleagues have demonstrated how we simply hold our bodies can affect how we feel, think, behave, and even our hormones. Feeling powerful enough that we believe we can cope with trauma is vital for developing resiliency. For many years since I was harmed by abuse as a child and young…

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NIJ Report: Prison Doesn’t Deter Crime Supports Restorative Processes

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has released findings of what deters criminal behavior. The NIJ offers five findings that it has learned from extensive research in criminal deterrence including the failure of prisons to deter crime. Prison the NIJ says instead can cause people to become more criminal. The findings support restorative responses to crime instead of punishment. The United States, excluding the federal government, spends $53 billion a year on prisons and in…

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Restorative practices are evidence-based

The idea of that certain behavioral practices are evidence-based began in the field of medicine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_practice). “Behavioral health practice (here abbreviated behavioral practice) is a multidisciplinary field that promotes optimal mental and physical health by maximizing biopsychosocial functioning. Evidence-based behavioral practice entails making decisions about how to promote healthful behaviors by integrating the best available evidence with practitioner expertise and other resources, and with the characteristics, state, needs, values and preferences of those who will…

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Basque People Conflict Management

Basque Conflict Management Pracitices & the Spanish Notary System

Jose Antonio Azpiazu, Ph.D., is a humble man. He introduced himself to me in February 2014 as an “amateur historian,” but after speaking with him, and learning more about his work, I discover he is the author of numerous books about Basque history and a well-respected Spanish sociologist. I met with Dr. Azpiazu at the Navel Museum located in the Donostia/San Sebastian harbor to interview him about traditional ways Basque people manage conflict in their…

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Preventing the school to prison pipeline

Hawai’i is working to improve it’s juvenile justice system which currently imprisons youth charged with status offenses. Here is an op ed I wrote about the need to improve school discipline to address our state’s school to prison pipeline. The editorial is reprinted below and was published in the Honolulu Star Advertiser December 29, 2013 and is on line at:http://www.staradvertiser.com/editorialspremium/20131229_Improving_school_disciplinary_policies_would_improve_juvenile_justice_system.html?id=237807351 Improving school disciplinary policies would improve juvenile justice system By Lorenn Walker POSTED Honolulu STAR-ADVERTISER:…

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The Abecedarian Project shows early education prevents crime

The Carolina Abecedarian project is hugely persuasive, early education can prevent crime and it can help people in poverty get out of it. “The Abecedarian project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for poor children. Four cohorts of individuals, born between 1972 and 1977, were randomly assigned as infants to either the early educational intervention group or the control group. Children from low-income families received full-time, high-quality…

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Restorative interventions are safer than teen/youth court

Recently the Huffington Post posted a blog by Michael Shank Phd lamenting the termination of a teen court program in Washington DC. Two experienced restorative practitioners, Kris Miner, Marg Thorsborne and myself wrote the following comment voicing our concern with teen/youth court models: “Thank you [Dr. Shank] for pointing out the importance of juvenile diversion and the need to improve the unhelpful, and often damaging, juvenile justice system. While diversion should be provided by all…

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Restorative interventions needed for 97% cases where defendants plead guilt

Not Guilty: Are the Acquitted Innocent? is an excellent new book by Dan Givelber* Northeastern Law School professor, and Amy Farrell Northeastern Criminal Justice School professor. In this easy to read book, the authors provide valuable information and insights into how judges and juries behave, and how understanding acquittals better (acquittals occur once in every 100 cases) could improve our justice system. “The pervasive problem of crime fuels the belief that we do not prosecute…

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Restorative justice & stories for resilient families and happy individuals

> Bruce Feiler’s March 17, 2013 New York Times article about happy families and how they influence individual family member’s health and happiness, supports our restorative justice and solution focused work http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Feiler discusses how one night he pondered: “What is the secret sauce that holds a family together? What are the ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy?” and went on to learn what he could to answer these questions. His research led…

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