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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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 War On Drugs Compared to a Public Health Approach

My experience in working in Hawai’i prisons since the late 1970s (before the “war on drugs” when we had less than 20 women imprisoned in our state compared with about 600 today), and visiting many prisons on all continents except Africa, is that most imprisoned people are poor people. The legal system favors people with money who can pay for good legal representation. Bryan Stevenson, who works with people serving life sentences and on death…

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APAC: Brazil’s Restorative Justice Prisons

On July 5 & 6, 2010, I visited two APAC prisons (Associacao de Protecao e Assistencia aos Condenados in English translated as: Association for Protection and Assistance of Convicts) in the city of Itauna, state of Minas Gerias, Brazil. The original APAC prison, which was in San Paulo, Brazil was reportedly the “first contemporary prison” to totally apply a faith-based approach to all parts of prison administration. (See: “Prison Religion: Faith Based reform and the…

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Federal Measures Before Congress that Can Help Promote Restorative Justice

On Tuesday May 11, 2010 4:00 p.m. two measures will be heard by the U. S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security: H.R. 4080, the Criminal Justice Reinvestment Act of 2009; and H.R. 4055, the Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) Initiative Act of 2009. Reinvesting in crime and the HOPE programs could provide for restorative interventions. Judge Steven Alm a former U.S. Attorney for Hawai‘i, developed the HOPE program. While it…

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San Patrignano: A Model Restorative Community for People with Addiction Problems

On September 11, 2008 I spent six hours touring and learning about the San Patrignano drug rehabilitation community located in Rimini, Itlay.  I spent the week before in Lausanne, Switzerland providing training on conflict management for women from over 50 different countries who primarily work for their country’s Olympic Committees.  My friend Marina Canatacuzino, a journalist who created The Forgiveness Project, suggested I visit San Patrignano, which is relatively close to Switzerland. San Patrignano is…

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