drug rehabilitation prisons Rehabilitation Restorative Justice

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 Prisons prisons Rehabilitation

Norway’s Halden Prison: A Humane Approach Works for Rehabilitation

Halden prison in Norway, close to the boarder near Sweden, is amazing: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.html Halden’s focus on how to treat imprisoned people humanely works to decrease repeat criminal behavior as illustrated in its 20% recidivism rate 2 years after release. An interview with a man imprisoned at Halden affirmed the value of its humane approach. According to the man, Halden is a “fantastic” prison compared to the other 5 he has been in. He said he…

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Rehabilitation Restorative Justice Victims

Albert Eglash & the history of restorative jusitce

Albert Eglash was a psychologist in the 1950s working with incarcerated people. He saw the need for his clients to be accountable for their behavior that hurt others and saw its rehabilitation value. Eglash wanted people to understand the value in their making restitution when they hurt others. He presented a paper at a conference on restitution in 1975: Beyond Restitution-Creative Restitution which was published in 1977 Restitution in Criminal Justice: A Critical Assessment of…

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prisons Rehabilitation Restorative Justice

New Restorative Prison in Canberra, Australia

A new prison has been constructed in Canberra, Australia that is built upon the principals of restorative justice.  The Alexander Maconochie Centre is an attempt to truly rehabiliate incarcerated people. Radio Netherlands Worldwide has produced an insightful story about the new prison, which Austrailian corrections Minister John Hargreaves says was designed in a restorative manner because:  “We want people to realise that the facility is here to help them change their behaviour, to change their…

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