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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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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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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