Restorative Justice – Page 5 – Restorative Justice & Other Public Health Approaches for Healing

Zero Tolerence = Zero Reality

By Lorenn | April 20, 2009 by Lorenn

I write this from Barcelona where it is a bright sunny morning. Here is a good piece on Colorado’s experience applying a zero tolerance approach at schools post the Columbine School killings: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12179638 The idea of zero tolerance reflects a zero vision of reality. While of course guns should not be allowed at schools, imposing blanket punishments on students for rule violations ignores reality. The nature of childhood and learning, assumes making mistakes. Please read…

Restorative Justice

RSVP:San Francisco Jail’s Violence Intervention program

By Lorenn | April 16, 2009April 20, 2009 by Lorenn

On March 2, 2009 I had the great pleasure of visiting RSVP, the San Franciso jail violence intervention program for its residents, which uses restorative justice. Along with me learning about RSVP was Carissa Phelps (someone who deserves a whole book to describe what an inspiration she is–there is already a great documentary movie describing her amazing response to a challenging childhood). It was wonderful visiting the program and also meeting with Sunny Schwartz and…

Inspiration Restorative Justice San Patrignano Solution-Focused

Imagining Miracles

By Lorenn | March 15, 2009March 15, 2009 by Lorenn

About five years ago I learned about solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_focused_brief_therapy), which focuses on “preferred futures” instead of “problem talk,” and since then I have been applying it to my work and life. While restorative justice gives us the opportunity to face wrongdoing and social injustice by imaging what we need to heal or to make things right, SFBT provides specific language skills that help us do this kind of thinking, and ultimately create…

Inspiration Restorative Justice

Obama’s Inspiration for Imprisoned People

By Lorenn | January 21, 2009January 21, 2009 by Lorenn

We are providing a restorative justice facilitation skills and solution-focused problem solving training for a group of 20 incarcerated men at Waiawa Correctional Facility on O‘ahu. A paper on this training program that we have now provided to five groups of incarcerated people, is available on my website under the Articles page and is titled A Gift of Listening for Hawai‘i Inmates. Tonight we are going to share the following photo and last few paragraphs…

prisons Rehabilitation Restorative Justice

New Restorative Prison in Canberra, Australia

By Lorenn | January 18, 2009March 5, 2012 by Lorenn

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…

Restorative Justice

Dreams from the Monster Factory by Sunny Schwartz

By Lorenn | January 10, 2009January 13, 2009 by Lorenn

A new book Dreams from the Monster Factory by lawyer Sunny Schwartz with David Boodell has just been published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. It is a short memoir of Ms. Schwartz’ life and her experience working at the San Francisco jail. Under the leadership of San Francisco sheriff Michael Hennessey, jail’s director Michael Marcum, Lieutenant Becky Benoit, and Ms. Schwartz, who is the jail’s program director, restorative justice becomes part of the rehabilitation program…

Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence

By Lorenn | January 9, 2009 by Lorenn

Our local newspaper the Honolulu Advertiser, which has gotten so ridiculously thin and short of substance it should be really should be called the Honolulu Newsletter, did a week long series, Crossing the Line, on intimate violence. The series featured the insightful journal writings of a young woman who was murdered by her former boyfriend. I wrote the letter copied below to the editor that was published January 3, 2009 about using restorative justice for…

Restorative Justice

Doctors Need to do More Than Apologize for Mistakes

By Lorenn | November 25, 2008November 26, 2008 by Lorenn

An op-ed video Physician, Say You’re Sorry by Drs. Tom Delbanco & Sigall K. Bell from Harvard Medical School, published by the New York Times November 25, 2008, illustrates the need for the medical profession in the United States to use restorative practices. Mistakes and errors are a part of life including medical practice. How these errors are dealt with is critical for healing and preventing any further emotional pain and damage. This insightful video…

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice not only for shared meetings with victims & offenders

By Lorenn | November 16, 2008December 8, 2008 by Lorenn

People tend to think that restorative justice can only be accomplished when people who have committed crimes and the people they’ve hurt (offenders and victims) meet together in a shared process. This is incorrect. Restorative processes are voluntary and can be applied without ever bringing victims and offenders together. Many people who have suffered from crime, like a kind woman I am working with right now who was robbed while she was in the hospital,…

Restorative Justice

Recidivism being evaluated in a Hawai‘i state court restorative justice pilot project

By Lorenn | November 16, 2008November 27, 2008 by Lorenn

We have begun analysis of recidivism data of a six year old pilot program: Pono Kaulike: A Hawaii Court Provides Restorative Practices for Healing, Walker & Hayashi, Federal Probation Journal, Vol. 71, No. 3, 18-24, 2007. Three different types of restorative justice processes, which were provided with a solution-focused approach, which Insoo Kim Berg, a co-founder of solution-focused brief therapy helped us develop. The restorative processes were available to people convicted of crimes and to…