drug rehabilitation Restorative Justice San Patrignano

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…

Continue reading

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice and forgiveness….

Forgiveness means different things to different people.  The great thing about restorative justice is you can decide for yourself what it means for you and how you might use is.   To some forgiveness means taking someone back into a relationship after they have wrongly hurt you, but to others it means simply accepting what has happened and letting go of the resentment and other negative feelings associated with it–there is no need for a…

Continue reading

Restorative Justice

Visit to a Java Prison

On June 24, 2008 I spent the day in Yogyakarta a.k.a. Jogjakarta, on Java, the main Indonesian island.  It took a lot of work by a great woman, Zunly Nadia, and after several months of paper work, I was allowed to visit a prison.  The prison which I am standing in front of below houses 446 people, 75% of which are there for drug offenses.  They were mostly men, but there were some women and one…

Continue reading

Restorative Justice

What is restorative justice?

My favorite definition of restorative justice is from Suffolk University’s Center for Restorative Justice (http://www.suffolk.edu/college/1496.html), and was written by Carolyn Boyes-Watson: “Restorative justice is a broad term which encompasses a growing social movement to institutionalize peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights. These range from international peacemaking tribunals such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa to innovations within our criminal justice system, schools, social services and communities.…

Continue reading