I had the pleasure of meeting with Dominic Barter in Rio de Janeiro in July 2010. I had heard of his restorative circles work last year and was interested in learning more about it.

Dominic is from England and has lived in Rio for about 18 years. His background includes experience with theater and drama. He is a teacher and he said he developed the restorative circle process because, “I had to do something about the violence and conflict in the favelas. If I didn’t get involved and work to do something to improve things I would have had to leave the country.”

The favelas are where thousands of impoverished people live in Brazil. They are what many call slums, ghettos or shanties. They are piles of structures built without any permits, engineering expertise or government assistance. Roads, water and electricity are severely lacking. During a recent rainy season in Brazil many people were killed when water washed out the foundations for many of the poorly constructed homes.

Dominic explained his restorative circle model briefly and said it uses an opening statement that is similar to the one used for Real Justice conferencing. The Real Justice script is on line at: http://www.realjustice.org/articles.html?articleId=662. Dominic also described pre-circle caucuses with parties before they meet in a restorative circle to prepare them for the process. And he said that during the circle after someone speaks, the person listening is asked to repeat back what they heard. “It is amazing how people sometimes don’t hear what was said,” Dominic said. I also understand the Dominic’s circle model uses Marshall Rosenberg’s non-violent communication principles.

Here in Hawai’i we have also developed a restorative circle process, but ours is not a general conflict management process like the process Dominic has developed. Ours is a reentry planning process for incarcerated people who meet with harmed loved ones to address reconciliation and how to meet their other needs for a positive life. To distinguish our process from Dominic’s and other’s in the world using the name restorative circles, we renamed our process to Huikahi Restorative Circles. Huikahi is the combination of two Hawaiian words: “hui” which means a group of people, and “kahi” which means individual. The name was kindly provided by a wonderful Native Hawaiian prison administrator who recognizes the importance of healing for incarcerated people and their loved ones.

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 Constitution”, Sullivan, 2009, emphasis in the original, p. 247).

I went to Brazil to learn how restorative justice is applied there, and visited the Itauna prisons at the suggestion of Lynette Parker who works with Dan Van Ness. “This is like no other prison I’ve been in. It focuses on ‘human valorization’ and has been incorporating more restorative elements over the years,” she said. Dan’s book, Crime and Its Impact on Victims, was one of the first that I read about restorative justice. His personal story of how restorative justice helped him inspired me years ago.

I spent a night and a half a day at the APAC Itauna men’s prison, and also visited the women’s APAC prison across town. Both prisons house people convicted for felonies from the most serious to less serious including drug offenses. The men’s prison has two rooms in the administrative wing of the prison for visitors. Even more amazing than being allowed to spend the night at a prison and eat meals with incarcerated people, is that APAC prisons have no guards, instead the people incarcerated have keys to the prison. APAC  prisons also have a recidivism rate that is remarkably low, and has been reported below 5%.

The atmosphere of the Itauna APAC prisons is different from the many others that I have visited on five different continents. While some prisons are labeled “correctional” institutions, like Hawai’i state prisons, APAC prisons are truly places of rehabilitation. They are not like most prisons including the state of Hawai’i, which sadly teach many people how to be better criminals through inhumane and barbaric environments (See: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, Zimbardo, 2008, which I wrote a blog about: http://www.lorennwalker.com/blog/?p=57)

APAC’s approach is opposite to most prisons. Instead of making the people incarcerated in them feel bad, guilty, and like failures, APAC works to make people feel worthy, respected, and able to restore their lives. APAC gives people hope that they can contribute something to help others and that they can be of service in some way, no matter what their situation.

APAC’s restorative approach begins with the name it uses to refer to the people who live in these prisons. Instead of calling the people inmates or prisoners, APAC calls the recuperandos because they are “people in the process of rehabilitation.” The late Insoo Kim Berg, co-founder of solution-focused brief therapy, would have loved this name recuperandos because she recognized the importance of language and how our labels influence behavior and our experiences.

APAC began in San Paulo, Brazil about 35 years ago with lawyer and serious Catholic, Dr. Mario Ottoboni who worked with others in the community that were dismayed by the prison system and its penchant for turning out criminals instead of rehabilitated people.

My experience at APAC prisons has also made me more committed to using kindness and compassion rather than anger and resentment for dealing with criminal behavior and the harm that it causes.

There is a lot more to be said about APAC’s approach and I am working on a paper that I hope to complete by the end of the year. It will explore how some of APAC’s principals might be applied without being driven by a religion. As one person who works in the Hawai’i prison said basically:  “Faith-based and spirituality can mean that we have faith in our own, and in other people’s potential to do good. It doesn’t require we be any specific religion to have faith and spirituality.”

In Brazil infants are allowed to live in prison with their incarcerated mothers until they are six months old. After that the babies are placed with other care givers outside of prison. Judge Cordeiro noticed early in her child protection court work the difficulties that imprisoned mothers face in coming to court. Being a pragmatic and service orientated person, she now brings court to prison. “I wanted it to be easier on the families,” says Judge Cordeiro. According to staff at the prison and attorneys practicing in cases heard in prison, Judge Cordeiro’s arrangement is much better for the mothers and children and it has positively influenced prison employees and attorneys practicing in her court.

On July 11, 2010, I accompanied Judge Cordeiro to a court hearing she held in a Rio prison. A prison employee said, “We really appreciate her and all she has done to help the women.” A public defense attorney for the imprisoned person said, “She is an exceptional judge. Bringing court to prison is much better.” The prosecutor also present nodded in agreement with his adversary’s assessment.

Judges regularly visiting prisons helps the prisons function better and it gives judges a better understanding of how prisons function and how they affect incarcerated people.

American state judges would benefit their communities by implementing Judge Cordeio’s strategy by holding some court hearings in prisons. If more American state judges knew how prisons work they might better understand why people repeat crime after imprisonment. With this knowledge judges could more easily help reform broken correction systems in many states. And as someone who represented prisons and prison staff in a number of high profile cases during my career as a lawyer, I believe more judges regularly visiting prisons could lead to more restorative justice.

“So sorry I kept you waiting,” said Judge Cordeiro when I first met her. “I received a death threat and the police are busy providing me with protection which gets in the way of my schedule,” she adds.  A man who was affiliated with a fringe religious group, which had a member charged with killing someone recently, threatened Judge Cordeiro.  “He did apologize,” she said too.

Besides going to the trouble of holding hearings in prison, Judge Cordeiro works long days including supervision of about 60 employees who are busy helping families. Judge Cordeiro also writes the blog “Ask the Judge” which provides information for people with child custody questions:  http://www.2vriji.blogspot.com/

The Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Collaborative (CHSFC) is a community based organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people in Washington D.C. It uses restorative justice interventions and provides three basic levels of programs for the community: family group conferencing, youth violence prevention, and work training and jobs for adults. Solution-focused brief therapy principles guide all programs. CHSFC also provides capacity building and training for other agencies.

From June 29 to July 2, 2010 CHSFC sponsored a training institute for people to learn how to apply solution-focused brief therapy (SF) to a variety of social problems including how restorative interventions can be provided more effectively with SF.

Institute participants included probation officers, social workers, therapists, case managers and others from D.C., Florida, Canada, New York and Hawai’i. Yvonne Dolan, Peter Dejong, Penny Griffin, director of CHSFC, Cynthia Hansen, myself, and others from CHSFC provided training. Most of us met years ago through our friendship and work with the late Insoo Kim Berg, a co-founder of solution-focused brief therapy.

Penny Griffith reminded us how importation it is to continue learning no matter what level we’re at and I learned some great lessons at the institute. Besides learning how to better help people shift from problem thinking, blaming and complaining by using solution-focused language, which helps us specify what we want and how we might achieve our goals, I learned even more from the engaging speakers at the institute.

One inspirational person who has worked with the collaborative for years, and who appreciates the simple joy of having a job and doing it well, said that, “Having a solid breakfast every morning with family is the best way to start the day.” While many of us have heard how important family dinners are for binding relationships, this was the first time I heard anyone recommend breakfast.

Penny Griffith also reminded us how important it is to appreciate the moment and the value of mindfulness. Poet and writer Mark Nepo says it beautifully in The Book of Awakening: Having the Life you Want by Being Present to the Life that you Have:

Despite all our noble efforts to reach some treasured peak—be it a dream of wealth or love—we carry the summit within. And it is always the effort and exhaustion—the very journey itself—that opens the view which is everywhere. For the summit is not so much arrived at, as we are worn open to it. ~ Mark Nepo

In mountain biking on narrow single-track trails with steep drops on the side of a mountain, you have to focus on where you want to go. You look down the trail in front of you and pick a line to follow over around rocks and roots that’s passable. If you don’t look where you want to go, and instead look where you don’t want to go, you’re likely go there and crash.

The same is true for dealing with suffering and shows how restorative justice helps us by leading us on a path where we want to go.

I was almost murdered 34 years ago by a stranger and suffered serious injuries that required surgery and hospitalization. My physical injuries took almost 4 months to heal, but my emotional wounds took much longer.

During the first months of recovery I spent a lot of time blaming myself and dwelling on my mistakes. “What were you doing in the dark alone?” I spent my time looking at where I didn’t want to go and I lived there in misery. Eventually the pain became overwhelming. I found help from Harold Hall, Ph.D. who helped me see my strengths and helped me begin to heal emotionally by getting me to look toward the future.

As my focus shifted away from resentment and sorrow for my pain toward what I might do and where I might go, so did my life.

Four months after almost being strangled to death and recovering physically, I was sitting in a college classes at Kauai’i Community College excitedly discussing books by Mark Twain and Albert Camus. Suddenly my life was all about where I wanted to go. I was finding joy and satisfaction from doing the work that would take me to a future that I wanted and off the trail I was stumbling on without direction that was fueled mainly by fear.

Restorative justice helps us see what we need to repair harm caused by wrongdoing and social injustice. Restorative justice gives us time to pause and consider how we might make things right with people we may have hurt, and also for ourselves if we have been hurt or if others have hurt us.

Focusing on what we need to repair harm is looking for what we want. It is hopeful and optimistic. Continued looking off the cliff, and dwelling on our shortcomings, is a likely way to crash and fall.

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 is often cited for effectiveness by speedy sanctions and random UAs, I think the positive motivation, drug treatment, and the compassion the people receive from the program are even more important.

We watched Judge Alm in HOPE a couple weeks ago. He addressed everyone with respect and kindness. He asked about people’s families and how they were getting along. When there were incidents of relapse, and he sentenced someone to short jail terms, he always allowed them to serve their time on their days off from work. He never imposed jail during work hours for individuals the day I observed. From my years sitting in criminal courts, and watching people who must appear before judges, I was struck by the relaxed and peaceful demeanors of the people coming before Judge Alm.

Below is the testimony I submitted in support of the federal two measures that can help promote restorative justice in our country. Please consider submitting testimony yourself by emailing it to: Liliana.Coronado@mail.house.gov and Veronica.Eligan@mail.house.gov

U. S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security

Testimony for: 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.

Hearing: Washington D.C., Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 4:00 p.m.

I STRONGLY SUPPORT these two measures to: 1) Establish a criminal justice reinvestment grant program to help States and local jurisdictions reduce spending on corrections, control growth in the prison and jail populations, and increase public safety, H.R. 4080; and 2) Authorize a national HOPE Program to reduce drug use, crime, and the costs of incarceration, H.R. 4055.

I endorse these measures based on my professional and personal experiences. Professionally, I am a 58-year-old public health educator, long time criminal justice practitioner, and researcher who formerly both defended and prosecuted criminal cases. Additionally, I defended civil claims against Hawai’i state agencies including its prison and child welfare systems. Personally, I lived on my own at age 14; dropped out of school at 15; was incarcerated at 16; had a baby at 18; certified as a Montessori teacher at 19; taught pre-school and was eventually made director of it at 22; was almost murdered and seriously injured in a violent assault by a stranger at 24; and put myself through college and law school on federal grants and loans, while raising my daughter. Please see www.lorennwalker.com for my current publications and further review of my work and experiences.

In 1973, Hawai’i had the lowest recidivism rate in the country at 5% when people were paroled more often, and the head of the paroling authority, Russell Takaki, took parolees “home for dinner, got them jobs and took them surfing.” In 1979, I worked as a student intern and volunteer at the Hawai’i women’s prison when there were about 20 women incarcerated by the state. Today, there are almost 800 women incarcerated by Hawai‘i.

Research shows that most young people desist or “grow out of crime,” even without professional intervention, if they are given opportunities to succeed in society. (Shadd Maruna, 2006, Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives, American Psychological Association: NY). Research also confirms that most imprisoned people have serious histories of substance abuse problems, which are substantially unaddressed by our correctional institutions (Jeremy Travis, 2005, But They All Come Back, The Urban Institute Press: Washington D.C.).

Our country suffers from recidivism and people relapsing with substance abuse, and from the exorbitant cost of maintaining our unsustainable correctional system, e.g., the state of Hawai‘i is mainly relying on volunteers to do prison rehabilitation work, while educational and social programs, that prevent and rehabilitate people from crime and substance abuse, are being eliminated here and across the country.

If we do not spend the money to stop recidivism, support rehabilitation measures, and treat substance abuse with meaningful interventions, we will spent more later on further prison costs, and more damaged victims and offenders in the future.

Recidivism hurts our community and makes it less safe. It is short sighted to not support rehabilitation programs shown to work. In the long run we will suffer the consequences. We must address recidivism and find evidence-based ways to prevent repeat crime and substance abuse relapsing.

Thank you for this opportunity to submit my testimony and for your hard work.

Instead of calling the police and applying our failed criminal justice system, the manager could have tied a restorative justice intervention.  It could have met the needs of both of the manager and the server more than the criminal justice system.

Quick research into the restaurant manager’s city address determined that it was close to Baltimore, Maryland, where the the Community Conferencing Center run by Lauren Abramson is located.  I called Lauren and she said , “Sure we could help.”  Unfortunately, the manager called the police regardless of Cohen’s advice.  Here is my letter to the NYT’s magazine:

Dear New York Times Magazine Editor:

Having been a defense and prosecuting attorney, and health educator designing programs to help victims heal, and offenders desist from crime, I appreciated ethicist Randy Cohen’s advice for the restaurant manager to not call the police on the defrauding server.  Sorry the manager ignored it, and that he didn’t seek a restorative justice intervention.

The manager could have found restorative solutions for the employee to repair the harm, including regain trust, and prevent future violations.  If the employee has a drug problem, like most imprisoned in America today, that too could be addressed restoratively.

The Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, located near the manager, provides restorative options, which research shows are more effective than traditional approaches.  Restorative justice gives people more satisfaction, it prevents future crime more, and when people agree to pay damages, their compliance is greater than when court ordered.

Thank you for Mr. Cohen’s thoughtful column.

Very truly yours,  Lorenn Walker

Most American legal cases are being decided on procedure and law, “the rules,” and not on equity or the merits of cases. See Michael J. Sandel’s Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy.

The merits are about people and the particular facts about their unique experience in every conflict.  Our courts should be places where people can go to find fairness and justice.  Court should be a place where people know they can go to have the facts of their cases heard and considered by other people, judges, who care.

Restorative justice considers people and respects their voices in describing situations.  Restorative justice allows people to consider and say what they need to make things right.

It is likely that people embrace restorative justice because retributive justice, and traditional courts, ignore the merits of cases, which is simply contrary to the nature of life.  Life is not all about rules and who followed procedures, but about our stories and our particular situations.

We have criminalized many of our serious social problems including substance abuse and mental health, that now the courts are faced with dealing them.  It’s tough to face these problems especially when you’ve only been trained as a lawyer.  It is no wonder that many lawyers, judges and communities are turning to restorative justice.  It is a healthy response to these social problems, and one that recognizes following rules alone does not ensure justice.

He received the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35, and although he only lived for 39 years, his impact on the world was immense.  Not only is he a hero for his work to end racial injustice in the United States, but he left a legacy of hope that we can improve our world through non-violent means.

When I was a trial lawyer years ago I worked hard to improve my speaking skills.  Once I checked out a cassette tape full of his recorded speeches from the public library.  I spent a couple hours a day for two weeks driving around on O’ahu, listening to Dr. King’s powerful voice and his wise ideas.

Later when I switched careers, from lawyer to public health educator, his ideas rang in my head as I prepared conflict resolution training programs.

Something that Dr. King said, which especially resonated with me is this:

People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not properly communicated with each other.

We are afraid of the unknown, and people unlike us.  More than racial differences today, I think social and economic differences are growing between people.

Most people involved with the justice system are poor, and poor people are hammered by the justice system more than middle class and rich people.

When I worked in a criminal court I could predict who would get sent straight to jail, and who would get a chance to go home and say goodbye to their families, purely by their financial status.  The poor people almost always went straight to jail.

We should take refuge in the wisdom of Dr. King’s words and work on communicating with people unlike us.

Restorative processes give us the chance to engage in communication with people while the traditional system gives us lawyers and others to speak for us.  It is a paternalistic system.

Of course sometimes courts and lawyers are necessary and I am not saying we don’t ever need them.  But often we could use restorative processes and cultivate more communication between people.  Even at sentencing after a trial in a criminal case, we could provide restorative processes in a private setting to allow people hurt by crime to engage in communication with the people who hurt them.  It could be a choice, and if they did not want to do it, of course we must respect that decision, but we could provide the opportunity.

The federal government and others report that most victims want to meet with the people who hurt them:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/restorative_justice/96517-gdlines_victims-sens/guide4.html.

Dr. King’s work embodies many restorative justice principals.  I thank him for leaving us the legacy that we can change the world by non-violent means.  And his beautiful booming voice still rings in my head….(I suspect it does in my two sons too who were with me in the car listening to all the wonderful speeches….)

The article reminds me of how restorative justice and solution-focused thinking, which I think are public health approaches to problem solving, offer us the chance to learn to be more creative and resilient.

Being creative feels much better than complaining and whining about the hardships and problems that we encounter.  We are more energetic and happier when we are looking for solutions instead of blaming others and complaining.

Certainly when we are hurt by wrongdoing, we are entitled to feel sad, angry, and express our pain.  Restorative justice not only allows us the opportunity to express our emotions, but it gives us a chance to find ways to heal and to become more resilient.

Restorative justice coupled with and solution-focused language skills, are especially effective at teaching us how to be more creative.  These approaches are not panaceas and magic applications, but genuine opportunities to learn.

They are ways to look at difficulties and problems and finding how they can empower us to create more meaningful lives.  This is in the spirit of Viktor Frankl and his book Man’s Search for Meaning, and millions of others who everyday face the challenges that befall them.

Facing our problems and finding creative ways of dealing with them, empowers us to be stronger and more resilient.  Restorative justice offers the opportunity to learn to be more creative and have more meaningful lives.

Business schools that value creativity over finance rock!