Inspiration prisons Restorative Justice

Staying the Course to Continue Providing Restorative Justice

“We simply have got to stay and keep helping the people touched by these programs,” says Barbara Tudor with passion and zeal.  When she says she is “staying” you know she means it.  She is a sturdy sixty-ish woman with curly blond short hair and clear blue eyes.  Most striking is her abundant energy, which could vie with the most active teenager. Tudor may also well be the longest working victim offender mediator in the…

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prisons Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice: an Inoculator to The Lucifer Effect

Professor Philip Zimbardo has written an indepth and important book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.  It is based on his experience running the prison experiment in 1971 at Stanford University where randomly selected students were chosen to be prison guards and imprisoned people.  The study had to be abandoned in only a few days (and should have been earlier) because the guards became so cruel. Professor Zimbardo explains and provides lots…

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Restorative Justice schools

Zero Tolerence = Zero Reality

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…

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Restorative Justice

RSVP:San Francisco Jail’s Violence Intervention program

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…

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