Inspiration Restorative Justice Victims

Restorative justice helps heal emotional wounds

Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. writes about her fascinating experience as a Harvard trained brain scientist who suffered a stoke in My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journal. I was fortunate to read Dr. Taylor’s book during a recent 6 hour train ride from New York City to Rochester. Dr. Taylor insightfully discusses how she healed both physically and emotionally, and says: Emotional healing was a tediously slow process but well worth the effort.…

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Reentry & Transition Planning Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice for People Who are Innocent & Wrongfully Imprisoned

For many, if not most restorative justice programs, a basic principle is that it should only be used for people who have committed crimes, and who admit their guilt. See for example: http://www.staunton.va.us/directory/departments-a-g/court-services/restorative-justice-program. After working with restorative justice for the last 15 years, I think this principal needs to be more carefully considered, and can be abandoned in some cases. A restorative approach asking, “who was hurt, how, and what could be done to help…

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forgiveness Restorative Justice Self-compassion

Restorative Justice Can Increase Self-Compassion

Restorative justice helps us develop self-compassion. I know a lot about not being compassionate with myself. A couple months ago I wrote about how unforgiving I was toward myself for almost getting murdered by a stranger for The Forgiveness Project based in London. It’s always been pretty easy for me to be compassionate and forgiving of others, but when it comes to myself I tend to be unrelenting in intolerance for my failures, which intellectually…

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