As the number of stories about restorative practices in the news grows daily, we are limiting the number of items in this roundup, featuring the most significant highlights, in order to make it more accessible.
For a more comprehensive news feed, please follow @iirpgradschool on twitter, and note that you do not need to join twitter in order to read our daily posts there.
Schools
Detroit Public Schools says crime reports down 29% due to restorative practices. The article notes: "This year, restorative practices training will cover two new areas: trauma and grief counseling to help students dealing with death and other hardships, and 'conferencing training' to assist students' transition back into school after a suspension or expulsion."
"NAACP (Chattanooga) seeks alternative discipline methods for schools." This TV news video includes footage from a recent professional development event and a brief interview with IIRP Instructor Steve Korr.
IIRP Lecturer Nicola Preston explains that "it's good to talk" in her article for Headteacher Update, a UK magazine for primary school headteachers, about how restorative practices works.
During a discussion circle in a Chicago school, students learn empathy when they discover they each have had first-hand exposure to gun violence and one classmate had a gun pointed at her head.
The International Bullying Prevention Association will hold its annual conference Reaching New Heights in Bullying Prevention through Empathy and Kindness in Denver, CO, November 8-10 and will feature a pre-conference workshop on restorative practices with IIRP Lecturer Elizabeth Smull.
This month we've added links to several new reports on our SaferSanerSchools Evidence of Effectiveness page:
- What further research is needed on restorative justice in schools? (WestEd, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency)
- Suspending Chicago’s students: Differences in discipline practices across schools (The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research)
- Power in partnerships: Building connections at the intersection of racial justice and LGBTQ movements to end the school-to-prison pipeline (Advancement Project, Equality Federation Institute, Gay Straight Alliance Network)
Justice
The Massachusetts state house recently held hearings on a statewide restorative justice bill. Read supporting materials, including Arlington Police Chief Frederick Ryan's moving testimony on page 2. (Thanks to Communities for Restorative Justice for sharing this information and working so hard to help advance the legislation.)
"The Pope goes to prison" during his visit to Philadelphia, PA, to shed light on the injustices of mass incarceration and restorative justice as one alternative.
Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) will host restorative practices workshops by director of IIRP Canada Bruce Schenk, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as part of a program to increase access to alternative dispute resolution services throughout the Caribbean.
Download and read Restoring Racial Justice, a chapter co-authored by Mikhail Lyubansky, Fania Davis and Mara Schiff and published in Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, John Wiley and Sons.
IARS issues a call for presenters by October 30th for its 4th International Annual Conference: Community-led Solutions to Gender Inequality, Victimisation and Offending, to be held December 15 in London, UK.
In a keynote address at the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) conference in Dublin, Ireland, Dr. Marie Keenan called for victims to be able to meet offenders in the aftermath of sexual crime.
Leadership
Professor and civil rights attorney Artika R. Tyner issues "A call to leadership" with a list of 10 strategies for building restorative communities.
Higher Education
The New York Times editorial board argues for using restorative justice as "An alternative approach to campus justice," and a letter writer points out that these practices are being used at Bennington College in Vermont.
