News & Announcements
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- Written by Joshua Wachtel
On Tuesday, July 16, the New York City Comptroller's Office issued a report called “The Suspension Spike: Changing the Discipline Culture in NYC’s Middle Schools,” which "offers a blueprint for replacing the DOE’s failed zero-tolerance policy with restorative justice practices that help middle-school students stay in school and remain on the path to college and career readiness."
According to a press release from the Comptroller's Office, "The report found that New York City middle schools suspended an average of 100 students a school day in the 2011-2012 school year. Almost all of those suspended were either black or Hispanic. It also found that middle-school students received 68 percent more suspensions than high-school students."
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This 9-minute video from Leeds City Learning Centres in the UK gives a good overview of restorative practices use in the Carr Manor Community School. Many students, along with teachers and administrators, explain in their own words what restorative practices are, how they are used and what impact they have on the school environment.
Watch Carr Manor Restorative Practice on Vimeo.
Watch another film about Leeds' use of the "Family Learning Signature."
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Considering the national focus on the George Zimmerman murder trial, particularly over the past month during the trial and its conclusion with a "not guilty" verdict Saturday, this piece, "Restorative Justice for Trayvon Martin," seems particularly relevant. Written by Dr. Mikhail Lyubansky, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and originally published in the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, Volume 5, Number 1, Spring 2013, a "Special Issue on Violence against Individuals and Communities: Reflecting on the Trayvon Martin Case," this piece reflects on a variety of issues, including racism, the justice system, and the needs of communities for healing after a crime.
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- Written by Laura Mirsky
Attorney and author Hazel Thompson-Ahye has long been deeply committed to reforming justice. Now it is her mission to implement restorative practices in her home country of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as other parts of the Caribbean.
After first hearing about restorative justice in 1999 from New Zealand prison chaplain, Father Jim Consedine, at a Penal Reform International conference in London, Thompson-Ahye was inspired to become involved in initiatives that attempted to bring restorative justice to Trinidad and the Bahamas.
Then in 2012 she read an article online from the IIRP about how restorative practices could help stop the school-to-prison pipeline and thought, “There’s a school teaching this? I have to go.”
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Several pieces of news have come through recently from New Zealand, the Land of the Long White Cloud and birthplace of "Family Group Conferencing."
The precursor to restorative conferences were developed and ensconced in law in New Zealand as part of the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act of 1989. This law led on the one hand to the family group conference (known as Family Group Decision Making in North America), which engaged extended families to develop a plan when a child was at risk of placement outside the home in cases of abuse. A process was also developed to allow young offenders, along with their families and community of support, to meet face-to-face with those they had victimized. This process would subsequently be adapted by Terry O'Connell as the Real Justice conference.
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In this video, Sujatha Baliga, Director, Restorative Justice Project, and Senior Program Specialist, National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), gives a fascinating 12-minute talk linking her own Buddhist meditation practice to the concepts of restorative justice and restorative practices.
Baliga first recounts her own personal journey. As a victim of sexual abuse by her father, she first became a victim advocate before deciding to attend law school, initially to become a prosecutor. Just before beginning law school, however, she had a personally transformative experience during a 10-day silent mediation retreat which changed her course, and she is now what she now calls a "restorative lawyer." Rather than being a participant in an adversarial legal system, Baliga says she aims to be equally partial to all participants and adopt a "non-binary" approach to her work, which she believes is consistent with both restorative justice and meditation.
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Photo of crime victims, Eliza and Blake Webb by Dean Rutz in the Seattle Times
This remarkable story, by Christine Clarridge in the Seattle Times the other day, recounts what happened after a woman found a cell phone left behind in her ransacked car. The story begins:
"When Eliza Webb found a stranger’s cellphone inside her ransacked car last month, it didn’t take a lot of sleuthing to determine two things: one, the cellphone probably belonged to the person who’d prowled her car; and two, the culprit was likely a teen."
Because Webb worked with teens, and because her husband had faced many difficulties in life due to a "youthful indiscretion," she decided not to inform police and instead see what she could work out directly with the youth involved.
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A call for papers has been issued for a conference titled "Restorative Justice, Responsive Regulation & Complex Problems" to be held at Davis Conference Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA, on July 16 to 18, 2014.
The announcement states:
Restorative justice offers values and practices to make regulation responsive to families and communities. Responsive regulation offers a framework to bring together the know-how of practitioners and regulators to solve complex problems. But little theoretical and empirical work is available to guide and unite their efforts. This conference seeks to encourage dialogue on activating citizenship and governance to address problems in a variety of environments and in respect of differing kinds of entities including governments, regulatory agencies, corporate organizations, neighborhoods, communities and families. Proposals are invited from proponents within the community, government, business, and academe on the integration of restorative justice and responsive regulation.
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- Written by Laura Mirsky
Congratulations to the IIRP's 2013 graduating class!The sixth class of master’s degree recipients graduated Saturday, June 22, in a joyous ceremony, at the Hotel Bethlehem, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with their proud friends and family members cheering them on.
After IIRP president and founder Ted Wachtel presented the diplomas, the closing ceremony took place. In a tradition unique to the IIRP, instead of a commencement speaker, there was a brief demonstration of the restorative practice known as a circle. In a circle, each person is able to speak without interruption, allowing every voice to be heard. In this circle, nine graduates passed a “talking piece” (in this case, a microphone) and each one answered the question: “What is the most the significant thing to you about restorative practices?”
Here are just a few highlights of their responses:
IIRP President Ted Wachtel
Cheryl Reider, a parochial school teacher from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said that prior to the program she had found herself “avoiding students who were challenging, whose behaviors were out of control.” The IIRP, she said, “has given me the tools to treat my students with respect but also to help them make positive change.” Now, she said, “I see students really experiencing what it means to take responsibility for their actions, to contribute to their own education in new ways.”
Diane Edgecomb, a child-protection attorney, guardian ad litem and mediator from Saco, Maine, said she had learned at the IIRP that the children and adults she works with have difficulty forming relationships because of past abuses, and that restorative practices gives them a second chance to learn how to be relational. She added, “It’s important that we look at the whole person, and indeed, we give back some of that whole person to them. We work with them to do that, not for them, and not to them.”
Kim Vindler, a school counselor from Haverford, Pennsylvania, said she had learned strategies that help her to build and maintain healthier relationships in all areas of her life, making her “not only a restorative practitioner, but a better person and a more effective professional.” She concluded, “My goal now is to give back to others and give them the opportunity to learn about restorative practices. I hope to join them in changing the world.”
Twenty men and women earned their degrees:
Graduate Joyce Dawley speaks during the commencement circle
Master of Science in Restorative Practices and Youth Counseling: Elizabeth Ann Bertolet, Diane M. Edgecomb, Roberts E. Heiselmoyer, Lakeisha Atiya Horne, Karena Marie Malko, Sean Philip Plunkett, Naki Patricia Pratt, Cheryl Lynne Reider, Jason Michael Sauler, Dawn B. Schantz, Denise Marie Walsh, Sheila K. Weinhardt, and Ayane Yabui
Master of Science in Restorative Practices: Margaret Mary Murray, Jessica L Sine, and Michelle Jarrouj-Weaver
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IIRP UK & Ireland held their 2nd Annual Conference, "Restorative Practice: The Way Forward in Salford," in partnership with Salford City Council at Salford City Stadium, on Thursday, June 20, 2013. The conference was attended by 127 people from all over the UK and Ireland.
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