Chief Executive Officer of the Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF), Donna Parchment Brown (left), engages in light discussion with Campion College students, Khadijah Chin (right) and Jordan Jarrett, at the Restorative Justice Facilitators graduation and awards ceremony held on Thursday, February 7, at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston. Photo & caption from JIS.
Latonya Linton, for the Jamaica Information Service on February 8, 2013, writes:
The Ministry of Justice will be partnering with the Ministry of Education to implement restorative practices within the education system.
“We intend to partner with the (Education) Ministry to ensure that the option is available to our schools so that we can mitigate some of the challenges that our schools face in handling conflicts,” said Permanent Secretary in the Justice Ministry, Carol Palmer.
She was speaking at the Restorative Justice Facilitators graduation and awards ceremony held on Thursday, February 7 at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.
Miss Palmer said that efforts will also be made to implement similar practices within the various faith-based institutions across the country.
“So, if a school doesn’t have it within the compound of the school it can call on the local church where the pastor and laypersons will be able to assist the process,” she noted.
She said that the aim is to provide more peaceful means of addressing conflicts so as to reduce violence.
“We have too much violence. We need to work on the prevention side to reduce the number of incidents that go to the courts. We have to look at other means of dealing with our issues and things that are honourable, that are above reproach and that would make a difference on our nation,” the Permanent Secretary said.
Permanent Secretary Carol Palmer is an IIRP trustee. This announcement coincides with Jamaica's sixth annual Restorative Justice Week, which took place last week from Feb 3-9, 2013. This year's celebration included the opening of three new neighborhood restorative justice centers. For more information about restorative justice in Jamaica see this post from a year ago.
via Restorative Justice Practices for Schools | Jamaica Information Service.
