Search results for category: Restorative SystemsFor years we've been talking about punishment and retribution. Maybe it's time we started talking about repair. Repair of broken relations. Between and among people. Between and among neighborhoods, faiths, races, religions, countries. Maybe it's time we started asking: "How can we repair what's broken? What skills do we need? If a person is good at repair, what is he or she good at?"
Convicted Timaru murderer Robert Leslie Smith has been declined parole for the third time. However, the Parole Board has supported Smith's desire to seek a restorative justice meeting in order to apologise to the victim's family.
The commanders and fighters of the LRA who committed atrocities during the two decade insurgency in the north will be subjected to a hybrid justice system to atone for their crimes. The chief government negotiator, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, explained yesterday that the agreement on accountability and reconciliation signed last Friday at the Juba peace talks provided for a fusion of the formal and traditional justice systems. “The parties noted the strengths of the existing formal justice mechanism (which ensures no impunity) and the traditional cultural mechanisms (which are restorative and promote reconciliation),” Rugunda stated.
Earle asked participants to close their eyes and identify the image associated with "peace." Most were typical, calm, pastoral scenes. The dove, nature, etc. Most images of peace are low energy, she said, but real peace must have conflict embedded in it, will require conflict. True peace, said Earle, must be designed to include, to embrace "turbulence."
A small community-based agency that focuses on restorative justice has
asked me for some advice about databases to track their cases. The
main concerns are generating reports on volunteer hours and on the
progress/outcome of cases. They understand that it will be necessary to budget some funds for
configuring the database, but would like to know about strong options
with free (or inexpensive) licenses and low upkeep.
Overall, 85 per cent of victims and 80 per cent of offenders were very or quite satisfied with the JRC conference itself, with all the randomised trials showing at least three-quarters of victims very or quite satisfied. This is a key outcome measure in the evaluation. The outcome agreement was also seen as satisfactory – only 12 per cent of victims and 10 per cent of offenders expressed any doubts about it and almost all thought it was fair. Any dissatisfaction tended to be related to dissatisfaction with other aspects of the conference.
Divisions between Black Majority congregations and the historic Christian churches in Britain are hindering practical efforts to tackle the issues surrounding young black people's over representation in the criminal justice system says Faith Ayoola, director of Churches' Criminal Justice Forum. "A house divided against itself can not stand", she declared today, adopting a well-known biblical allusion.
"The trials provide an opening for the process of restorative justice," Schwerner's widow told lawmakers. "They are important to the families who were so cruelly hurt by the crimes, but equally important for our nation."
All week the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Queen's University, Belfast, has been hosting a major international conference. Speakers from Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Colombia are addressing ways in which 'bottom up' peacemaking is needed to make peace processes endure... . A number of common themes emerged.
The story at Scotsman.com on proposed new prison sentencing policy begins with a Key Quote from the Justice Secretary and an opening paragraph conveying a completely different perspective.
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