Search results for category: Offender SupportPrison doors may be locked shut, but people must not close their eyes to the inmates behind bars. Vatican officials conveyed that message at an international gathering of prison chaplains in Rome, where Pope Benedict XVI called the pastoral care of prisoners a "vital mission" that deserved the support and guidance of bishops and the involvement of local Catholics.
Yellow Medicine County is expanding a restorative justice program that brings together juvenile offenders and community members in an effort to resolve issues outside of the courtroom. Circle sentencing, one of many types of restorative justice, brings together community members, victims and offenders to talk through problems and help offenders find the right path.
Since 1996, South Canterbury's Project Turnaround has been one of the success stories for restorative justice around the country, changing lives and healing wounds. But a cloud is looming on the horizon.
Twelve inmates from the Boonville Correctional Center (BCC) will begin working in Boonville as a part of the Twelth Annual Boonslick Area Community Service Project (CSP) during the week of Sept 12. This project, which is sponsored by the National Organization of Prison Fellowship, will be conducted under the leadership of the Nelson Memorial United Methodist Men. Additionally, this year the church group is pleased to have student members from the Central Methodist University baseball team, under the leadership of Coach Fred Smith, working along side the CSP members.
I believe all of these people should be expected to make amends for their wrong doings. I fully believe in the process of restorative justice which is part of Gandhi’s belief in Satyagraha.
Since her daughter's death nearly two years ago, Virginia Delgado has mourned the loss of her child, but her grief was deepened by the fact that, without a headstone, she could not leave flowers at her daughter's grave site. A week ago, the Arizona Department of Corrections and three inmates from the Safford prison lessened Delgado's grief a little bit by donating a headstone, which was custom-made by the inmates.
Providing support and comfort through the rituals of funerals and wakes is one of the ways in which the church is obligated to respond to violence, according to Bishop Garcia-Siller and several priests who serve in communities where such violence has happened all too often.
The Lang'ata MP [Mr Raila Odinga, candidate from the Orange Democratic Movement] says he opted to build on African traditions that uplift both victim and perpetrator to deal with the issue in what he believes could result in a model of how to integrate such "restorative justice" into a legal system.
As we've said, Zoe and I have just returned from two weeks of interviewing some 25 people in Rwanda: survivors, killers, and experts in the field of reconciliation. One of our main observations from the trip is that of the people who have been forgiven versus the people who have forgiven them, the forgiven often seem more plagued with despair than the forgivers.
A few years ago, Wit, a high school dropout, would have been formally charged with theft and probably would have ended up serving a term in a juvenile detention centre. But under an innovative programme that seeks to keep young, first-time offenders out of the formal criminal justice system, Wit is now paying for his crime by doing community service of his own choosing, in his case, cleaning a large mosque in the Bangkok suburb where he lives.
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