February 7, 2013
Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives – Kirsten Bernas and Blair Hamilton
Creating opportunities with green jobs: the story of BUILD and BEEP
These two projects come out of Manitoba and hail the ability of social enterprise to provide basic needs around employment to disadvantaged persons, including offenders. “Building Urban Industries for Local development (BUILD) and Brandon Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP) are social enterprises that hire and train local individuals with multiple barriers to employment to perform energy and water efficiency retrofits on private and public housing units occupied by low-income people in Manitoba. Full report in pdf format: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/Manitoba%20Office/2013/01/Build%20Beep.pdf
Portland (Maine) Phoenix (US)
Ponte’s prison reforms ramp up: Two Years Later – Lance Tapley
A new and 66 year old Commissioner of Corrections is making an extraordinary difference in Maine’s state prison system, including its supermax and several youth facilities. Solitary confinement is reduced, mental and medical health concerns are addressed, costs – including overtime for guards – are down. http://portland.thephoenix.com/news/151375-pontes-prison-reforms-ramp-up/#ixzz2KBEmBEz9
Department of Justice: Backgrounder – Criminality in Canada
Last modified in early February, 2013, this DOJ summary page offers a synopsis of criminal activity in Canada and adds further information on extradition. These are police-reported crime stats from Statistics Canada. http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/nr-cp/2013/doc_32846.html Stats Canada report: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11692-eng.pdf
Phys.org News (US) Blogger
The ‘criminal’ immigrant
This blogger identifies some of the reasons that make helpful to politics identifying immigrants as a criminal element. University of Dayton sociologist Jamie Longazel has concluded that immigrants may actually reduce crime stats. In the case of Latino immigrants in the US, Lognazel offers subordination and exclusion, political scapegoating and private prison profit among other reasons for the persistence of the immigrant crime myth. http://phys.org/news/2013-02-criminal-immigrant.html
Colorlines Direct News (US)
How Immigration Reform Could Expand Incarceration of Immigrants
The article suggests that immigration reform may not be politically accepted unless there is a considerable increase in enforcement and deportation of illegals already in the country. The thesis means that the current record high incarceration and deportations rate will get worse before it gets better. http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/02/how_immigration_reform_could_mean_more_incarceration_of_immigrants.html
International Bar Association (UK)
Restorative justice has ‘fundamental part to play’, says minister, but funding remains unclear
Jeremy Wright, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, and Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation, says “that the debate over restorative justice (RJ) has ‘moved on’ and that it is no longer about whether or not RJ is a good idea, but about ‘building capacity for restorative justice, and ensuring quality’.” A seventeen point plan may languish waiting for funding, even if the usefulness of RJ over traditional approaches is accepted. http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=d496ac74-813d-464b-a3c5-3f2c8e28e519
Youth Radio (US) – Sayre Quevedo
After A Death, A Time For Restorative Justice?
In an interview with Sujatha Baliga, a RJ advocate and facilitator in the McBride/ Grosmaire case, Quevedo pursues questions around the application of RJ to the most serious crimes. Says Baliga: “I think restorative justice works wherever the parties are willing to do it. So in the McBride case, Ann’s parents wanted restorative justice from the get-go. I think when victims are willing to engage and the people who have done harm are willing to engage you can do it with every crime. I think it needs to be properly facilitated by people who are super well-trained.” http://www.youthradio.org/news/redemption-justice-system-q-sujatha-baliga
Restorative Justice Circles (South Dakota, US): Blogger Kris Miner
Restorative Justice Circles – the real deal can be done at all health levels
Here is a new idea for the practice of RJ – what if public health authorities were to embrace RJ and be a delivery agency for places where public health is already embedded, particularly all levels of schools? http://circle-space.org/2013/02/05/restorative-justice-circles-the-real-deal-can-be-done-at-all-health-levels
Daily Mirror (UK)
“I felt healed”: Mum met burglar who stole precious memories of her dead daughter and bonded with him.
A burglary combines with a personal and family loss to make this RJ approach even more emotionally charged. The memory of the child tips the scale in favour of going through the emotional turmoil of RJ with the offender. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/restorative-justice-i-met-burglar-who-1589857
Q13 Fox TV News (Washington state) Dana Rebik
City Council votes to ban halfway houses for sex offenders in neighborhoods
The city of Puyallyp, WA, has decided unanimously to ban halfway houses for sex offenders and violent offenders from the residential areas of the city to the commercial and industrial areas. http://q13fox.com/2013/02/06/puyallup-bans-halfway-houses-for-sex-offenders-violent-felons-in-neighborhoods/#9FId2WCSXwjEJDYq.99