May 18, 2014
Freenewspos.com
Finding Courage: Addressing Harm with Restorative Justice Circles
A RJ circle on a case of break and entry happens on screen with excellent editorializing that explains the steps of the process and the roles involved. Later, after 15 minutes or so, persons who took part explain the impact of their role as participant, victim, parent, police officer, circle keeper. Video is 30 minutes in all. http://www.freenewspos.com/english/video/Justice/7AyL6BrzbZ0
Institute for Governance at Victoria University of Wellington – Policy Quarterly (New Zealand)
Restoring What? The practice, promise and perils of restorative justice in New Zealand
The quarterly lead article by Dr. Chris Marshall, a well known New Testament scholar and RJ advocate, invites us to examine the thought of American Ross London, who notes that the justice system is fundamentally flawed by the adversarial nature of the system. Both Marshall and London want to integrate the informal justice of victim-offender mediation with the formal justice of the public system, all on the supposition that “punishment by itself is ‘an extraordinarily poor way of restoring trust in either an offender or in society’.” http://igps.victoria.ac.nz/PQ%20PDF/2014(2)/PolicyQuarterly_May_2014%20Web.pdf
Policy.mic (US) – Jenna Kagel
One Appalling Statistic Sums Up Exactly What’s Wrong With America’s Prison System
The one stat referred to is the crime rate vs the rate of incarceration: the crime rate since 1990 have dropped a whooping 45% but the incarceration rate has increased 222%, giving the US the highest rate of imprisonment in the world – a total of 2.4 million. Says Ronald S. Sullivan, a clinical professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, “the theory would be … with the high rates of incarceration that the crime rate would go down and then that would be followed by less incarceration because there just wouldn’t be as many crimes committed. But those numbers have gone in opposite directions.” http://www.policymic.com/articles/89541/one-shocking-statistic-sums-up-exactly-what-s-wrong-with-america-s-prison-system Related article: Policy.mic – Laura Dimon 30 States Have Changed Ridiculous Drug Laws Since 2009 http://www.policymic.com/articles/87747/30-states-have-changed-ridiculous-drug-laws-since-2009
The Hill (US) – Vidhya Ananthakrishnan
Closing a loophole that keeps kids locked up
In 2010 alone 137,000 status offences were processed through US courts. In about 10,000 of these cases juveniles were incarcerated for their offences: What is a status offence? One that is an offence simply because of the age of the juvenile: skipping school, running away from home, curfew violations. Though incarceration is in fact prohibited by federal statue for status offences, a second law known as the Valid Court Order (VCO) allows an exception. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/205886-closing-a-loophole-that-keeps-kids-locked-up#ixzz320KjI7UB
Daily News (NY) – Stanley Richards
College for cons: Still imperative – Cuomo should not have backed down
NY Governor Cuomo announced two months ago that the state would finance higher education in prisons. Then, more recently Cuomo backed away from the commitment. Critics argue that education is the single most powerful tool available for reducing recidivism and prison costs. The author was one of the last to graduate – with an GED and an Associate Degree in Social Science – from prison higher education. It makes a difference. It’s cheaper and smarter in the long run. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/college-cons-imperative-article-1.1751197#ixzz320MwJEUb
Chicago Tribune (US) – Reuters
Court limits mandatory detention of immigrants in California
The issue is whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement can hold an immigrant without a bail hearing. A US District Court Judge says no and only if the immigrant is moving from prison to ICE custody can ICE ignore a bail hearing. The rule appears to apply only in California. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-courts-immigration-20140516,0,7213688.story