Restorative Practice Resources Tagged With: USA

'Restorative discipline practices are a promising solution.
Based on the philosophy of Restorative Justice, an
approach used in the criminal legal system that emphasizes
the reparation of harm between victims and offenders,
restorative practices (RP) promote the development of
socio-emotional learning by encouraging self-reflection,
empathetic listening, and the creation of non-judgmental
spaces for conflict resolution. '
 

New research from the University of Chicago Education Lab finds that restorative practices in schools can significantly reduce suspensions and student arrests for violent and non-violent offenses and increase student perceptions of belonging and school safety.  

The study, which evaluated the effect of restorative practices rolled out across Chicago public high schools beginning in the 2013-2014 academic year, suggests these practices are generating genuine, positive changes in student behavior. Schools that implemented RP policies saw out-of-school suspensions fall 18%. There was a 35% reduction in student arrests in school and a 15% reduction in out-of-school student arrests. The study saw declines in arrests for both violent and non-violent offenses.

The International Institute for Restorative Practices (the IIRP), located in Bethlehem, PA, is the world’s first accredited graduate school that specializes in studying the field of restorative practices, providing education, research, and consulting services.

At the heart of restorative practices is the understanding that human beings are instilled with the need to connect and grow with each other. The IIRP supports students and community leaders with the tools they need to transform relationships and effect change within their own lives as well as within public and private K-12 educational institutions, public and private four-year residential colleges and universities, non-governmental agencies (NGOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs). Through strong academic offerings combined with a real-life approach to education, the IIRP helps mend issues and makes resilient and meaningful relationships thrive.

Dedicated to Growing and Teaching the Science of Relationships and Community Master of Science | Graduate Certificate | Professional Development The International Institute for Restorative Practices (the IIRP), located in Bethlehem, PA, is the world’...

Abstract:

The important role of justice in energy transition technologies has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. However, key questions remain about how inequities influence energy transition innovations (ETIs) from their design to their widespread use, which ETIs receive more funding, and who controls ETI research, prototyping and deployment. Here we propose a framework to centre justice in energy transition innovations (CJI) and examine how three tenets of justice (recognition, procedural and distributional justice) influence each level of ETI, including niche, regime and landscape levels. We examine wind energy in Mexico and multiple ETIs in Los Angeles as use cases to show how our CJI framework can help reveal the specific inequities undermining just energy transitions at crucial analytical levels of ETI in practice. Our CJI framework offers a path for promoters, practitioners and underserved communities to target the problems these groups face and create ETIs that better address their specific aspirations, needs and circumstances.

'The important role of justice in energy transition technologies has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. However, key questions remain about how inequities influence energy transition innovations (ETIs) from their design to their widespread use, which ETIs receive more funding, and who controls ETI research, prototyping and deployment. Here we propose a framework to centre justice in energy transition innovations (CJI) and examine how three tenets of justice (recognition, procedural and distributional justice) influence each level of ETI, including niche, regime and landscape levels. We examine wind energy in Mexico and multiple ETIs in Los Angeles as use cases to show how our CJI framework can help reveal the specific inequities undermining just energy transitions at crucial analytical levels of ETI in practice. Our CJI framework offers a path for promoters, practitioners and underserved communities to target the problems these groups face and create ETIs that better address their specific aspirations, needs and circumstances.'

A new study shows restorative practices are more beneficial than traditional discipline for students. Dr Anjali Adukia from the University of Chicago and executive director Bessie Alcantara of Alternatives Inc. joined WGN Weekend Morning News to share more on their initiative towards restorative justice.
 

Through his own work within, and outside, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Father Griffith sees the Catholic faith as not only complementing restorative justice but enhancing it. In the past decade, emerging restorative justice practices local Church leaders and laity have used to guide the archdiocese through pain on a path toward healing have become a model for other groups seeking to do the same.

“Restorative justice for me starts at home,” Michael Hoffman said. A member of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago, Hoffman said his primary act of recovery as a clergy abuse survivor happened in 2006.

Dr. Howard Zehr, also known as the “grandfather of restorative justice,” has been documenting the impact of life sentences since the 1970s. Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on collaboration and communication between the offender and the victim. His new book Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later, checks in with individuals serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. The book is a sequel to his 1996 work Doing Life, which introduces the individuals and shares their stories.

In my conversations with other educators, there is usually confusion around the definition of restorative practices due to the common emphasis placed on restorative justice, which focuses on repairing relationships when harm has occurred as an alternative to punitive approaches to discipline. In contrast, restorative practices focus on not only repairing, but also building and strengthening relationships and social connections within communities.

The mainstream conception of restorative justice is credited to Howard Zehr and is thought to have originated within the criminal justice system in the 1970s. However, a 2017 report from the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, notes the growing demand from the field that practitioners acknowledge many of the values and practices of restorative justice come directly from Indigenous communities in North America and across the globe.

'What is restorative justice? There is no one definitive answer to this question. Restorative justice is a burgeoning philosophical framework that asks people to rethink the best way to respond to harmful behavior.

Perhaps the most expansive definition comes from Griffith University criminologist Kathleen Daly, who calls restorative justice “a set of ideals about justice that assumes a generous, empathetic, supportive, and rational human spirit.”'

'Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution?

The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health – and created an imperative to seize this opportunity.'

'“Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing,” makes the case that cities with more green space, water features, street safety and social hubs and less congestion, noise, pollution and physical discomfort can make residents healthier and happier.

If that seems like common sense, Jenny Roe, co-author of the book, who has been working passionately in the field of human-centered design for more than 15 years, doesn’t disagree. But it took a global pandemic, she says, before “the world was ready to listen.”'

'While I can talk about restorative justice from the framework of Scripture and theology, this week I will rely on experts in the field.

Teachers and practitioners Elaine Enns and Ched Myers define restorative justice and peacemaking as “a range of nonviolent responses to injustice, violation, and/or violence with the aim of reducing or halting the presenting violence in order that victims and offenders (as well as their communities and other stakeholders) can collectively identify harms, needs, and responsibilities so that they can determine how to make things as right as possible, which can include covenants of accountability, restitution, reparations and (ideally) reconciliation.”'

'Some advocate for training SROs to be more restorative; however, SROs have shown that training on how to interact with students as mentors does not change their racist policing behaviors.

Before Minneapolis Public Schools terminated their contract with the MPD, they had been unsuccessfully trying to transform the role of their SROs from “enforcer” to “mentor” and still police officers were disproportionately “interacted with” black students. (Minneapolis Star Tribune) In 2016, the Police Accountability Task Force released a report that found systemic and institutionalized racism in all areas of the Chicago Police Department.

The task force concluded that “CPD’s own data and other information strongly suggests that CPD’s response to the violence is not sufficiently imbued with Constitutional policing tactics and is also comparatively void of actual procedural and restorative justice in the day-to-day encounters between the police and citizens.”'

'Free the People is proud to bring you How to Love Your Enemy: A Restorative Justice Story. Winner of Best Feature and Best Director at the Front Range International Film Festival. A city in Colorado tries a different kind of justice system powerful enough to change the incarceration game of the U.S. Instead of locking up non-violent offenders, these advocates focus on the challenging but rewarding process of apology, forgiveness, and redemption that radically shifts our idea of justice and our part in it.'