Justice for children whose parents are in prison

Three million children in the United States are estimated to have one or both parents in prison.   Here is some information about these children: 1 in 15 African American children has a parent in prison.  For white children the figure is 1 in 110. About half of parents in prison have never had a personal....

Decolonizing research and photography

“From the vantage point of the colonized, a position from which I write, and choose to privilege, the term “research” is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism.  The word itself, ‘research,’ is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world’s vocabulary.  When mentioned in many indigenous contexts, it stirs up silence, it....

Social work and restorative justice

Social Work and Restorative Justice:  Skills for Dialogue, Peacemaking and Reconciliation, edited by Elizabeth Beck, Nancy P. Kropf and Pamela Blume-Leonard (Oxford University Press, 2011), is an important collection of essays on this subject. It will be of interest to both social work and restorative justice practitioners.  The following is the Afterword that Lorraine Stutzman....

Hip-hop justice

“The American criminal justice system is so dysfunctional that it presents well-intentioned people with a dilemma.  Should good people cooperate with it?” Paul Butler should know whereof he speaks:  he is a former federal prosecutor. Speaking of prison, he says, “The criminal justice system gives the state a monopoly on exercising that kind of retribution. ....

Email subscription to blog

We have been using FeedMyInbox to alert readers to new posts, but it has not proven very reliable.  We are now switching to Google’s Feedburner. To receive email alerts, click on “E-mail” under “Subscribe” on the right. If you have been getting the alerts from FeedMyInbox, you can can remove that service by unsubscribing when....

Restorative re-entry

According to the National Reentry Resource Center, three quarters of a million state & federal prisoners were released in 2008 and this number is expected to grow. The obstacles to successful re-entry faced by these ex-prisoners are staggering. Some years ago Madison Area Urban Ministry developed a simulation exercise and a video to help us....

Full-spectrum peacemaking

If you want to read about conflict resolution, you have an abundance of choices.  Similarly, there is a large and rapidly growing literature on restorative justice, on non-violent activism and on peacemaking in general.   Numerous books analyze violence and its roots as well as the dynamics of power and privilege.   Few attempt to bring these....

Photography at the healing edge

In previous posts I have discussed ways photography often contributes to “othering” and, conversely, the power it has to bring people together.  A new organization, the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers, began as a group of photographers and designers “devoted to peacemaking & breaking down stereotypes by displaying the beauty of cultures around the world.” ....

Restorative justice, mediation and ADR

Restorative justice (RJ) is often associated with mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  I was reminded of this at the Conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice in Bilbao, Spain, this spring.  Victim offender “mediation” was the practice most commonly mentioned and the lines between ADR and restorative justice often seemed unclear. Confusion about....