{"id":35984,"date":"2017-12-06T14:41:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T19:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=35984"},"modified":"2017-12-07T13:28:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T18:28:21","slug":"zehr-institute-facilitates-five-day-workshop-brazilian-judges-prosecutors-restorative-justice-practitioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/zehr-institute-facilitates-five-day-workshop-brazilian-judges-prosecutors-restorative-justice-practitioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Zehr Institute facilitates five-day workshop for Brazilian judges, prosecutors and other restorative justice practitioners"},"content":{"rendered":"

From across Brazil and with diverse professional backgrounds, 25 restorative justice practitioners spent five days in October at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) \u2014 visiting area programs, contemplating practices and pedagogies, and taking inspiration from the witnessing of shared values.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like oxygen,\u201d said public prosecutor Danielle Arl\u00e9 during a break from the whirlwind schedule. \u201cI can breathe again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have courage to continue leading these programs,\u201d said Ivana Ferrazzo, another public prosecutor who hopes to implement a victim advocacy program and to advocate for restorative justice in education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an Eastern saying that when the disciple is ready, the master comes,\u201d Judge Leoberto Brancher said. \u201cSo restorative justice came to us in Brazil in the late 1990s and now almost 20 years later, we can come before the source of restorative justice \u2026 to review what we\u2019ve been doing. It\u2019s a time for tuning and beginning a new stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Restorative justice practitioners traveled from Brazil to Eastern Mennonite University for a five-day learning opportunity. All participants are identified at the end of this article.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The source he refers to is Howard Zehr<\/a>, professor emeritus at EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> and co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice<\/a>, which hosted the visitors. Zehr co-facilitated a session on restorative justice and serious crimes; all of the other sessions and site visits were hosted by EMU-educated \u201cdisciples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lima planned and developed the learning experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Retired Brazilian judge Isabel Lima, a professor at Catholic University in Salvador, developed the idea<\/a> for the intensive seminar while she was a visiting professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in spring 2017.<\/p>\n

One goal of the educational experience was to bring together diverse practitioners \u2014 public prosecutors, professors, community representatives, professionals such as psychologists, social assistants, lawyers and judges \u2014 and to \u201cinvite them to think collectively from now on,\u201d said Lima, who has been involved with restorative justice since it emerged in Brazil in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The delegation visited Harrisonburg City Schools, Harrisonburg Police Department, James Madison University, EMU, and the Fairfield Center, among other locations, to explore various applications of restorative justice: in K-12 and higher education, law and criminal justice, community policing and police training, indigenous and transitional justice, ecology and the environment.<\/p>\n

Integrated leadership, sustainable programs among the goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In contrast to the United States, where a disparate group is driving the widening influence of restorative justice concepts, the Brazilian judiciary has played a key role in Brazil, Lima said.<\/p>\n

Brancher, a fellow judge, is one proponent who has made a nation-wide difference. A judge in the city of Caxias do Sul, he talks about restorative justice as an allegorical light during a dark time in his professional career, when he questioned the efficacy and meaning of his work with incarceration facilities for juveniles. Seen as both a punitive and protective system, \u201cthe way those two positions were disconnected made everything we did harmful because of misunderstood conceptions,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an existential question for me: what does life want from me as a judge? And also a professional question: How can I enforce the law? RJ came to me during to that period as an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nearly 20 years working to advance the concept, the five-day experience at EMU heralds a new stage, he said, towards \u201cthe creation of a more solid basis and more integrated leadership to give support and enable this process to be sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Retired Brazilian judge Isabel Lima, a professor at Catholic University in Salvador, organized the retreat while a visiting scholar in spring 2017 at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lima is leading the efforts of the group to stay connected through online platforms, with potential webinars and courses also in the works, she said.<\/p>\n

International delegations visit EMU<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Brazil group isn\u2019t the first to travel to EMU to learn about restorative justice. The Zehr Institute hosted an international delegation from Nepal<\/a> last year and will host a large group of South Korean practitioners in January.<\/p>\n

Carl Stauffer<\/a>, co-director of the institute, sees a growing awareness to observe and learn about restorative justice in practice as well as in theory.<\/p>\n

Lima worked with the group and Zehr Institute facilitators to plan a learning environment that would be both \u201ctheoretical and practical,\u201d responsive to the group\u2019s \u201cquestions, needs, doubts and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The collaboration within local RJ practitioners evident during the week was also an immersive educative experience, Lima noted. The group witnessed the \u201cembracing of restorative justice as a social movement to nourish our hurt humanity \u2026 working as a community to face challenges around us \u2026empowering ourselves and others that live and work with us. These experiential components are ingredients of the peacebuilding movement.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Participants (as pictured in group photo)<\/h3>\n

Front, from left: Altair Honorato Pacheco, Virg\u00ednia Rego Bezerra, M\u00e1rio Augusto Figueiredo de Lacerda Guerreiro, Ivana Kist Huppes Ferrazzo, Rafaela Duso, Danielle de Guimar\u00e3es Germano Arl\u00e9, Jurema Carolina da Silveira Gomes, Eulice Jaqueline da Costa Silva Cherulli, Haroldo Luiz Rigo da Silva, Diego Dall Agnol Maia, Fernanda Yumi Furukawa Hata, Roseli Maria Duarte, Cristiane Castro Mello.<\/em><\/p>\n

Middle: Evandro Gomes Macedo, Daniela Carvalho Almeida da Costa, Gilca Oliveira Carrera, Leoberto Narciso Brancher, Isabel Maria Sampaio Oliveira Lima, Howard Zehr, F\u00e1tima De Bastiani, Afonso Armando Konzen, Renata Maria Dotta, Cristina Mulezin Gon\u00e7alves, Renata Fernandes de Ara\u00fajo.<\/em><\/p>\n

Back: Kajungu Mturi, Carl Stauffer, Ant\u00f4nio Dantas de Oliveira Junior, Josineide Gadelha Pamplona Medeiros, Nirson Medeiros da Silva Neto. Not shown: Johonna Turner.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"20171023-Brazilian<\/a>