As is obvious from the gap in my posts, I’ve been taking a break from my blog this sumer. However, I will come out of hiding long enough to post a few recent resources. They aren’t the usual summer beach reading but maybe they will be of interest anyway.
Our friends at Community Justice Initiatives British Columbia have just posted a free on-line publication, Walking the Talk: Developing Ethics Frameworks for the Practice of Restorative Justice, by Susan Sharpe. This resource is intended to help organizations sort out the values that they wish to live by. Given the difficulties of living by the principles we espouse in our organizations, this will be an important publication for those of involved in restorative justice programs.
Susan L. Miller’s After the Crime: The power of restorative justice – dialogues between victims and offenders (New York University Press, 2011) is a careful and readable examination of severe violence dialogue approaches.
In the forward to The Jesus Factor in Justice & Peacemaking by C. Norman Kraus (Cascadia, 2011), I said this: “If you are a Christian interested in peace, if you are a Christian justice or peace practitioner, if you are Buddhist or Hindu or Jewish and interested in understanding connections between your own faith and Christian approaches to peace – then this book is for you.”
I am currently reading The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (The New Press, 2010). This is an absolute must for anyone involved with justice issues in the United States. Those of us involved in restorative justice especially need to think through its implications for our work and thought.
For those who would rather listen than read at the beach, two great interviews about restorative justice involving my friend Sujatha Baliga. One is from NPR’s Talk of the Nation, “Victims Confront Offenders.” The other, perhaps more interesting, interview is in a podcast from “Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast with David Onek.”
Finally, you may want to consider two upcoming international restorative justice conferences. One is coming up quickly, in November, in New Zealand. The other will be held by the European Forum for Restorative Justice in Finland in June, 2012.
Thanks for the suggestions, Howard. Are you planning on attending the conference in Wellington? I would imagine that there will be presentations on the Maori influence in addition to current developments.
Enjoy the remainder of your summer break and have a great upcoming school year.
Peace.
Hello Howard, thanks for the link to Sujatha Baliga’s interview. Excellent work and please pass on to Sujatha thanks for the meeting and the work. Now we have to take the lead on this and work to expand these types of pre-sentencing meetings which incorporate restorative justice. So thanks and look forward to our next face-to-face.