Two new webinars are coming up.
The Promise and Challenge of Restorative Justice Practices in Schools
School applications are probably the fastest growing area of restorative justice. What are the potential benefits? What are the barriers and challenges to implanting restorative justice practices? What works and what does not?
In this webinar, Nancy Riestenberg and Rita Alfred will offer lessons and stories from their extensive experience in this field. Whether a novice or experienced practitioner, this webinar will be of interest.
Nancy Riestenberg has over 25 years experience working in violence prevention, child sexual abuse prevention and restorative measures in schools. She has worked with school districts in Minnesota and twenty other states, from the Cass Lake-Bena School District in Minnesota to Chicago Public Schools. She is the author of Circle in the Square: Building Community and Repairing Harm in Schools. Currently she is a school climate specialist for the Minnesota Dept. of Education.
Rita Renjitham Alfred is the co-founder of the Restorative Justice Training Institute. Rita consults with and trains schools, district personnel, students and parents in the Bay Area in restorative justice (RJ) and peacemaking circles.(PMC). She has used RJ practices to address crises such as homicides and suicides at the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). She introduced the use RJ and PMC as the restorative justice coordinator at Cole Middle School, resulting in a dramatic decrease in the referrals to expulsions, suspensions, and violence on campus.
Howard Zehr will facilitate the webinar.
When Restorative Justice Goes to Prison
What relevance does restorative justice have within a prison environment? What are the possibilities, and what are the challenges or pitfalls? What happens when restorative values are juxtapositioned with the retributive and controlled-oriented values that predominate in prison? Who should take the lead in promoting restorative justice there? What do prison-based programs look like? Are there differences in the way it is articulated and received in prison as compared to the work outside?
These issues and more will be explored by two uniquely qualified resource people:
Tyrone Werts was sentenced to life in prison in 1975. In Pennsylvania, where he was sentenced, life means life and commutations are exceedingly rare. In the early 1990s, he was part of the first restorative justice program at Graterford prison. For many years, Tyrone was president of the Lifer’s Organization and provided leadership to many other initiatives in prison. Then, after 37 1/2 years, Tyrone’s sentence was commuted in recognition of his outstanding integrity and accomplishments. Since March 2011 he has been on the outside, working with the public defender’s office and with the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program that allows college students and prisoners to study together.
Barb Toews is a long-time restorative justice practitioner and trainer. She was director of a restorative justice program in Lancaster, PA, before joining the graduate program at CJP. After graduating, she worked for a number of years developing and facilitating restorative justice initiatives, often in collaboration with incarcerated individuals, in Pennsylvania prisons with the Pennsylvania Prison Society. She is now completing her PhD, focusing on the privacy, well-being and the design of correctional facilities. She teaches at Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College, where she uses the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program model. She is author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison and co-editor of Critical Issues in Restorative Justice.
Howard Zehr will facilitate the webinar.
More information and registration: http://emu.edu/cjp/restorative-justice/webinars/