vision2020
RE: The Community of Moscow
Greetings Visionaires -
I currently do not support or oppose CORRTJ. However, I did visit their
website (http://www.fcrjquaker.org) and found:
Goals of Friends Committee on Restorative Justice
1. Make restorative justice the first option in all juvenile justice and
disciplinary matters;
2. End to sending juveniles to adult prisons;
3. End to charging juveniles with adult felony charges;
4. Moratorium on construction of juvenile detention centers;
5. Closing of juvenile justice detention facilities;
6. Eventual acceptance in adult justice system;
7. Moratorium on construction of adult prisons;
8. Closure of all for profit prisons;
9. Abolition of the Death Penalty;
10. Community ownership of the justice system.
I will reserve my comments until later.
Take care,
Tom Hansen
Moscow
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony C. Brown [mailto:tony@fcrjquaker.org]
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 7:05 PM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: The Community of Moscow
Hello,
I'm a relative newcomer to Idaho -- our family has been in the area for
about two years and I landed in Moscow 18 months ago. I've been gently
nudged toward opening this dialogue in this forum of "visionaries". As a
small handful of you know I work with a nonprofit, grassroots corporation
known as the Council on Reconciliation and Restorative and Transformative
Justice. CORRTJ works across North America in communities where members of
our Board of Directors live and a few select other places as well.
First, allow me to offer a glimpse of this new community vision. Restorative
Justice offers a new paradigm through which victims and offenders work
together to heal the harm of crime and conflict. Professor and author Howard
Zehr writes that in our current model of criminal or retributive justice
"crime is a violation of the state, defined by lawbreaking and guilt.
Justice determines blame and administers pain in a contest between the
offender and the state directed by systematic rules." Zehr goes on to say
about restorative justice "Crime is a violation of people and relationships.
It creates obligations to make things right. Justice involves the victim,
offender, and the community in a search for solutions which promote repair,
reconciliation and reassurance." Restorative justice is based around a core
set of principles and values which include (but are not limited to:
restitution; accountability to the community and victim; apologies;
forgiveness; peace, justice, mercy, and reintegration into the community for
victims and offenders. Restorative justice programs have been used
effectively in everything from schoolyard bullying to murder. Programs under
the restorative justice umbrella include victim offender dialogue; victim
offender mediation;family group conferencing; sentencing circles; peace
circles; prison ministries and various mentoring programs. In short there
are now throw away youth in a community where restorative justice is used as
the first option and is owned by the community.
Idaho has the third fastest growing prison population and is still seeking
monies for new prisons. These are funds that could (should) be going to
schools, health care, tax cuts, etc. Research shows that restorative justice
reduces levels of recidivism, costs less than retributive justice, has a
higher rate of approval for victims and offenders than our traditional
system. Restorative justice offers intimate healing for communities but only
if the communities are willing to come together and accept each other for
who they are: good and bad.
Over the last several months I have had a chance to meet with several local
politicians and leaders within the Idaho and Washington Justice Agencies.
Especially in the Idaho the response has been overwhelming positive. Many of
these leaders understand we cannot continue the path we are on but they are
concerned the community is not aware or concerned enough to make tough
choices and accept ownership of restorative justice. Judge Barry Stuart puts
it very directly when he says, "When is the last time you heard someone say
I have too much power. Here, you have some." Believe it or not that is
happening in communities across North America and the door is open for it to
happen in Idaho. The Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections is founded on
a principle of Balanced and Restorative Justice (I believe they are sincere
in their efforts); Idaho Youth Ranch and various other agencies around the
state have expressed a willingness to develop profound partnerships within
their communities. The way we do justice is changing. Perhaps never before
have the average citizens been given a chance to make a positive influence
rather than protest. The voice of the community and is being heard, but it
needs to get louder and clearer.
I would like to hear from members of this community about your vision of
what restorative justice might look like in Moscow, Latah County, etc. We
have a lot of videos and educational programs on restorative justice for
groups and individuals who are interested in learning much more. We have a
small team of community volunteers who are trained and working and we are
anxious to get even more. We do accept referrals from the community and that
is something we can talk with people about on a case by case bases if
people are interested in pursuing such an avenue. I am very interested in
hearing all comments, concerns, hopes and fears and will provide my phone
number at the end of this post for those who are interested.
I am headed to the City Meeting this will wrap soon. I just want to
encourage folks who are shy to send me notes off line; call; send smoke
signals or whatever else works for you. Your comments are important to us
and will be very helpful as we continue the process of developing community
restorative justice.
Here are some questions to get it started:
1. How satisfied are you with justice in your community?
2. How would describe your feelings of trust with and overall job
performance of your local police.
3. Are the schools in your community safe? Are they just in the process of
discipline?
4. How would you define the term "Community" when used as community
ownership?
5. Do you feel as though you know and care about the people in your
community?
6. What would it take for you to make an investment in community building
such as becoming a restorative justice faciltiator?
7. Anything else you would like to tell us.
Again, there are multiple forums that we can dialogue in. Feel free to call
me at (208) 882-5416.
Thanks
Tony C. Brown
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