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To answer the first off line question, no CORRTJ is not a formal
Quaker corporation. It used to be and many of our members, myself included
are quakers, but are board is diverse and spread across a large faith
community. The web site is under going a facelift of sort and sometime
soon we will change the URL... but that is not a priority.
I do strongly encourage community members to learn about restorative
justice from the CORRTJ web site and from a variety of other sources as
well. Our resource page has a lot of great education opportunities www.fcrjquaker.org/resource.html
. Soon we will begin publishing special
sections on restorative justice in the various communities in which we
work. The issues/ goings on in Moscow will have a highlight to them which
we think will be very healthy. This is also one reason why we are strongly
reaching out to the community.We are getting a very good feel for the
thoughts of the agencies and leaders and I would not have missed that for
a minute. It is time to hear from the community and already this is
reminding me how rewarding the work can be.
Thanks
Tony
------Original Message-------
From: thansen@moscow.com
Date: Monday, October
21, 2002 20:00:33
Subject: RE: The
Community of Moscow 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 ____________________________________________________ IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click Here . |
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