Restorative Practice Resources Tagged With: policy

'Labor spokesperson for youth affairs Josh Willie said they did not support closing the centre but does support a change in approach. "It's not Labor policy to close Ashley but it is time for Tasmania to have a conversation about its approach to youth detention," he said. "It takes a huge proportion of the youth justice budget and there needs to be more of a focus on therapeutic and restorative justice."'

An advocacy group for prisoners said Ashley was an inappropriate setting for youth offenders.

 

Dec. 12, 2019 — Researchers in the UTSA College of Public Policy, assistant professor of social work Jelena Todic and criminal justice lecturer and restorative justice coordinator Robert Rico are joining forces with Up Partnership and three local school districts in a collaborative applied researc...

 

'Abstract Along with the massive shifts and new knowledge generated in the fields of psychological trauma, the brain, and neuroscience, there is an expanding recognition that trauma informed approaches to working with people is an essential part of effective policy, practice, and institutional organization. As a powerful institution in society, law in general and the criminal justice system specifically, regularly encounters and deals with people, both as victims and offenders, whose lives have been shaped and harmed by traumatic events. In this paper we explain the benefits of taking a trauma informed approach to law and outline its consonance with restorative legal approaches. More effective, fair, intelligent and perhaps most importantly, more just legal responses must keep abreast of developments in the field, and work from a perspective which is trauma informed. This can only lead to more humane, sophisticated and effective justice interventions into people’s lives. '

Along with the massive shifts and new knowledge generated in the fields of psychological trauma, the brain, and neuroscience, there is an expanding recognition

'Camilla: To begin, can you give us some background on the issues facing Porgera before the Restorative Justice Initiative Association (RJIA) came along? Everlyne: There have been a lot of social issues in Porgera. In the past, it was okay. The real Porgerans and their families were living there, with the traditional laws that abided then. But when the mining started, it pulled the people from outside of Porgera into the valley.'

It is well known that gender-based and sexual violence are major problems facing Papua New Guinea. What is less widely recognized are the grassroots efforts underway to combat these problems, and the individuals leading those efforts. Everlyne Sap is one of those individuals. She is a gender advocat...

'The key insight for me from Afghanistan is the way in which the language of restorative justice is being used to advance debates about the relationship between traditional and Islamic justice traditions and the state justice system. Discussions about how to connect the modern state institutions of justice, being rapidly built since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, with indigenous institutions such as jirgas, shuras, and other councils of elders where predominantly respected men sit in a circle to resolve disputes, have gained momentum in the past decade. '

New state laws protecting women have failed to have any widespread material change on the treatment of women by society or state in Afghanistan. Miranda Forsyth examines how legal pluralism can work to support improved gender outcomes.

'While a full and complete assessment of the true nature, scope, and impact of far-right violence is necessary to develop sound strategies to address it, as our first report argued, this does not mean policymakers must wait passively until this data is fully collected. Our new report argues for exploring new approaches to the problem of far-right violence, not only to address the present policy failures but to determine whether our traditional legislative approach to hate crimes — increasing criminal penalties — is effective in reducing the harms these crimes inflict.'

The traditional approach to fighting hate crimes is not effective in reducing harm or deterring future attacks

'The mindset about criminality, punishment, and retribution as opposed to rehabilitation and restorative justice, took hold in the 80s and 90s and lingers today. Many leaders of district attorney offices around the country — supervisors, bureau chiefs, etc. — still cling to an older view of what’s necessary to stop crime (jail and more jail), as opposed to what might actually help the prisoner not reoffend, thereby making communities safer. They eschew scientific studies that show how misidentifications are common, that retribution is a far inferior way to deal with crime in the long run than alternatives to incarceration.'

The tipping point may be near, but until people in positions of training others and dictating policy retire or are voted out of office, there will be no widespread change.