Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/restorative-justice/page/5/)
The school-to-prison pipeline is one of our nation’s most pressing challenges, that all of us must help reverse. Not only do these outcomes ruin the lives of youth and their families, but they are also bad for our nation. There are affirmative steps that the American Bar Association is well positioned to take to help reverse these negative trends.
Raising the age to be charged as an adult and restorative justice are crucial in slowing the school-to-prison pipeline, New York panelists said.
“We need to show students that by showing up, we have something to offer them,” said educator David Levine. “Students need to see their school as a place of value, not as a place they’re stuck in.”
What started as a stressful night as a chaperone for a school trip emerged as the beginning of a great journey in discovering how discipline can actually be a positive experience for everyone involved. Can you imagine that?! I can, because I have now seen it repeatedly with my own eyes.
Our society has become one of exclusion. When people mess up we remove them from their communities in a type of exile. We have done this for more than 40 years with prisons. Everyone from low-level offenders to the most violent criminals have been locked up in amazing numbers for breaking societal rules.
Athens, Ga., is a funny town. It’s the home of the University of Georgia, meaning some 35,000 students make their home here for nine months out of the year.
I was sitting with my brother in law watching television a few nights ago. It was late and we had been busy all day with Christmas stuff. I had made some hot apple cider with a little Irish whiskey, and we sipped it as we watched an old movie. A long commercial came on advertising the benefits of a national chain of cancer treatment centers. I remarked on how strange it seems to me that something like medical care is treated like a commodity, to the point of needing a slick ad campaign.
Almost 18 months ago I wrote my first opinion piece. Predictably perhaps, it was about restorative justice, the topic I have covered the most. Today, if I can manage to get myself together, I will drive to Kennesaw State University and receive a master’s degree in conflict management. Yesterday, I hurried to work at the Georgia Conflict Center, scrambling as usual to get my final plans in place for the day’s work. I spent nearly two hours at the high school where my colleague Gwen O’Looney and I have been meeting with students this semester.
Frequently writing and speaking about youth justice issues, especially restorative justice, has at times seemingly put me at odds with those who advocate for victims’ rights. Earlier this year I was in Washington, D.C., and met with members of a well-known group that lobbies for juvenile justice reform. They have opposed juvenile life without parole, harsh sentences, and adult transfer, while advocating for community based approaches and rehabilitation efforts to youth who have committed crimes. As we were discussing my own interest in restorative justice, one of them expressed to me his doubts that those working for victims’ rights could ever work together with those seeking reform of the justice system. I was surprised, since one of the foundations of restorative justice is supposed to be that it is victim centered, and that harm to the victim is what must be addressed first in any attempt to respond to crime.
During a hot summer day, daycare workers removed children from a van, except one -- Jazzmin Green. She was two years old. Sixteen-year-old Miesha Ridley was responsible for checking off the names of the children as they were removed. There was a mark next to Jazzmin's name. An hour passed before anyone noticed she was missing.
My first “live” Restorative Circle happened a few days ago, in Rochester, New York. The circle started with seven people, and it ended with more than 50. It had really started a few weeks before. My partner and I had been hurt by an email that I had received, an email that we perceived as judgmental and prejudiced. The author sat across from us, along with one of her friends.