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Police Chief Bob Richardson

How One Police Chief is Seeing RJ Produce Compelling Results
Police Chief Richardson's presentation at the recent and annually-held NW Justice Forum focused mainly on RJ from a Police standpoint. He understands that without a commonality and consistency in the practices of each agency (i.e. schools, police and the courts) we will not see success in our goal to provide effective restorative justice to the youth of our community. Also it is important for juvenile offenders to want to improve themselves and their futures; it is our duty to foster that desire though positive interactions.

Police Chief Bob Richardson was appointed as the Battle Ground (WA) Police Chief in January 2011 and currently oversees a staff of 22 commissioned officers and 4 professional staff.
Chief Richardson worked for the Irvine Police Department for 30 years, starting as a police officer and rising through the ranks as a sergeant, lieutenant and commander. Prior to working for the Irvine Police Department, Richardson served as a military police officer in the U.S. Army for three years.

He has a wide range of law enforcement experience including patrol, field training officer, traffic officer, crime analyst, criminal investigations, planning, research and training, crime prevention, emergency management and SWAT.

Chief Richardson obtained his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice Administration from California State University in Long Beach, California and a Master's of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has also attended the Supervisory Leadership Institute hosted by California State University Long Beach, the administrative officer's course hosted by the Southern Police Institute in Louisville, Kentucky.

Chief Richardson is also an active member of many boards and commissions throughout Clark County, WA including the Clark County Public Health Advisory Council, the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency Board of Directors, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), Prevent Together Coalition, Law Enforcement and Autism Community Network and she currently serves as the Chair of the Clark/ Skamania County Law Enforcement Council.

Restorative Justice Rises in MA:
Communities for Restorative Justice & Juvenile Court Restorative Justice Diversion Speak Up

Erin Freeborn and Jennifer Larson-Sawin (L to R) flanked by Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Ken Gordon at recent event in MA supporting Restorative Justice Practices.

Photo Credit: Communities for Restorative Justice

Topic: There is a lot brewing in the State of Massachusetts.

Recently we caught up with Erin Freeborn of the Juvenile Court Restorative Justice Diversion Programs and Jennifer Larson-Sawin, former Executive Director of Communities for Restorative Justice. Both programs are a part of the greater MA Restorative Justice Coalition and have built steady and influential programs. They have also been working to raise awareness and educate citizens in MA and beyond about the efficacy of "RJ", most recently with concerted and successful efforts surrounding S. 2078: An Act Promoting Restorative Justice.

Enjoy this fresh short interview with Erin and Jennifer, a shorter version of our regular ongoing dialogue series. In it we discuss the reframing language of justice, the key influences of their experiences in S. Africa and New Zealand, what's happening in MA and how their respective organizations are growing by leaps and bounds, as is restorative justice in MA as well as the U.S. We also share how you can support the bill and how you can get involved more directly in MA with a Peace Alliance Action Team!

with Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D.A. Marian Ryan, Chief of Bedford Police Dept. Robert Bongiorno and Hon. John Cratsley. Topic of discussion: In the state of MA, S. 2078 is on the table presently in Senate Ways and Means. This highly informative panel discussion shows why restorative justice works, why it matters, and why the people of MA should voice support for this bill and help it move forward.

RJOY (Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth) Space Design by Deanna

January 23, 2014
Creating Restorative Spaces with Barb Toews and Deanna Van Buren
Topic: Barb and Deanna discuss how the setup and design of a space can proactively support restorative processes, including Deanna’s experience designing space for Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (pictured above). An excellent body of work and a growing new field that also resembles other countries who are re-thinking justice architecture.

Deanna-Van-Buren

Deanna Van Buren is the founder and Design Director of FOURM design studio in Oakland California and recent Loeb Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Her practice focuses on the investigation and application of design innovations to the punitive justice system and alternative forms of justice that embrace reparation. Recent projects include a peacekeeping room and design guidelines for restorative spaces in schools with Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and the design and construction of a Peacemaking Center with the Center for Court Innovation in Syracuse, New York.

Barb-Toews

Barb Toews is an experienced practitioner and educator in restorative justice. Publications include Critical Issues in Restorative Justice, co-edited with Howard Zehr, and The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison. Barb holds a MA in Conflict Transformation and is a PhD candidate at Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
Her research concerns the relationship between environmental design, especially that of correctional institutions, and psycho-social-behavioral and judicial outcomes.

Description of Dialogue: Jacques shares about the GRIP program and insights into ways that ISO programs help inmates transform themselves into change agents. Great program for those looking to do work within Corrections, and for anyone who cares about root causes of crime and viable ways to address them.

Jacques Verduin, MA Somatic Psych. is a father, community organizer and a teacher.

He is the Founding Director of the Insight Prison Project (IPP), a non-profit that since 1997 pioneers innovative in-prison rehabilitation programs in San Quentin. In 2011 he founded Insight-Out (IS0), which provides services and self-development opportunities to prisoners and challenged youth and empowers them to positively transform their predicament.

Jacques has trained former prisoners to act as Change Agents in the community, working to prevent violence and incarceration. He is a subject matter expert on mindfulness, emotional intelligence and transforming violence. He has worked in prisons for 16 years and serves as a catalyst for state-wide prison reform in California.

Email: Jacques (jverduin@comcast.net)

When we talk about justice, or restorative justice, we almost always in some form or another refer to those that came before--whether peoples, tribes, traditions, cultures. We also have an inherent sense of justice that could be termed "original". In this hour live dialogue we'll share with Glenn about these concepts and more, and hear from him about his deep dig into the roots and origins of justice, dialogue and unified thinking and how they support the foundation of restorative practices--or any particular movement towards peace, healing and understanding ourselves and the precious world we all share. -Molly Rowan Leach

Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, is a writer, psychologist, educator, and entrepreneur, is the founder and past president of the SEED Institute based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Parry earned his doctoral degree in Humanities with a concentration in Transformative Learning from the California Institute of Integral Studies as part of his life-long passion to reform education into a coherent, cohesive whole.

He organized and participated in the groundbreaking Language of Spirit Conferences from 1999-2011, which have brought together Native and Western scientists in dialogue, moderated by Leroy Little Bear.

Parry is the author of the forthcoming book

Original Thinking: A Radical ReVisioning of Thought, Time, Humanity, and Nature.

Other Media featuring Bryan:
Bill Moyers Interview (Moyers and Company)
Rachel Maddow Show (On Atty General Eric Holder & mass incarceration)
TED Talk

Bryan A. Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a private, non-profit organization headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, and is a professor at New York University School of Law. He has gained national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system. Stevenson has assisted in securing relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, advocated for poor people and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice.

A graduate of Eastern College (now Eastern University), Harvard Law School (J.D.), and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he has won the American Bar Association's Wisdom Award for public service, the ACLU's National Medal of Liberty (1991), a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, the Reebok Human Rights Award (1989), the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice (1993), the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award (2000), the Olof Palme Prize (2000), Stanford Law School's National Public Service Award (2010),[1] and the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers named him the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year (1996).

He has received honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and Georgetown University Law School. In addition to directing the Equal Justice Initiative, he has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Michigan School of Law and lecturer at Harvard and Yale Law Schools.

He is a co-recipient of the 2009 Gruber Prize for Justice. The Gruber Foundation Justice Prize is presented to individuals or organizations for contributions that have advanced the cause of justice as delivered through the legal system. The award is intended to acknowledge individual efforts, as well as to encourage further advancements in the field and progress toward bringing about a fundamentally just world. In 2010, the NAACP honored Stevenson by awarding him the William Robert Ming Advocacy Award for the spirit of financial and personal sacrifice displayed in his legal work.[2]

He spoke at TED2012 in Long Beach, California, and received the strongest standing ovation ever seen at TED.[3] Following his presentation, over $1 million was raised by attendees to fund a campaign run by Stevenson to end the practice of putting children in adult jails and prisons. [4]

Oscar Reed and Jamie Williams from The Restorative Way and Minneapolis Public Schools Contractors/Facilitators

Oscar Reed and Jamie Williams, MA, are Restorative Justice / Practices / Measures consultants with more than 50 years of experience between them working with young people in a variety of school and community settings. They have been trainers, classroom mentors and Circle Keepers for the Minneapolis public schools, suburban districts, charter schools, alternative learning centers, the University of Minnesota Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking (Dr. Mark Umbreit), school districts across the country, HennepinCounty, RamseyCounty, Amicus, the Minnesota Department of Corrections and many other organizations.

Their organization is called The Restorative Way...whose mission is to enhance and expand opportunities to help create restorative cultures in schools, communities, businesses, correctional systems, families and faith based organizations. It is also to create opportunities for people to make positive healing connections.

Oscar is currently the Multi-Cultural Director at St. Louis Park High School. His "Boys to Men" Circle has been in existence over 8 years. Oscar's mission is "to help save our children one child at a time" Oscar is a former Minnesota Viking who played with as much passion as he now serves people with.

Jamie is currently the Restorative Justice Coordinator for Bayfield School in northern Wisconsin and a support to Project Launch at Red Cliff Early Childhood Center. When Jamie heard the definition of a "calling" by F. Buechner "When a deep gladness in your heart meets a deep hunger in the world," she knew she was "called" to keeping the Circle strong and present in schools and communities. Jamie's Masters Degree is in Restorative Justice.

Nancy Riestenberg has over twenty-five years of experience in the fields of violence prevention education, child sexual abuse prevention and restorative measures in schools. She has worked with school districts in Minnesota and 20 other states, and speaks nationally on restorative measures at conferences and through trainings. She provides technical assistance on violence and bullying prevention, school connectedness, school climate, disproportionate minority representation in suspensions and expulsions dropout prevention, cultural relevance of prevention education, crisis prevention and recovery and restorative measures.

Nancy was a member of the design team for the National Institute of Corrections' restorative conferencing curriculum, Facilitating Restorative Group Conferences. She presented at the Restorative Approaches to Conflict in Schools Seminar at the University of Edinburgh.

Prior to coming to the Minnesota Department of Education, Nancy worked for twelve years with the Illusion Theater's Sexual Abuse Prevention Program, which created and toured educational plays on child sexual abuse, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS prevention education. She coordinated the adaptation of Touch, the child sexual abuse prevention play, for the Red Lake People, and trained high school students in twenty different school districts in eight states to present social issue prevention plays to their peers.

Nancy is author of Circle in The Square, a bestselling book published by Living Justice Press. She writes warmly and with long experience about the challenges facing school communities and how restorative measures¬ specifically Circles¬ create a safer space for learning and development for all. Using stories direct from the hallways, she brings heart to subjects that are often divisive and controversial: bullying and other violence, suspension, drug use, staff conflicts, and more. Throughout the book, Nancy s focus is on strategies that actually work for the whole school community: students, parents, administrators, teachers, and the community in which they live.

Author of Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth and Heart of Hope

Carolyn Boyes-Watson is the founding director of Suffolk University's Center for Restorative Justice and an associate professor of sociology at Suffolk University. Professor Boyes-Watson has been on the faculty since 1993. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

She is the author of Peacemaking Circles for Urban Youth and Co-Author with Kay Pranis of Heart of Hope: A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing, and Build Healthy Relationships

Restorative Justice on the Rise

Media That Matters: Public Dialogue On Justice

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