Restorative Justice in Practice
Sep 2nd, 2010
Safe & Sound works with numerous community collaborators, committed youth and residetns to implement restorative justice practices that ultimately seek to reduce crime, drugs and violence in Milwaukee. The links below give insight in to these efforts and ways to get involved.
Community Conferencing Program
Safe & Sound has been involved in a successful collaborative relationship with the District Attorney’s Community Conferencing Program for years. We now facilitate all drug and graffiti cases in Safe & Sound target neighborhoods with the help of trained Safe Place youth and residents.
Community conferencing is a process in which a victim, offender and affected community members come together in a safe setting with an impartial facilitator to discuss the facts and impact of a particular crime. During this process the victim and community can ask questions and express directly to the offender how the crime impacted his or her life. The following links provide examples of Safe & Sound’s years of work with the DA’s Community Conferencing program:
Restorative Justice and the District Attorney’s Community Conferencing Program
Safe & Sound and Running Rebels Host Community Conferencing Training
Exciting New Safe & Sound VISTA Service Opportunities
High School Restorative Justice Truancy Project
Safe Places and Community Conferencing Opportunities
Community Impact Offense Alerts
The Community Impact Offense Alert is a collaborative effort between the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and Safe & Sound. The alert is distributed on a bi-monthly basis to community stakeholders through a variety of means and provides specific information on charged drug and/or weapons offenses, including the case number, name, charges, offense address and the defendant’s next court date. Block clubs, youth leadership groups, public officials, law enforcement and a host of other community stakeholders receive the alert. Moreover, a form is provided to submit a community impact statement to the courts, enabling a voice not otherwise heard for the indirect victims of drug and gun crimes. Individual community members can describe in detail how the offender or offense has personally affected them, their block, and the community as a whole. When submitted to the courts, it provides a broader picture of the harm caused by drug and gun crimes.
Peace Making Circles
Safe & Sound Community Partners have used Circles as an alternative communication form for working with Safe Place youth and community members. It is a process that brings together individuals who wish to engage in conflict resolution, healing, support, decision making or other activities in which honest communications, relationship development, and community building are core desired outcomes. Circles offer an alternative to contemporary meeting processes that often rely on hierarchy, win-lose positioning, and victim/rescuer approaches to relationships and problem solving. Derived from native traditions, circles bring people together in a way that creates trust, respect, intimacy, good will, belonging, generosity, mutuality and reciprocity. The following links are just a few examples of circles in practice:
Safe & Sound Implements ‘Talking Circles’ for at-risk youth
Excel Youth Convene Community Resources to Discuss the Reality of Gun Violence
LaVarnway Youth Leadership Group
Parklawn YMCA Safe Place Hosts First 2009 Safe Night
Should we teach kids gun safety?
Saturday Retreat to Plan Youth Crime Strategy Initiative Held at Davis
You can learn about other Milwaukee area Restorative Justice programming and initiatives through the Interfaith Conference Restorative Justice Committee.
