Reintroduction of the Restorative Justice in Schools Act

Support Programs to End the “School-to-Prison” Pipeline

Become an supporter of the Restorative Justice in Schools Act. Below is the letter Congressman Steve Cohen sent to his colleagues asking for support for the bill.



Dear Colleague,



We encourage you to cosponsor legislation that promotes providing school personnel (teachers and counselors) with essential training that has the potential to reduce youth incarceration.



Restorative justice is an innovative approach to conflict resolution which shows promising results throughout the country and abroad. It focuses on repairing the harm caused by crime and conflict rather than simply punishing the offender. Too often, we rely on harsh punishments, like incarceration, which prove to be expensive and counter-productive in many cases, especially when applied to youth offenders. Many school systems involve the police for non-violent incidents and feed the “school-to-prison” pipeline. More importantly, it is a victim centered process that gives the person harmed an opportunity to have a voice in the process and subsequent healing. There are many studies which show the cycle of victims becoming the aggressors when a process is not available that allows healing.



Restorative justice processes and practices can serve as a cost-effective and useful alternative. It holds juvenile offenders accountable to their victims and their community, and helps them understand the impact of their actions. It establishes a non-adversarial process that brings together offenders, their victims, and other interested parties to ask three major questions:



· What is the nature of the harm resulting from the crime?

· How should this harm be repaired?

· And who is responsible for the repair?



Our bill allows local education agencies to use ESEA funding for key school personnel such as teachers and counselors to receive training in restorative justice and conflict resolution. This training will provide them with the essential tools to address minor student conflicts.



To be an original cosponsor of this bill, please contact Reisha Phills of Rep. Cohen’s Staff at Reisha.phills@mail.house.gov or call X53265.



Organizations in support of this legislation include:

* Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA
* Center for Restorative Justice, Suffolk University, Beacon Hill, MA
* Center for Restorative Practices Public Advocacy Center at Touro Law Center, Central Islip, NY
* Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, MD
* Community Justice Institute, Florida Atlantic University
* F.U.T.U.R.E. Foundation Youth Services, Inc., Ford Heights, IL
* Institute for Youth and Justice Studies, Florida Gulf Coast University
* International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP)
* Kansas Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR), Bethel College, North Newton, KS
* Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, Memphis, TN
* Outcome's Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico
* Restorative Solutions, Lafayette, Colorado
* Turning Point Partners, Memphis, TN



Sincerely,



Steve Cohen

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Culture of Care PD in Troy, New York - 2nd visit

One December 2nd and 3rd I will be visiting the Enlarged School District of Troy, New York. This is my second visit to the school district. I introduced the Culture of Care to educators in the district in August.

At this visit I will be visiting schools in the district to observe and share some ideas. Also I will meet with the same leaders I met with in August to get an update on how implementation of the Culture of Care in their schools is going and to create an action plan for the next five months.

New additions to website

New additions were made today to my website -
www.restorativejustice.com. Two items were updates.

1. Under "Publications," you will find a copy of the paper presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). I talked about that paper in an earlier blog.

2. Under "Culture of Care in Schools" you will find I have updated the description of the professional development intervention I facilitate for schools.

Please check out these new additions to my website.

New article published

I received word this week that an article I was working on much of last year is being published later this month. My most recent article is titled Restorative Practices in Schools: Breaking the Cycle of Involvement in Child Welfare and Legal Systems. This article was published in the American Humane Society’s Respected journal Protecting Children. If you are interested you can find a copy of the article on my website at www.restorativejustice.com.

The reference for the article is:
Cavanagh, T. (2010). Restorative practices in schools: Breaking the cycle of student involvement in child welfare and legal systems. Protecting Children, 24(4). 53-60.

State of Restorative Practices in American Schools

I am grateful to two wonderful colleagues whom I have visited with recently for these understandings.

Currently restorative practices in schools are often marginalized to end-of-the-line interventions. Apparently schools are not willing to change the culture, the status quo. In that event, I believe we must focus on helping the students who are the focus of our interventions to find a place where they can learn in an atmosphere that values:

• Supporting these students to build and maintain peaceful and caring relationships and
• Helping these students to flourish.

I urge restorative practices practitioners to avoid placing or being an accomplice to placing these students back into an environment where they are doomed to fail.

My research reveals that American schools tend to view restorative practices as a response to wrongdoing and conflict, rather than a basis for transformation of the school culture. Schools are strongly resistant to change. They would rather make minor adjustments to the status quo and term it reform. The Culture of Care in Schools that I help schools engage in calls for profound change.