Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.
Deep Forgiveness Breaks Cycles of Violence, Afro.com
Darryl Green knows trauma and he knows loss. Both a brother and a son were murdered in his hometown of Baltimore. Reconciliation is the focus of his program, Deep Forgiveness. He focuses on healing, and not punishment. That’s how, 25 years after his brother’s murder, he was able to testify for early release on behalf the man who killed him.
Newark Today: Becoming a Trauma Informed City, WBGO
For decades, Newark, NJ, has been wracked by violence, trauma, and poverty. Three women whose lives have been touched by trauma are now on the front lines of community organizing. Each of them are working to put a new public focus on trauma and ending cycles of violence. (Sound starts at 5 minutes)
L.A. County to Build Mental Health Center Downtown—Not a New Jail, Curbed LA
A staggering number of incarcerated people suffer from some form of mental illness. So leaders in Los Angeles started questioning whether it made sense to invest in a new central jail. Instead, they chose to spend $2.2 billion on a new mental health facility that could serve nearly 4,000. Community members and elected officials still have concerns about the new facility, reminding us that reimagining our justice system also requires reconstructing more trauma-informed and humanizing mental health systems.
Justice By the Numbers, Pacific Standard
The First Step Act proved to be controversial from the get go, splitting justice reform advocates on whether it would be effective. A big concern was with how racial bias would manifest in risk assessments. One social scientist is trying to figure out how to make machine learning tools fairer and free of bias, while acknowledging technology’s limits to upending structural injustice.
New Orleans Police Pioneer New Way to Stop Misconduct, Washington Post
The New Orleans Police Department’s new program aims to put the onus of police accountability onto officers themselves. This peer intervention program calls on officers to hold one another accountable to avoiding misconduct and use of excessive force, and has had some promising initial results.
Acclaimed Restorative Justice Program on the Chopping Block in Oakland Unified, EdSource
Just last month, we told you about Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, a program making a deep impact in Oakland schools. We were deeply disappointed to find that that program was losing a substantial amount of its funding, possibly imperiling its existence. We hope that Oakland’s leaders might find a way to fund the program that has supported the potential of so many youths.
