Restorative Justice: A Path, Not a Place with Amy Fisher Quinn ’92
Exploring Justice Systems, Violence and Inequities….and ALTERNATIVES
Featuring our very own Amy Fisher Quinn ’92
The use of restorative approaches in criminal justice, school settings and as a community practice can be a powerful way to disrupt patterns of racial injustice. The Kellogg Foundation and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) are working with institutions of higher education nationwide to create Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers. Through the use of racial healing circles, these college and university Campus Centers work to ensure that the next generation of strategic leaders and critical thinkers is prepared for and focused on dismantling the belief in the hierarchy of human value.
Current American Justice Paradigm: RETRIBUTION
Focused on Individual Responsibility
Based on the notion of “Getting Even”
Sounds a lot like “LOCK THEM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY”
A Restorative Justice View asks:
Who has been harmed?
What is the nature of the harm resulting from the crime?
What needs to be done to “make it right” or repair the harm?
Who is responsible for this repair?
It is a community-based approach inspired by the traditional ways and restorative dialogue practices of Native American, First Nation, and other indigenous peoples.
Here are a few videos that give you a sense of how restorative justice could be helping, rather than alienating those who commit crimes
And for further reading, consider:
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
Passing for White: Race, Religion and the Healy Family
James M. O’Toole
The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing and US Social Transformation
Fania Davis
