John Legend: State should remove death sentence for children
 

I was born in the great state of Ohio. I was raised in Springfield by hardworking parents and graduated from Springfield North High. Even though my career as a musician has taken me around the world, Ohio is still in my heart and much of my family remains here. I’m proud to be from the Buckeye State, but in my efforts to help reform our criminal-justice system, I was distressed to learn that Ohio is one of the states that has yet to abolish the practice of sentencing children to die in prison.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/27/restorative-justice-confronted-rape
 

When Joanne Nodding met the man who raped her, the first thing she noticed, she says, was how scared he was. “He thought I was going to be angry,” she says, “he was expecting me to shout and scream and tell him that I hated him. But if I had [been uncontrollably angry] they wouldn’t have allowed me to meet him.”

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http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160513/OPINION/160519727
 

Illinois is having a moment. The state is on the precipice of emerging as a leader on criminal justice reforms as elected officials from both sides of the aisle, from Washington to Springfield, are prepared to make significant changes to the justice system.

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https://youthchaplaincycoalition.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/restorative-justice-becomes-law/
 

New legislation happened quietly this year in Washington that affects the juvenile justice system. I knew it was happening, but the legislators I work with wanted to keep it quiet. Sometimes, when a light shines on legislation, people stop doing the right thing and do what they think is politically correct to be re-elected.

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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1604/S00250/restorative-justice-lowering-reoffending-rate.htm​
 

Restorative justice lowering reoffending rate.An increasingly popular justice initiative that gives victims the opportunity to hold offenders to account is proving effective at reducing crime, says Justice Minister Amy Adams.

Restorative justice conferences are face-to-face meetings where victims can tell offenders how the crime affected them, and where offenders can take personal responsibility for their actions. The process is run by trained facilitators and only takes place with the consent of both the victim and the offender.

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https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/effects-parental-incarceration-young-children
 

For imprisoned mothers, one of the greatest punishments incarceration carries with it is separation from their children. As one mother put it, “I can do time alone OK. But its not knowing what’s happening to my son that hurts most” (Baunach, 1988, p. 121, cited in Garcia Coll et al., 1998). As this quote suggests, when parents are incarcerated, “what’s happening” to their children is a great concern. It is a concern for us as well. Our goal in this paper is to examine the impact of parental incarceration on children’s well-being and development, to determine just what is happening to these children.

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http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/02/25/parents-incarceration-takes-toll-on-children-studies.html

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Without ever breaking a school rule or getting a low grade, 2.7 million American students are already further along the pipeline to prison than their classmates—simply because they have a parent who is behind bars.

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http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2014/incarcerated-parents-and-childrens-health.aspx

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(December 2014) U.S. children of incarcerated parents are an extremely vulnerable group, and much more likely to have behavioral problems and physical and mental health conditions than their peers, reports Kristin Turney, a University of California-Irvine sociologist.“We know that poor people and racial minorities are incarcerated at higher rates than the rest of the population,” she says. “Incarceration is likely compounding the disadvantages their children face, setting them further behind, and contributing to racial and social class inequalities in children’s health.”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3608482/

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This study suggests exposure to parental incarceration in childhood is associated with health problems in young adulthood. Extant literature suggests underlying mechanisms that link parental incarceration history to poor outcomes in offspring may include the lack of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and exposure to violence. To prevent poor health in offspring of the incarcerated, additional studies are needed to (1) confirm the aforementioned associations and (2) assess whether adverse experiences and violence exposure in childhood mediate the relationship between parental incarceration history and offspring health problems.

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http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/04/03/restorative-justice-a-different-approach-to-discipline

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Suspensions at Bunche High School, a continuation school in a high-crime, high-poverty community of Oakland, Calif., dropped by 51% last year. Disrespect for teachers has declined; the school is safer. Students are more focused on their studies and many have stopped cutting class.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/education/restorative-justice-programs-take-root-in-schools.html?_r=0

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OAKLAND, Calif. — There is little down time in Eric Butler’s classroom.“My daddy got arrested this morning,” Mercedes Morgan, a distraught senior, told the students gathered there.Mr. Butler’s mission is to help defuse grenades of conflict at Ralph J. Bunche High School, the end of the line for students with a history of getting into trouble. He is the school’s coordinator for restorative justice, a program increasingly offered in schools seeking an alternative to “zero tolerance” policies like suspension and expulsion.

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Miami Herald wins awards for prisoner-abuse stories, sports coverage

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Miami Herald reporters have been honored for a series of stories about abuse in Florida’s prison system and for sports coverage of the baseball steroid scandal and David Beckham’s campaign to bring a soccer stadium to South Florida.

Miami Herald staff writer Julie K. Brown won a George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for her work that uncovered physical abuse of inmates by Florida prison guards. She shared the award with two New York Times reporters who focused on abuse in New York City jails.

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“New Jim Crow” Author Michelle Alexander on Hillary Clinton and Mass Incarceration

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Acclaimed “The New Jim Crow” author and Ohio State University professor Michelle Alexander, one of the first to draw the nation’s attention to the mass incarceration problem, posted this to her Facebook page, January 28th:

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Elizabeth Warren: American Justice Is ‘Rigged’ In Favor Of The Rich

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Warren’s office issued a report earlier this week documenting 20 cases in which federal officials had enough evidence against corporate malfeasance to issue fines. In most of the cases, companies were not even required to admit guilt. In only one case did a corporate offender go to jail — Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who received a 3-month sentence over a mine disaster that killed 29 people.

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Parole office worker accused of embezzling $36,500 from prison union

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MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – After allegedly failing to fulfill an agreement to pay back the money, a woman who has been employed with the Muskegon County Parole Office is accused of embezzling nearly $36,500 from a prison workers union over four years.

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Bill Clinton Admits He’s Destroyed Millions Of Black Men With Prisons

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President Bill Clinton on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, conceded that over-incarceration in the United States stems in part from policies passed under his administration. Clinton signed into law an omnibus crime bill in 1994 that included the federal “three strikes” provision, mandating life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes. Clinton acknowledged that policy’s role in over-incarceration in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/shsu-rrr072716.php​

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HUNTSVILLE, TX (7/28/16) — Restorative justice programs, such victim-offender mediation and community impact panels, are more effective in reducing recidivism rates among juvenile offenders than traditional court processing, a study by researchers at Sam Houston State University found.