$234,000 per year for juvenile lockup

The item below came across my desk today in an email from from Books Not Bars (booksnotbars.org). It’s part of an effort to promote AB 999, which would encourage a shift toward rehabilitation and away from some types of punitive measures (particularly “time adds’).  One part that stands out is the figure for the cost [...]

Prison Orphans

I had not come across any data on the numbers of children who had parents in prison. Then I came across the following, excerpted from The Economist. Prison orphans–those who have a parent in prison–are six times more likely to end up in prison themselves, than children whose parents are not incarcerated. And there are [...]

The Core Expertise

Jenny made a comment on my earlier post about the restorative power of music, that I think nails it. Speaking of the transformative power of involvement in the arts, she says: “Taken even further, it also threatens the need for specialists–if a community can get together and make music and art and tell stories to [...]

Another Milestone

Today we are holding three separate restorative conferences. This is a first for our agency. I am so impressed with how hard the staff are working, with their professionalism and effectiveness. The evaluations coming back from conference participants have all been extremely positive. We’re on a roll.

The restorative power of music

Here’s a very moving video recording using a “virtual studio”–laptop-based recording.  It seems to me that there something fundamentally restorative about it: a circle of voices, circling the globe, united in lyrics that we are all familiar with: “Stand by me.” The song has a prayerful quality. I think about the song circle that I [...]