SF District Attorney: Smart on Crime

Kamala Harris, the DA in San Francisco, recently posted: In San Francisco, I have developed a smart on crime approach: we must be tough on serious and violent offenders while we get just as tough on the root causes of crime. In my office, we have raised felony conviction rates and sent more violent offenders [...]

Long-term success of restorative justice

Vermont has one of the longest-running restorative justice initiatives in the U.S.  Two bits of information: @krisminer tweeted a link to this article this morning. And I was looking into the “community boards” model of restorative justice last week; here’s a brief pdf describing that approach, with some solid advice about implementing it, based on [...]

Legislative action for restorative justice in California

AB 114 was vetoed last time around by the govenator. There will be hearings on June 16 to reconsider it, after a few language changes have been added. Here’s a bit of key language from the bill: This bill would authorize a county to adopt a restorative justice program to address the needs of minors, [...]

Inquiring Systems

One my aims as an agency leader is to cultivate an organizational culture that is characterized by continuous and ongoing inquiry—a “culture of inquiry.” I’ve worked with staff and the board here to continually take time to reflect on three key questions: “What are we doing?”, “Why are we doing it?”, and “How’s it working [...]

The heart of being human–a tale of personal and institutional learning

One of the powerful aspects of using circles for resolving conflicts in schools is the institutional learning that can occur. Here’s an example: I was recently called to keep a circle at a high school (in restorative practice, I think of myself as a “circlekeeper”, not a “facilitator”).  Some seniors had committed an offense that [...]

Restorative Resources Given North Bay Peace Builder’s Award

On Saturday I attended the Bay Area Chapter of the Peace Alliance’s meeting in Marin County, at which they honored Restorative Resources with the North Bay Peace Builder’s Award. The award is given in recognition of the work of our staff, board, and volunteers . As described in the Certificate of Recognition from California State Senator Mark [...]

Executive Director Amos Clifford Interviewed on KRCB

I had an opportunity to be interviewed by Bruce Robinson for the North Bay news show on KRCB, our local PBS affiliate. The interview aired last week and is archived on the station’s website. Ready for some story time? Click here.

Could have gone to prison…or…

Our local newspaper features a story about recipients of a local foundation’s scholarship Fund. We are delighted to see that one of the recipients is a graduate of Restorative Resource. The teen lost control of a car he was driving, resulting in the death of one of the passengers and serious injuries to three others. No [...]