Image Summary

To conclude my exploration of Restoration…

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review posts at the beginning of this exploration, contributing artists explanations for their pieces. Hear from Emily Wynn, Luisa Henao, and Claudette Monroy and consider the efforts of Restorative Justice

Restoration; a personal perspective

This concludes a three part exploration of our what Restoration means in image form. Thank you to the contributing artists in this experiment. The images generate such drastically different views of what restoration means for them. Bellow are the final installments of this project that reflect on the personal idea of restoration from within. The magnificent part of these pieces is that restoration is all of these things and in the field of Restorative Justice people are met with this healing.

Restoration

Re-finding true worth and purpose after being corrupted, abused or neglected. Re-discovering beauty and life in brokenness.

– Claudette Monroy

Restoration in the Faces of Mozambiquens

For restoration to happen in a community it has to start with addressing each individual. I see faces when I think of restoration and I have found that these are my favorite moments to capture with my pictures. To want to capture a moment in their glare that lets me see into their hearts.

The woman: I met at the market in Tete, Mozambique. With my basic Portuguese language skills and my color skin we still had an immediate connection between the two of us.

The little boy: I only saw him this time at Wimbi beach (Pemba Mozambique). One time  was enough for me to see the need in his heart for love and that child like perspective.

The man: Met him while praying for people at the village in Tete. He was sitting outside his hut and when i went up to him he was so surprised that I would take my time to go up the rocks to see him. It was so great to sit next to him and be able to pray for his physical restoration.

– Contributions by Luisa Henao

Restorative Justice 101

The ideals of  Restorative Justice  are that the wrongs of an offender would be made right through the healing of the victim and co-victims [family, friends etc.] This is born out of the idea that ‘crime’ is not an offense to the government law but an offense to the community member offended and the community itself. While these individuals may or may not have known each other the offense has broken their relationship which is infinitely connected to people in their community. Secondly the punishment should be equal to the offense in severity. Simply, crime disrupts life and punitive justice does very little to nothing at all to restore that order. Instead of punitive punishment RJ proposes a more active response from offenders. One that engages them in the repair of their relationship with the victim. It is the responsibility element our current justice system fails to impart on the offenders.

Images in focus

When it comes to expressing myself on an issue i find words to fall short. In order to capture the heart behind this call to change I am inviting contributing artists to share their photographic perspective on the ideas behind this effort. Starting with five contributing photographers we will consider the word Restoration;

what it means. what it stands for. how it feels. what it looks like.  how it is represented. how it effects the world.

in three photos we will summarize our perspective. these pieces will then be published here, with small explanations from the artists. this is also a call to interested artist who would enjoy taking part in the project.

Submissions will be published  2/24/11.

Huge Issues Small Solutions; HOPE

As i’ve become more aware of what is really behind bars it has become more of a glaring issue in my every day life. I look out of the car window and see someone who clearly struggles financially and consider how much more likely it is that they will face the consequences of a broken justice system whether through the neighborhood they have to live in, the mistakes of their family members or themselves. This is not isolated to low income society it just comes at that part of society from all sides because they have fewer options for housing or jobs. The pain of these hardships can begin to overwhelm me until i see a glimmer of HOPE. We often think of such huge issues such as the federal and state justice system requiring an effort for the long hall, any changes taking generations to make a difference. Here is where the current justice reform is different; not everyone thinks we have to for all things to be in order to make some changes. Judge Alm of Hawaii is one single man who’s job title does not require the he re-mediate the state systems but that did not hold him back.

in 2009 Judge Alm [in his own words] became more frustrated with the high incarceration rate of probation violators. He saw their sentences as too extreme for their offenses but their probation officers previous warnings as too soft. Taking into his own hands he instituted a new method of correction and called it  HOPE; Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation With Enforcement, and prepared himself for a flood of violation hearings.

The new procedure entailed an immediate response to probation violation; tested positive for drugs or missed an appointment, they would be arrested on the spot and have a hearing in 72 hours.  Those who violated probation would be quickly sentenced to a short jail term in proportion to the severity of the violation, typically a few days.

Judge Alm was advised to inform offenders of the changes and so he met with 18 sex offenders and 16 drug offenders in separate hearings to share this with them.

“I can guarantee that everyone in this courtroom wants you to succeed on probation,

but you have not been cutting it. From now on, you’re going to follow all the rules of probation,

and if you don’t, you’re going to be arrested on the spot and spend some time in jail right away.”

Judge Alm did not make these changes to reduce his time in the court room, in fact he expected the violation hearings to rise dramatically but there was no increase. In the first week he had two and in the second he had three. HOPE immediately became a focus for scholars to study evaluate it’s methods. Within a six-month period the rate of positive drug tests fell by 93% for this in the HOPE probation program, compared to a 14% fall of probationers in a comparison group.

Program Evaluation Results

• Positive drug tests reduced by 86%
• Missed probation appointments reduced by 80%
• Revocations of Probation reduced by more than 50%
• Arrests for new crimes reduced by more than 50%

It’s about responding to the injustices proximal to you and your life. Judge Alm could have, like many already, not worried himself with the betterment of the probationers. The HOPE program would have never been discovered  and the lives changed by reduced drug use alone would have never been offered such hope.

Lives Mistaken for Numbers

These numbers are representative of lives

So why prisoners?

I feel that although I have vast resources to explain to you, my readers, why prison reform is so necessary in this nation  those words mean less and less as long as I remain anonymous. Not so that I can fuel any self absorbed assumptions about my importance in this world but so that you can see from where this passion has grown in me.

I was not brought into the issues of justice/prison reform or restorative methods verses punitive efforts VIA a major television network. Even after a month of working with an international prison reform nonprofit I had not grown in any passion to see resolution to these issues. Clearly my education and the internship itself taught me a great deal about the issues [such as prison rape, recidivism, shackled labor], however it was when I had the opportunity actually interact with these humans behind bars that I grew to understand the vast injustices being dealt to these men and women. I could also see how the current system is merely growing an already destructive problem; fatherless homes, violence generated in nonviolent criminals, all affording no resolution to the community harmed by the original offense.

I would like to share a reflection of my experience interacting with a small group of inmates.

The room was filled with laughter, both nervous and jovial but always genuine and kindhearted. Our time was structured with a bible study led by a tenacious couple from less than perfect back grounds.  Like those in the denim jump suits they had made decisions that stripped them of their physical freedom. While i could see it was their wrongful decisions that garnered their current circumstances, however getting to know their hearts caused them to seem far from where they really belonged.

Sitting next to men I would usually be frightened to be alone with in a convenient store my mind was opened to hear their stories.

My hands held close to them the hand of what had been a perfect stranger moments before. The sweat that sat between the palms of our hands was all mine, as I struggled to take in the experience around me. With heads bowed and eyes closed I heard a gruff voice ask for God to bless “the young people in this room” to “keep them following you.” The prayer was genuine and resonated with the deepest caverns of my heart. All afternoon the perceptions I had once held of those locked behind bars were being broken at their foundations. With this prayer all of them had toppled to become only former ideas and opinions of the past.

In encountering the real lives of these men I was afforded an opportunity to have my assumptions challenged in such a way that I saw the hearts of our nation’s offenders and I found them to be much like myself.

The Run Down

In May of 2009 a small cry was heard from the political leaders of Virginia to see significant reform to our justice system. with the number one incarceration rate in the world, 2.4 million people behind bars the United States has reason to consider its methods. One would think this must be offering effective results however the  the recidivism rate was over half in 1994 and had increased in percentage of rearrests from 62.5% in 1983 to 67.5% in 1994, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

So we find ourselves feeling exceptionally safe with a notably low crime rate but a 239% increase in people involved in the justice system. Who do we have to thank? Why Mr. McGruff and his ‘Tough on Crime” mentality that brought us genius  [sarcasm; can you taste it?] policies such as three strikes you’re out. Last time i surveyed my surroundings I hadn’t signed up for little league so I would appreciate it if my governing officials would get their heads out of the dug out and let our judges make real decisions based on the evidence and circumstances.Because Webb is right ins saying…

‘”America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace,” Webb said, noting that the United States has five percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.’

Here I will do my best to bring you the facts on this forgotten population of offenders, who they are, what life holds for them as the system stands, who is doing something about it and how I will be participating in efforts to bring about change for these people. Along with research and commentary on the issues of Justice Reform I will be working under a faculty adviser to write a grant to bring education programs to our local prisons. So join with me as I delve into the intricacies of government, justice and the people so often trampled under their feet in hopes of grabbing hold of hands and pulling up those ready and willing to restore their place in society.