“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another. We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.”
The following links and files contain information that is useful in learning about Restorative Justice, and how Restorative Justice programs have been implemented in various places in North America. While we thank the authors for the use of their material, Eagle’s Nest Center, Inc. is not affiliated with and does not necessarily endorse any of the specific programs that are mentioned here. The philosophies and techniques expressed in these articles and websites are those of their authors.
Some of these articles are in “pdf” (“portable document file”) format, and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed. *If you don’t have Acrobat Reader, you can download a free copy from Adobe’s website.
RestorativeJustice.org; Restorative Justice Online, the newsletter of Prison Fellowship International Article on the use of “circles” in Restorative Justice
From the International Institute for Restorative Practices: Circle Sentencing: Part of the Restorative Justice Continuum. www.iirp.edu/article?detail.php?article_id=NDQ3.
“RestorativeJustice.com, “ a website facilitated by Tom Cavanagh, Ph.D., dedicated to learning together how to heal the harm, particularly to relationships, resulting from wrongdoing and conflict.”
The Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) project is an initiative of the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); at www.barjproject.org.
Barron County, Wisconsin’s Restorative Justice Programs, Inc., at www.bcrjp.org.
Restorative Justice at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work, rjp.umn.edu.
