This fact sheet provides an overview of the Center for Court Innovation’s Peacemaking Programs in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Syracuse, N.Y. Peacemaking, inspired by a traditional Native American approach to justice, focuses on resolving disputes, restoring balance, and healing relationships among those affected by conflict and crime.
Joe Balles, who recently retired as a captain after a 30-year career with the Madison (Wisconsin) Police Department, discusses restorative justice and police legitimacy with Robert V. Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. A mentee of Herman Goldstein, who is considered the father of problem-oriented policing, Balles was instrumental in the creation of the Dane County Community Restorative Court, a diversion program based on the Native American principles of peacemaking.
This monograph starts with a question: What can we do differently to enhance public safety, reduce the use of incarceration, and improve public perceptions of justice in a Brooklyn neighborhood that experiences both high crime and high rates of incarceration?
Bronx Community Solutions seeks to re-engineer the response to low-level crime in the Bronx, New York. By providing judges with additional sentencing options for non-violent offenders, Bronx Community Solutions reduces the reliance on short-term jail sentences and offers defendants the assistance they need to avoid further criminal conduct.
This study examines the work of the Red Hook Community Justice Center’s Peacemaking Program, which uses traditional Native American practices to resolve disputes. Participants can avoid the justice system by participating in peacemaking sessions and reaching a consensus agreement for restitution and repair.
This article describes Native American peacemaking as an alternative to the Canadian justice system's "overreliance on punitive and isolationsist tactics." Published in Policy Options, February 2013.
A guide for justice planners seeking to adapt Native American peacemaking to a non-tribal setting. After providing an overview of peacemaking, the report outlines key issues jurisdictions will most likely want to consider during planning and implementation.