Peacemaking is a traditional Native American approach to justice focused on healing and community restoration, rather than punishment. The Near Westside Peacemaking Project brings this practice to one of Syracuse, New York’s most distressed neighborhoods, offering community members a unique approach to addressing an array of community problems. This report describes the 24-month planning period and the first two years of program implementation, including program structure, goals, caseload, and feedback from participants.
On our New Thinking podcast, the Oakland-based architect explains her firm’s mission to use design to counter incarceration and promote the use of restorative justice. She also discusses her work on our Near Westside Peacemaking Center in Syracuse, N.Y.
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.
Tribal courts around the country are exploring the use of problem-solving justice, which offers a way to blend the adversarial process with more traditional practices that focus on healing and restoration. This toolkit offers tribal justice planners a step-by-step guide to developing effective problem-solving justice initiatives.
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.
This report summarizes the discussion at a roundtable on peacemaking hosted by the Center for Court Innovation, with the support of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, as part of a planning process to create a pilot peacemaking program in the New York State court system.
