Hello, this is Larry Stromberg, SCI Phoenix, in Pennsylvania. Today, I’m going to talk about the Restorative Justice Program at SCI Phoenix. Restorative justice stands for three things: respect, responsibility, and relationships. That’s the main core values of restorative justice. Restorative justice is a worldwide program dealing with the harms of victims and healing for the victims, but also to find some kind of healing for the offender.
Restorative justice started at SCI Graterford back in 2012; has continued at Graterford, and now SCI Phoenix. We have extended workshops, which are 10 weeks long, advanced workshops, which are 10 weeks long. We have alumni workshops at the end of the year. We have a conference called the End of Harm Conference, where all the restorative justice alumni attend with other outside programs of volunteers like the Office of Victims Advocate, DAs offices in the Pennsylvania area. That [unclear] is sponsored by Haverford College. Everyone who is alumni of restorative justice gets tremendous, beautiful certificates and they are to be involved with all the other restorative justice – other smaller programs that are included.
This is what restorative justice stands for. These are the ten restorative justice value statements:
1. We are all connected to one another.
2. We are all different from one another.
3. We are called to care for one another and respect one another.
4. The past, present, and future influence and shape our lives.
5. We are called to live in ways that are life giving to others and ourselves.
6. We are called to be humble and aware of our limitations.
7. We all have needs that require attention.
8. We are called to do no harm to ourselves and others.
9. We all need to be included in working through our own problems and,
10. We are responsible for our actions that harm others.
Me, Larry Stromberg, as a facilitator for restorative justice, it’s changed my life tremendously. And I honestly say everyone that’s attended these workshops have taken full accountability for their actions, and have become better men here at SCI Phoenix and when they get back out in society. It’s a beautiful program, and you can look up “Let’s Circle Up,” just Google “Let’s Circle Up,” and it will explain everything about that program here at SCI Phoenix. This is Larry Stromberg. God bless. Thank you so much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
