Soul Food

Excerpt from “A Legacy of Hope: an agenda for change” Saskatchewan Justice Report

News
Convicted Sex Offender with Circle Support Keeps Church Job

New Zealand: Law prevents private prisons

Case for Sex-Offender Registry

Martha Stewart and Mandatory Minimums

Proposition 66: Amending California’s Three Strikes Law

Pre-Trial Custody and the Conditional Sentence of Imprisonment
 
Stories from the Field

Citizens’ Advisory Committee Releases Annual Report

Ex-gang Member Ministering to Youth

“Options for Multifaith Practice in Civic Life”

“Double Jeopardy: The Modern Dilemma for Juvenile Justice”

Upcoming Events

Providing Christian Care to the Ex-Offender, their Family and the Community

Call for Presenters- Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment Part 3 (Sydney, Australia)

30th Canadian Congress on Criminal Justice

Calling all Movie Fans- Name that RJ Movie!

 
Resources

Simon Fraser- Centre for Restorative Justice Website

Dispute Resolution Centre for Excellence

Safer Canada- Canadian Forum for Crime Prevention

Canada Plus Sur- Forum canadien pour la prévention de la criminalité

Soul Food

“Justice to Aboriginal people has always been the preservation, the restoration of the primary imbalance within the lives of people. Justice has not been individualistic. Justice has been for the collective whole. Sanctions have been used within aboriginal communities, that is true, but that has been to maintain a balance and to maintain a harmony to bring it back. Sanctions are used within the Euro-Canadian system to punish, to get even. As an educator I have never known as instance where I was able to teach anyone anything by punishing him. You teach by reaching out and becoming a part of what they are doing. You engage them in the process.”

-Speaker, North Battleford Community Dialogue.

This excerpt is taken from a chapter of the Final Report of the Commission on First Nations and Metis People and Justice Reform in Saskatchewan entitled“A Legacy of Hope: An Agenda For Change”. This extensive report, the culmination of two and a half years of work by five dedicated individuals, including CCJC member Irene Fraser, covers a variety of justice issues within Saskatchewan. Some of its key chapters address restorative justice, violence and vicitmisation, youth justice, and eliminating racism. The full report which includes 122 recommendations can be viewed at www.justicereformcomm.sk.ca

News

Convicted Sex Offender with Circle Support Keeps Church Job
Mr. John Galliene, convicted in 1990 for sexually abusing 13 young boys, has been cleared to resume his duties at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Ottawa as an assistant to the choir director and organist. The Anglican bishop made the decision after his investigation following media stories that Galliene’s work was violating a previous church ruling in Kingston where the offences occurred. Galliene moved to Ottawa after having served four years in prison. Soon after his arrival he joined a group of parishioners at St. John’s who formed a circle of support and accountability. In such circles, volunteers enter into written agreements with high-risk sex offenders and provide support and daily contact, while also holding them accountable for their behaviour. The offenders agree to honour conditions imposed on them by the courts and avoid high-risk behaviour. According to the Correctional Service of Canada, these circles are effective in reducing the risk of further offences. A recent study reported that only three of 30 sex offenders who belong to circles had re-offended.

For the full story see “Anglican bishop Oks church job for pedophile” The Ottawa Citizen, July 5 2004.

New Zealand: Law prevents private prisons
New Zealand’s parliament voted 62-53 in May 2004 to pass legislation that prevents future prison privatisation. The Labour, Green and Progressive parties voted for a clause in the Corrections Bill that prohibits GEO Group’s existing contract for the Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) from being renewed when it expires in 2005 and requiring all prisons to be managed by the government. Opposition parties have argued that there is no justification for ACRP to be taken over by the state.

Meanwhile, a new group has been formed to lobby for greater private sector involvement in owning, building and operating New Zealand’s infrastructure and services. The New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development includes Macquarie Bank, construction firms Fulton Hogan and Stevenson and law firm Bell Gully and will advocate for public private partnerships and for changes to laws that stand in their way.

By Stephen Nathan, Prison Privatisation Report International(No. 63, July 2004). Reprinted from Voices Rising, The eBulletin of the Irish Penal Reform GTrust

Case for Sex-Offender Registry
Alan Young, writing for the Toronto Star July 19 2004, discusses the importance of having a sex-offender registry in light of a recent finding by a Superior Court judge that Ontario’s registry was unconstitutional: “We need to supervise, monitor and counsel those state-nurtured convicts who eventually see the light of day after spending most of their adult years in the darkness of penal institutions.” In terms of the constitutionality of such a registry, Young insists that it is not hard to protect the innocent while still respecting the constitution: “First, the law must only target the truly dangerous who are to be released. Second, the released offender must be allowed to live in the community with some degree of privacy and anonymity…however, the offender should be compelled to report to the police, to probation service, to counselling services, three, four, maybe five times a week.” Earlier Well articles have challenged the real impact of these registries in making communities safer, citing the more promising results with circles of support and accountability.

For the complete article see The Toronto Star, 19 July 2004 “Case for Sex-Offender Registry”

Martha Stewart and Mandatory Minimums
According to Steven Surka, writing for the Toronto Star, Martha Stewart’s sentence points to the much larger problem of mandatory minimums in the United States: “Rather than investing sage judges with discretion, they are instead confined to counting aggravating and mitigating features of the case on an abacus to fashion a calibrated sentence…defendants are treated like widgets in the prisoner’s dock, stripped of their humanity. Not surprisingly, disaster is often the result.” Surka uses the poignant example of a drug offence case in Connecticut in which the judge wrestled with imposing a mandatory minimum:“ The sentence is one of the unfairest I have ever had to impose…I resent the fact that Congress has forced me to do this.” Surka points out that the ‘draconian sentencing guidelines’ now in effect in the U.S. have led to ‘staggering increases’ in the U.S. prison population.

For the full story see “Cooking Martha’s Goose”, The Toronto Star, 16 July 2004.

Proposition 66: Amending California’s Three Strikes Law
A November vote will determine if California’s three strikes law is amended. Proposition 66 would amend the three strikes law to apply only to felonies that are violent and provide for the re-sentencing of thousands of non-violent offenders currently serving strike-enhanced sentences for petty crimes. According to Sam Clauder, founder of Citizens Against Violent Crime, the three strikes law has had unexpected and undesirable consequences: “like millions of other Californians, when I voted for the three strikes law I was voting to keep violent criminals locked up- not to put pizza-thieves, cookie-burglars and dope-smokers in prison for life”. Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated that he plans to oppose the proposition, and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Association are appealing to California residents to urge the governor to reconsider his position.

For more information on Proposition 66 and ACLU’s ‘take action’ campaign visithttp://gal.org/campaign/gov66

  “Pre-Trial Custody and the Conditional Sentence of Imprisonment”
Professor Julian Roberts, writing in Justice Report, argues that accused facing a sentence of two years or more should not be eligible for a conditional sentence just because of the amount of credit a judge may grant for pre-trial detention. Professor Roberts notes that judges have discretion in terms of the amount of ‘credit’ one is given for time spent in prison before trial, and argues that ‘as the range in ratios of credit grows, consistency in sentencing will diminish’. Along the same lines, he believes that ‘…offenders in the penitentiary range should not be able to earn eligibility for a conditional sentence as a result of having served time in detention pre-trial…to bring a penitentiary-bound offender into the range of a conditional sentence is effectively creating an end-run around the wishes of Parliament.’

Stories from the Field

Citizens’ Advisory Committee Releases Annual Report
The Citizens’ Advisory Committee to the Correctional Service of Canada has released its 2002-2003 annual report. The CAC operates as a means for citizens to become involved in the correctional system by recruiting members from the community who wish to make a difference in the criminal justice system and their communities. There are over 100 CACs in Canada and almost 600 citizens participate. CCJC member Carol Southall is a long-time member of a Citizens Advisory Committee in Kingston. She describes her work:

As a CAC member at Kingston Penitentiary for ten years I have learned a great deal about an environment which is behind walls and certainly the subject of much misunderstanding and misinformation. I have found the experience challenging and richly rewarding.

As a CAC member I am free to move about the institution as I wish as long as I am not a security problem. We are welcomed at both staff meetings and at inmate meetings. Sometimes we are asked to observe when there is a crisis or other need for us to be present. Recently I assisted and observed during the voting for the federal election while it was being done on the segregated ranges.

Our committee meets with the warden once a month to hear her report and express our concerns. Our mandate is to observe, advise, and liaise with staff and administration, with those incarcerated, and with the general public. There is a great need for mature individuals who would be interested in “walking with” the people who work and those who live in Canada’s prisons. “

For further information on Citizens Advisory Committees or for a copy of the report, visit www.csc-scc.gc.ca

Ex-Gang Member Ministering to Youth
Former Chicago gang leader Rocky Vasquez spent 20 years on the run and in and out of prison. He has now decided to share his experiences and reach out to at-risk youth. He co-founded an outreach ministry called Gangs4Christ which aims to provide positive role models by reaching out to youth. The ministry is not limited to gang and at-risk youth, but exists ‘to mentor the next generation in the light and power of prayer with proof that forgiveness makes new beginnings possible.’

For the full article, see ‘Restorative Justice News’ April-June Edition, Vol.5 No.2

For more information about Gangs4Christ, visit www.gangs4christ.com

“Options for Multifaith Practice in Civic Life”
Rev. Gary Kilgore recently delivered a thoughtful paper reflecting on spirituality, religion and culture. Here is an excerpt: “Spirituality is a universal constant, our name for the range of human attempts to receive and share positive affect, and to make and share Meaning. In an increasingly cosmopolitan world, made smaller daily by the ongoing revolutions in transportation and communication, and especially in a liberal democracy where Religion is treated in law as a matter of individual choice, the particular Spirituality of any given one of us may or may not be expressed as adherence to a given Religion…It is crucial to remember this…Spirituality does not equal Religion, and Religion does not equal Culture…Neither category is reducible to another- yet, it is often hard to separate them in practice. And that is important in a liberal democracy like Canada’s, which underwrites both a Spirituality of individual freedom and choice and a commitment to embrace and support the widest possible range of cultural expression.”

Rev. Gary S. Kilgore’s paper is entitled “All? Or Nothing?- Diversity and/or Equality- Options for Multifaith Practice in Civic Life”

The paper was presented at the ‘Diversity in Practice’ Conference, sponsored by the Ontario Multifaith Council on Spiritual and Religious Care.

  “Double Jeopardy: The Modern Dilemma for Juvenile Justice”
A recent article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review by Christina L. Anderson discusses what she refers to as the ‘modern dilemma for juvenile justice’. She opens the article by explaining that recent media reports have focused on high-profile incidents of adolescent crime give the impression that juvenile violence rates have reached a record high. As a result, the public has responded in ‘get-tough’ policies within schools. These policies mean that police officers are increasingly being called into schools and students are often faced with dual punishments, such as criminal penalties in addition to suspension or expulsion. According to Anderson, “this concentration on severity as a way to deter juvenile violence has resulted not only in a lack of disciplinary alternatives for cases with mitigating circumstances, but also a lack of adequate support systems for the affected juveniles.”

For the entire article see University of Pennsylvania Law Review Volume 152, p.1181-1219.

Upcoming Events

Providing Christian Care to the Ex-Offender, their Family and the Community
The Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton Ontario is hosting a conference on November 13 2004. It will focus on ministry and care for offenders, their families and their communities. The goal of the conference is to provide church leaders with an awareness of the need for the development of this ministry and to provide tools and training so that effective and appropriate care can be provided.

For more information, please contact Janis Ryder, Prison Fellowship Canada at (416) 848-4793 or Ray Scanlan, Alpha Canada Prison Ministry at (905) 454-0844

Call For Presenters- Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment Part 3- ( Sydney, Australia)
The International Institute for Restorative Practices, in partnership with Real Justice Australia, is inviting proposals for presentations at its 6 th annual international conference on conferencing, circles and other restorative practices. Presenters are entitled to a reduced conference rate, and the deadline for proposals is 31 August 2004. The conference will take place from March 2 to 5 2005. To view the call or presenters please visit http://www.iirp.org/sydney05

30 th Canadian Congress on Criminal Justice
From October 26 to 29, 2005 the Alberta Criminal Justice Association and the Canadian Criminal Justice Association will be hosting the 30 th Canadian Congress on Criminal Justice. The event will take place at The Westin in Calgary. For further information visit www.ccja-acjp.ca

Calling all Movie Fans- Name that RJ Movie!
Susan Love, a member of the RJ Week Planning Committee is welcoming suggestions for restorative justice movies to be shown at Ottawa’s Bytowne cinema during Restorative Justice Week 2004. She writes: “It was suggested that we try to have the Bytowne Cinema run a series of RJ-related films during RJ week…perhaps you could send out feelers to your CCJC network for suggestions. A few classics I thought of are: In the Heat of the Night, To Kill a Mockingbird.

I thought of these films because through the course of the movie, the viewer’s attitude does a 180 degree turn based on the powerful argument made against racism, in support of human rights, and in recognizing victims’ needs. Carol-Anne Grenier suggested The Man who Stole my Mother’s Face- a film that has apparently been shown on CBC Newsworld that we may be able to access. Any suggestions?”

Simon Fraser- Centre For Restorative Justice Website Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Restorative Justice has an excellent website with links to restorative justice resources, upcoming events and general information about restorative justice. It can be viewed at www.sfu.ca/cfrj/resources.html

 Dispute Resolution Centre for Excellence The Department of Justice in Canada hosts a web page discussing its dispute resolution program and the people who run it. The site also provides useful resources and guidance on issues such as negotiation, and how to set up your own dispute resolution program. The site can be viewed at http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/drs/index.html