Jul 7, 2026 | Blog Posts, Opinion
Why I’m Teaching Dance at a Restorative Justice Conference Dear community,While preparing for my workshop at the National Association ofCommunity and Restorative Justice Conference, Contact Improvisation: Embodied Tools for Listening, Trust, and Cooperation, I... 
May 6, 2025 | Blog Posts, From Our Director, Opinion
Restorative Justice Can Offer Answers and Healing in the Wake of Random Acts of Violence written by Mika Dashman, Founding Director, RJI The New York Times recently published a story about two Brooklynites (Domingo Tapia and Gary Anderson) and their families* who were... 
Dec 19, 2024 | Blog Posts, Opinion
Healing, Hope, and Building Community on Rikers Island by Vidya In the summer of 2022, I worked in an enhanced restraint housing unit on Rikers Island in the role of a mandated program counselor, where I was required to spend 6 out of 7 hours of my day on the floor of... 
Dec 10, 2024 | Blog Posts, From Our Director, Opinion
The System Did Not Deliver Justice for Jordan Neely, But It Was Not Designed To Like many of my fellow New Yorkers, I am outraged that Daniel Penny killed Jordan Neely on a subway car (based on the perception of threat–which is highly racialized in this country–but no... 
Dec 5, 2024 | Blog Posts, Opinion
Why is Restorative Justice So Hard to Access in New York? Why is restorative justice so hard to access in New York? This is a question I’ve been asking myself (and others) since 2015, when I committed myself to changing it. Over the past nine years, the Restorative... 
Nov 21, 2024 | Blog Posts, Opinion
Restorative Justice: a Roadmap to Healing by Melissa Centeno I have always been the kind of person who has had an easier time moving away from what doesn’t work for me instead of moving toward what does, especially when it comes to answering the big questions. Too...