Media
Videos
A Healing River
This is the first in a series of educational videos in which leading practitioners and thinkers discuss trauma and recovery, and the paradigm shift that is restorative justice.
An Introduction to Restorative Circles with Dominic Barter
Dominic Barter discusses Restorative Circles in Brazil.
Being with the Energy of Forgiveness
Individuals, communities, and representatives of nations in conflict who have found the courage to engage in face-to-face restorative dialogue with the person or parties that harmed them reflect on forgiveness.
Better Justice
Individuals, communities, and representatives of nations in conflict who have found the courage to engage in face-to-face restorative dialogue with the person or parties that harmed them reflect on forgiveness. As the founder of the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, MD, Lauren Abramson works to alter how society typically responds to crime and conflict — changing the focus from punishment to accountability, healing, and learning.
Center For Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, University of Minnesota
The Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota has produced a number of informational and training videos on topics such as: “Restorative Dialogue for Severe Violent Crimes,” and “Restorative Justice: Victim Empowerment through Mediation and Dialogue”
Colorado State Representative Pete Lee on Restorative Justice
Community Conferencing Center
The Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore has produced several videos of their work.
Common Justice
Common Justice, a Brooklyn-based program, is an innovative victim service and alternative-to-incarceration program based on restorative justice principles.
Ever After: Stories of Violence, Accountability, and Healing
Common Justice launched this video series in which survivors and those that have caused harm tell their stories. These stories of violence, accountability, and healing help us see things as they are and to imagine what else is possible.
Harley Eagle on the Power of Circles
How has restorative justice transformed you?
Restorative Justice Initiative interviewed New York City-based restorative justice practitioners and advocates. We asked them to talk about how they’ve been transformed by restorative justice.
Humanistic Approach to Mediation and Dialogue
Mark Umbreit parses the differences between restorative dialogue processes and other mediation techniques.
Kay Pranis at Chautauqua Institution
Kay Pranis speaks about the “driftwood exercise” that she uses in restorative circle trainings and what it has taught her about group dynamics.
“Law’s Middle Way: Mindfulness and Restorative Justice”
Sujatha Baliga speaks at Berkeley Law.
McNally Jackson Presents: Judith Levine In Conversation with Melissa Gira Grant
In the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration, The Feminist and the Sex Offender makes a powerful feminist case for accountability without punishment and sexual safety and pleasure without injustice.
Red Hook Court-Appointed Peacemakers Are Reducing Criminal Convictions | BK Stories
This video provides an overview of the Peacemaking Program at the Redhook Community Justice Center.
Restorative Justice: Victim Offender Mediation and Conferencing
An overview of the core principles of restorative justice
and of victim offender mediation and conferencing.
Restorative Justice in Justice Systems
Officer Greg Ruprecht shares a police officer’s perspective on restorative justice.
Restorative Justice in Schools – Gaby’s Story
A California high school student describes what she’s gained from using restorative practices at her school.
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth has produced and compiled a number of videos which are available on their website.
Restorative Justice or Retributive Justice? – With Ian Marder
English mediator Aled Davis interviews Canadian restorative justice researcher Ian Marder who explains restorative principles and processes.
Restorative Practices in New York City schools
This discussion is led by Tala Manassah of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.
ROCA: System Leadership in Chelsea Massachusetts
ROCA is an outreach and intervention organization in Chelsea, Massachusetts that uses restorative justice to build relationships and create a sense of belonging for high-risk young men and mothers.
Schools Resolve Conflicts by Getting Kids to Talk Things Out
This PBS News Hour segment highlights Brooklyn schools implementing restorative justice in partnership with the Center for Court Innovation. The segment shows harm circles in process, and interviews several students and school administrators on how the circles have made an impact on school culture and on them personally.
sujatha baliga speaks at Harvard Law School
sujatha baliga defines restorative justice and describes some traditional and cutting-edge applications.
Teachers’ Democracy Project’s Restoring Schools
Restoring Schools is a video by Teachers’ Democracy Project on how Oakland, Minnesota, New York and Denver have worked to create restorative school districts. The video looks at what has worked and what has been difficult about the process.
The Call for Restorative Justice
Howard Zehr speaks at Simon Faser University about the call of restorative justice.
The Family Group Conference
This video shows how a family in the UK worked to come up with a custody plan for their daughter through a family group conference.
The Neuroscience of Restorative Justice
Daniel Reisel explains the neuroscience behind restorative justice.
What a World Without Prisons Could Look Like
Deanna Van Buren, the Co-Founder and Design Director of the architecture firm, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, gave this TED talk about designing restorative justice centers that treat crime as a breach of relationships and justice as a process where all stakeholders come together to repair that breach.
What is Restorative Justice?
Restorative Justice Initiative interviewed New York City-based restorative justice practitioners and advocates. We asked them to define restorative justice in two sentences or less.
What is your vision for Restorative Justice 20 years from now?
Restorative Justice Initiative interviewed New York City-based restorative justice practitioners and advocates. We asked them to describe their vision for restorative justice 20 years from the year 2018.
Why do you do this work?
Restorative Justice Initiative interviewed New York City-based restorative justice practitioners and advocates. We asked them to talk about why they’re drawn to the work.
Why is Restorative Justice needed in New York City?
Restorative Justice Initiative interviewed New York City-based restorative justice practitioners and advocates. We asked them to talk about why restorative justice is need in New York City in particular.
Television
Restoring Hope
Produced for Māori Television in New Zealand in 2013, Restoring Hope follows restorative justice facilitator Mike Hinton, as he brings together victims, offenders and their community for conferences that offer an alternate way forward for “a criminal justice system failing too many and costing too much.”
Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate
This film produced by PBS Thirteen explores a compelling range of stories, from personal betrayal to global reconciliation after genocide.
PBS News Hour
To curb conflict, a Colorado high school replaces punishment with a successful restorative justice program.
Radio and Podcasts
Life, Justice, and Doubt
In this interview Rio de Janeiro-based restorative justice practitioner, Dominic Barter, talks to Michael Nagler at Nonviolence Radio about restorative justice as a radical practice for reshaping the way we see ourselves and those around us.
A Year of Love and Struggle in a New High School
NPR’s Code Switch and Education Week have spent a year reporting on a new public school, Ron Brown College Prep, in Washington D.C. focused on challenging narratives around criminalization and educational outcomes for young men of color.
An Alternative to Suspension and Expulsion: “Circle Up!”
NPR reports on student and teacher responses to the implementation of new restorative justice initiatives within Oakland Unified School District.
“Restorative Justice” A New Approach to Discipline at School
NPR reports on a harm circle facilitated between two middle school students and their parents after a fight at a school in Oakland Unified School District.
Restorative Justice on the Rise
Host Molly Rowan Leach interviews restorative justice practitioners and other justice innovators about their work.
The transformative power of restorative justice
Ezra Klein interviews sujatha baliga, director of the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice, about how restorative justice carries lessons for how our politics might function, how our society could heal some of its oldest wounds, and how we live our own precious lives.
Turning Point
Mike Feder interviews Restorative Justice Initiative Founder, Mika Dashman, on Progressive Radio Network.
Victims Confront Offenders Face to Face
On NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Sujatha Baliga and Robert Johnson (prosecutor from Minnesota, not the Bronx) discuss victim-offender dialogue.
Articles
A Different Path For Confronting Sexual Assault by sujatha baliga, Vox
A Better Man: A Film on Restorative Justice and Domestic Abuse by Angelina Chapin, NY Mag
Decolonizing Restorative Justice by Denise C. Breton, Unsettling Ourselves
Justice After Injustice by Lara Bazelon, Slate Magazine
Punishment is Not Accountability by Kate McCord, Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance
Restoring Racial Justice by Fania E. Davis, Mikhail Lyubansky, and Mara Schiff, Emerging Trends in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Theorizing Community Integration As Desistance-Promotion by Kathryn Fox, Journal of Criminal Justice and Behavior
New York Times
By Talking, Inmates and Victims Make Things ‘More Right’ by Dina Kraft
Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice? by Paul Tullis
Opening Up, Students Transform a Vicious Circle by Patricia Leigh Brown
Tikkun Magazine
This issue of Tikkun Magazine contains an excellent collection of over a dozen articles devoted to Restorative Justice. A print copy of the entire issue or individual articles can be ordered through the website and are available digitally for subscribers. The following article is available in its entirety from Tikkun’s website:
A Restorative Circle in the Wake of a Police Shooting by Andrea Brenneke
Film
As We Forgive
A documentary about four Rowandan neighbors and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness.
Concrete, Steel & Paint
Tells the story of a collaborative mural project in Philadelphia, PA, that fostered dialogue between men in prison and victims of crime.
Encounter Point
A documentary that focuses on Palestinian and Israeli citizens directly impacted by the conflict and their responses to it.
Facing the Enemy
The daughter of a victim of the 1984 Brighton bombing in England seeks out the IRA bomber after he’s released from prison and they form an unusual friendship. (available on Netflix)
Healing Justice
Healing Justice explores the causes and consequences of the current American justice system and its effect on marginalized communities. The film walks back through the history of violence that has led to our current system, bringing into focus the histories of trauma – on a personal, interpersonal, community, and generational level.
Hollow Water
This documentary profiles the Ojibway community of Hollow Water in rural Manitoba, Canada, as they deal with an epidemic of sexual abuse in their midst. The Manitoba justice system was unsuccessful in ending the cycle of abuse, so the community took matters into their own hands. The offenders were brought home to face justice in a community healing and sentencing circle. Based on traditional practices, this unique model of justice reunites families and heals both victims and offenders.
The first Rwandan-produced film about the 1994 genocide, featuring Gacaca courts and reeducation camps.
Long Night’s Journey into Day
A documentary on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
My Neighbor, My Killer
A documentary on the Gacaca courts established after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Risking Light
A documentary on the Gacaca courts established after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.From the streets of Minneapolis, the aboriginal lands of Australia, and the killing fields of Cambodia come the powerful stories of three people who had the courage to step out of the haunting, tragic darkness of the past, risking everything to reach the light of their own compassion.
We Came to Heal
A documentary that follows H.O.L.L.A!’s Healing Justice Movement for a three years period and captured Healing Justice circles, the Healing Justice Summits, and H.O.L.L.A!’ s human healing-centered praxis led by The Youth Organizing Collective (Y.O.C).