​Recently, the Student Peace Alliance has been working on a new project aimed at providing students and teachers resources on restorative justice practices. By exploring the resources, individuals can develop a deeper understanding of peacemaking practices that can be utilized on campus, in the classroom, and even in the schools’ disciplinary policies. We will also have a section on broader RJ advocacy.  Our goal is to develop a new section to our website that is dedicated to providing this information in a user-friendly way. The two areas of focus are going to be restorative justice practices for K-12 education and for Universities. We are hoping for a soft launch of the webpages in early April, so check back soon! Please feel free to comment on this blog post with any thoughts or ideas on this new project that the Student Peace Alliance is undertaking!

The SPA is also supporting the Youth PROMISE Act campaign. This is a bipartisan legislation that will give communities funding, support, and resources they need to effectively address their youth violence and incarceration issues. By setting up local infrastructure specific to each community, more tailored programs can be developed and implemented. Engaging with at-risk youth and focusing on violence prevention and incarceration reduction ensures the programs are saving lives and giving all young people the opportunity to reach their full potential. For more information and to take action in support of this legislation, CLICK HERE!

And in international developments, the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act has been introduced to Congress in the Senate, and the SPA is proud to support this legislation! This bill can help to prevent future genocides from happening. By passing this Act, the US will develop an interagency approach to preventing mass atrocities, integrate early warning systems, oversee development and implementation of atrocities prevention strategies, and conduct atrocities specific planning. In 2010, the president created the Atrocities Prevention Board, but it does not have any permanence. This bill will ensure that it will be permanent and continue to do its important work. GAPA also includes a definition of Peacebuilding. Please tell congress to pass the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act!
 
If you are interested in getting more involved with SPA, please CLICK HERE! You can sign up to create a chapter, or join our email list to receive action alerts and updates!

 
Ashley and the Student Peace Alliance team

This post is from the Education from the Inside Out Coalition, written by member Andre Centeno. The original post can be found at this link.

July 30th, 2015

I was sent to a New York State Prison in 1979 and I was released in 1993. During that time I traveled to eight medium and maximum-security facilities. If it were not for my access to Pell and TAP grants that funded my education, I can honestly tell you that I would probably be dead or back in prison today.

When I embarked on my education endeavor, I started by obtaining my GED, and shortly thereafter, I enrolled in Ulster Community College. I received my AA degree in 1988 and, by 1992, I received my BA from SUNY New Paltz University. I was accepted into a graduate program in 1992 while at Sing-Sing Correctional Facility and received a graduate degree in Theology from New York Theological Seminary. 

I can honestly tell you that my college education opened an entire new world to me.  I could now hold a conversation on just about any topic where once I could only talk about drugs, guns, and crimes. Thanks to my education, I was able to discuss history, politics, religion, social issues – the list goes on. I was no longer afraid to sit with intelligent individuals and I felt like I could share my ideas and aspirations.

Through my education, I developed a level of confidence that enabled me to believe that I could now do something positive with my life.  I went from not knowing what I would do when I obtained parole to becoming a marketable individual capable of doing anything I wanted.  School enabled me to seek meaningful employment and no longer concern myself with needing to commit a crime in order to provide for my family and myself.  I could now go on a job interview with the skills and the intelligence needed not only to obtain the position, but to do the job well enough to succeed and compete with others for upward mobility.

Upon my release, I entered Adelphi University and obtained a Masters in Social Work with honors. I now work on Rikers Island as a Team Leader of discharge planners.  Every day I see inmates who suffer from the lack of educational opportunities and access to TAP and Pell Grants.  These individuals lack the marketability afforded by a college education that would enable them to succeed when they re-enter society.  Many have a GED or High School Diploma, but they do not have access to college because they cannot afford it.  I see a number of individuals who are intelligent and could, if given the opportunity I had, have a far better chance of staying out of prison.

So, if I were asked, “Does the lack of a Pell Grant hinder these individuals’ chances of making a positive transition into society?” my answer would be a resounding YES!  It worked for me and I know many others who have succeeded as I am or who are doing better.

If researchers tested the effects of the availability of Pell Grants for incarcerated people, I believe you would see the difference access to education makes to incarcerated students in the quality of their work thereafter.  You would find that most of these inmates would be involved with positive programs helping others to understand the value of a higher education; you would find that these inmates would get less into trouble; and you would find these individuals helping the family members who visit them to stay in or return to school.  I was the first member of my family to obtain a college degree.  Today, my youngest brother has a degree, my niece and nephews have bachelors degrees, and another one of my nephews has a PhD in Political Science and teaches at Hunter University., At home my oldest child graduated high school, joined the United States Marines, and is scheduled to leave this November.  They all told me that knowing that I obtained my degree helped inspire them to do the same.  That in itself is success by any measure.  This is what you would find if and when we restore TAP and Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals

For the lawmakers who have the power to restore Pell Grant to incarcerated students, I say this – when you educate an inmate, you are also educating their family, friends and all those around them.  You are not only serving them; you are serving society as a whole.  An educated inmate is an individual who understands that there is another way to make a living, and who becomes a vessel for change. When you educate an individual, you unlock their untapped potential – let’s unlock the potential of incarcerated men and women, and set them on a path out of prison and toward success.

I Remain,
Andre Centeno, MSW, FDC
Team Leader/Discharge Planner

By: Caitlin Nettleton

What does peace mean to you? Not to John Paul Lederach or to Johan Galtung, but to you? With my first semester of Peace and Conflict Studies nearly at an end, I am still struggling with this question. So simply posed at the beginning of our week of Peace Psychology, the fact that I’m still struggling to answer it is to be expected – after having six, intensive courses this semester from Applied Conflict Analysis to International Law and Human Rights, the theories, ideas, methods and tools that we have learned are all competing (could we even say conflicting?) in my head; as each idea clamors to be heard I’m looking to find the combination that brings me to my own sense of balance, that encompasses justice, harmony, security and plurality as I seek to find my place and my peace in the field of peace and conflict studies. 

The Hacettepe International M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies (MAPCS) Program asks you the hard questions. With a global faculty and student body, we have a year of intensive week-long seminars interspersed with week-long reading periods. This is followed by a year of thesis-writing from anywhere in the world. Our professors in this first year are truly inspiring – activists, practitioners, and scholars, they come from such institutions and backgrounds as John Hopkins, the University of Innsbruck, the Harvard School of Negotiation and the Department of Peace Operations, to name a few. Some of the most interesting things I have learned from them so far are research methodologies such as SPSS data analysis and discourse analysis, the various types of violence (physical, structural, cultural, etc.), conflict analysis and mapping, and the five different peace families as seen in the trans-rational peace approach.

As for the students, I am the only U.S.-American in my class of 13. We represent 10 different countries and all sorts of socio-economic, religious, linguistic, cultural, scholarly and professional diversity. Not only does this enrich our classroom experience, but our living habits, too! If you want to know what conflict transformation is all about, come join us in our communal kitchen as we figure out how best to share food and keep the area clean for everyone. The professors live with us on their weeks here, too; together we learn theory, hone our critical thinking skills, and apply them with tools and methods of conflict analysis and transformation, all the while sharing a communal living space.

Being in Turkey is one of the best parts of this whole experience. Personally speaking, Turkey has been my passion for several years and so I revel in being able to do my graduate work in peace studies in a city and country that captured my heart long ago. Beyond my personal attachments, if you want to be in this field you could not be better situated. Istanbul, Turkey and the region are extraordinary rich in history and plurality, and this produces all types of conflicts from which to learn. I am not only learning about Turkey and the region, though – as I said, my peers come from all over the world, and just as we debate issues in the Balkans we engage with the issues of Ferguson and how police brutality compares in the U.S. and South Africa.

My journey with the Hacettepe International M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies Program has thus far been a rewarding, enriching, and highly challenging one. Hacettepe University is a well-known university in Turkey and the world – for example it and has one of the top medical schools. Yet the MAPCS program, part of the newly established and pioneering Hacettepe Global Peace Institute, in my opinion far supersedes these other accolades. Situated in Istanbul and with global students, faculty and unique programming, this program exposes you to the foundational elements of peace studies while allowing you to find your own answer to “What is peace?” and thus how you can best contribute to transforming conflicts in our world today.

I hope you will consider joining us at the Hacettepe MAPCS program! Our applications for the 2015 Winter/Spring term (starting in early February) are due December 31, 2015. Our applications for the Fall/Winter 2015 term (starting in late September) are due August 20, 2015. 

For more information, please find us at www.peace.hacettepe.edu.tr,  on facebook/twitter/linkedin, or email us at peace@hacettepe.edu.tr.

dream hampton‏ @dreamhampton
"These women offer a place where Ferguson youth could come & scream & cry & be held & heard in love. Mighty work." 

Today I broke down in tears at my desk, mourning the death and the pain of everyone affected by police violence and brutality. Between Michael Brown's death, the militarization of police in Ferguson, the teargas, media censorship, racial profiling against black men, the violence against protesters in the MO suburb...I just feel helpless. My breaths are getting shallower and my heart is getting heavier. 

I ask myself, how can this be happening? While we are by no means even close to a post-racial society, or to complete racial equality and justice in this country, we never expected to see brutality and censorship at this level. But what we must not forget is that people of color still face daily violence and overpolicing in their neighborhoods and homes. What is happening in Ferguson is a result of the same systems of oppression, racism and violence that plague people all over the country. 

While some of us feel powerless, the residents of Ferguson fighting for justice on the front lines, facing teargas and scare tactics are exhibiting tremendous power, strength, bravery and heroism. We  should channel their will, their power, their steadfastness into our organizing and advocacy efforts.  

But right now it is okay to feel sad. I invite you to feel outraged, angry, empathetic, sad, heartbroken, inspired, hopeful, connected. However, in the face of such an urgent crisis, I encourage you to take some sort of action when you are feeling ready. 

Here are some basic steps you can take to contribute to the growing opposition of police brutality and racial profiling. 

1.  Start a conversation by posting something on Facebook and inviting people to share their thoughts. While some people believe using Facebook is a shallow form of activism, I personally believe it's a great place for us to connect with others and share our thoughts. 

2. Write a letter to your elected officials- city, state or federal- urging them to support Rep. Hank Johnson's new bill, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, to be introduced in the House soon. You can visit THIS PAGE to find resources on writing effective letters to your elected officials. 

3. Attend a local vigil, moment of silence, protest, or solidarity gathering in your community. 

4. Talk with your friends and family about issues of police violence. Share stories, share your fears, your hopes, your experiences. Connect deeply, with your heart and your soul and your gut and your tears and your screams and your silence and your mind. Connect with everything you have. 

Below is a copy of the article. Click the article title to visit the page directly.

For far too many young people who get caught up in the criminal justice system, an arrest or conviction for even a minor, non-violent offense can become a one-way ticket to a shrunken future that slams the door on opportunities for the rest of their lives. Being arrested as a teen increases a person's chances of being arrested again as an adult, and teenagers sentenced to jail are more likely to be incarcerated later in life as well. Add to that the nation's harsh drug laws and stiff mandatory minimum sentencing policies and it's no wonder America locks up more of its citizens than any other country in the world.

That's why breaking the so-called the school-to-prison pipeline should be an urgent priority for lawmakers seeking to reduce the billions of dollars the nation spends on prosecuting and incarcerating juvenile offenders. But decades of tough-on-crime legislation has failed to make a dent in the problem, and it's clear a different approach is needed. The Youth Promise Act currently being considered by Congress offers an alternative that focuses instead on innovative, community-based interventions that engage and divert at-risk youngsters before they slip into a costly cycle of crime, violence and incarceration.

The bill, which has bipartisan support in both the Senate and House, would fund a range of evidence-based prevention strategies that have been shown to greatly reduce juvenile crime while saving taxpayers much more money than they cost. Among the types of interventions the legislation would support are conflict resolution and gang prevention efforts, youth job training, apprenticeships, mentoring and after-school programs, and substance abuse counseling and treatment. In addition, the act would support alternatives to youth detention and confinement programs.

These interventions are based on the concept of restorative justice, an approach that focuses on the needs of victims and offenders as well the community's stake in reducing the harm caused by juvenile crime. Instead of punishment, the goal of restorative justice is to encourage offenders to take responsibility for their actions by apologizing for the harm they have caused, making restitution and performing community service. It is based on the principle that crime and wrongdoing are offenses against individuals and communities rather than against the state and that conflicts can be resolved through a process in which all stakeholders affected by an injustice have an opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by it and what should be done to repair the harm.

Studies have shown that restorative justice strategies that foster dialogue between victim and offender result in the highest rates of satisfaction for victims and accountability for offenders. In Baltimore, for example, the Community Conferencing Center has mediated disputes involving some 16,000 people since it opened in 1998. In each case referred to it by the police, courts or school system, a trained facilitator leads a group that includes the offender and the victim, their families and community residents. The group sits in a circle and everybody gets a chance to speak and hear what happened and its effect. After that participants are given a chance to see if they can make up with a written agreement about how to repair the harm.

If they do, and if everyone abides by the agreement, the case is closed by the state's attorney's office and no further criminal proceedings are involved. The center, which has an annual budget of about $600,000 and a full-time staff of seven counselors who each handle about 100 referrals a year, say they are able to resolve 95 percent of the disputes that come before them without intervention by the courts. Moreover, the program has resulted in a 60 percent drop in recidivism compared to offenders in the juvenile court system.

That not only spares youthful offenders the prospect of a criminal record that will follow them for years but saves the state millions of dollars in prosecution and incarceration costs. A study by the non-partisan Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that for every dollar spent on county juvenile detention systems, $1.98 in benefits were achieved in terms of reduced crime and its cost to taxpayers. By contrast, the benefits of diversion and restorative justice interventions like the Conferencing Center were between $10 and $13 for every dollar spent.

The Youth Promise Act, which would be funded through grants from the U.S. Justice Department, would enable state and local governments to greatly expand the use of such interventions as a way of dismantling the school to prison pipeline that traps too many young people in dead-end lives. At a time when Congress can hardly agree on anything else, it is something that lawmakers can support regardless of partisan politics not only because it will save the government money but because what we're doing now clearly isn't working. A new, more effective approach to juvenile crime is urgently needed.

Originial Article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-youth-promise-20140713,0,445106.story#ixzz37SfBOyIl

Below is a copy of the article. Click the article title to visit the page directly.