Josh Noblitt – St. Mark United Methodist
Church
Holiday Simmons – Lambda Legal
 Agenda
and Objectives
 Conocimientos
 Defining transformative justice and
restorative justice
 Strategizing in small groups
 Report back
 Question, Answer, and open share
 (Re)Familiarize
yourself with the concepts of
transformative justice and restorative justice
 (Re)Familiarize
yourself with these concepts
through real life examples
 Explore
the possibilities and the limitations
of these concepts
 Discuss
these possibilities for justice in your
communities
 Criminal
Justice
 Transformative
 Restorative
Justice
Justice
Criminal Justice:
- Crime* is a violation
of the law and the
state
- Violations create
guilt
-
-
- Justice requires the
state to determine
blame (guilt) and
impose pain
(punishment)
-
- Central Focus:
Those that offend
getting what they
deserve
Transformative
Justice:
Restorative Justice:
-The incident may
have occurred as a
result, in part, to
unhealthy relationships
and social systems
-Crime* is a violation of
people and
relationships
- Creates obligations to
build new or better
relationships
-Happens on a
individual, social, and
institutional level
- Changing social
systems = preventing
re-occurrence
-Violations create
obligations
-Justice involves
victims, those that
offended, & community
members
-Central Focus:
Victim needs and those
that offends’
responsibility for
repairing harm
Criminal Justice:
- What laws
have been
broken?
-
- Who did it?
-
-What do they
deserve?
Transformative
Justice:
-What social
circumstances
promoted the
behavior?
-What structural
similarities exist b/n
this incident and
others like it?
-What measures could
prevent future
occurrences?
Restorative
Justice:
-Who has been
hurt?
- What are their
needs?
- Whose
obligations are
these?
A series of policies and practices that
work to criminalize students, push them
out of schools, and into the criminal
justice system, and low-wage workforce
Indirectly: suspension, expulsions, students sent to
alternative schools and other punitive forms of discipline


Direct impact: School-based arrests, tardiness tickets, and
summonses that involve youth in the justice system

Zero tolerance policies

High stakes testing
Decreased funding for curriculum development and
teacher training, increased funding for discipline measures
(metal detectors, security guards, etc.)


The pipeline disproportionately impacts students of color,
students with special needs, & LGBTQ students
•
LGBT students are subject to bullying and harassment
from other students, educators, AND school safety
officers
•
LGBT students face harsher punishments for similar
infractions than their heterosexual counterparts
•
Unchecked anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in school
leads LGBT students and students perceived to be LGBT
to take matters into their own hands, resulting in higher
rates of school violence, discipline and incarceration
Nathaniel Williams story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5bj0_C0UXg
•

Limit the use of expulsions, disciplinary transfers, out-ofschool suspensions, referrals to law enforcement, and
school-based arrests to conduct that poses a serious threat
to students and staff.

Comply with or create a public reporting system for school
discipline data including expulsions, in- and out-of-school
suspensions, school-based arrests, and referrals to law
enforcement with data disaggregated by offense, age,
grade, gender, gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexual
orientation, disability, and school.

Consider alternative disciplinary programs when
appropriate, including peer mediation, conflict resolution,
guidance counseling, peer juries and courts, mentoring,
character education, and parental and community
involvement initiatives.
“The plea deal announced today ends a
tragic chapter in Ventura County.
Holding Brandon McInerney accountable
for his actions is necessary and right, but
putting him behind bars does not solve
the problems that led a boy to become a
bully, and then a murderer. Homophobia
and transphobia, compounded by the
lack of counseling and other supports for
struggling young people, resulted in
Larry King's death and the effective end
of Brandon McInerney's life. As adults
and as a society, we must find the
resolve to fix the broken systems that
lost two young lives to hate and fear.
The end to this painful chapter must
now serve as a new beginning.”
– Eliza Byard, Executive Director at GLSEN
 Seeks
to hold students who bully accountable
for their actions and thereby protecting
certain classes of students/identities
 Doesn’t usually address the question of what
happens to the bullies
(protection policies separate from discipline
policies)
• GSA Network’s 2012
Report: “Two Wrongs
Don’t Make a Right”
What do we already know:
 To find the root of the problem
 To have all parties invested in the process
(victim, bully, parents, community)
 Move away from victim vs. bully and place
people in environment
What do we need to know:
 What’s already happening?
 What exactly does RJ mean?
 What are the outcomes of programs?
We Must Ask Ourselves?
 Will incarcerating this person/people make
me and others in my community safer?
 Do we need more people in prison?
 Could the victim when defending themselves
also be brought up on the same charges as
those that offend?
 Does this only address those who offend,
without any responsibility to the victims?
 Will a harsher sentence really deter others
from engaging in similar behaviors?
What do we need to make changes:
 More time
 Examples of these models at work
 Example of opposing forces coexisting
 More deconstruction of masculinity
Diamond and Ronny
Ronny was beaten up by a group of students in
the school parking lot after a football game.
Ronny has a black eye and a swollen lip.
Ronny’s father called the principal the next
day and is demanding that the police get
involved. Before calling the police the
principal investigates the incident herself and
learns that Diamond and two of her friends
beat Ronny up.
Ronny

- 11th grader who is
struggling academically

- White male

- A leader on the baseball
team

- Admits to having bullied
Diamond and her friends on
occasion

- Downplays the
significance of calling
Diamond racial slurs, and
claims that it “went both
ways”
Diamond
-10th grader who is doing well
academically
- Asian American transgender
young woman (MTF)
-Says that Ronny constantly
bullies she and her friends,
has taken money from them,
and calls them racial slurs
-Admits to beating up Ronny
with her friends
-Diamond’s mother does not
support her gender expression
or transitioning but doesn’t
want her child to be taunted
for it
- Diamond’s mother wants
Ronny to be penalized for the
bullying
Criminal Justice:
- What laws
have been
broken?
-
- Who did it?
-
-What do they
deserve?
Transformative
Justice:
-What social
circumstances
promoted the
behavior?
-What structural
similarities exist b/n
this incident and
others like it?
-What measures could
prevent future
occurrences?
Restorative
Justice:
-Who has been
hurt?
- What are their
needs?
- Whose
obligations are
these?
Each group should answer:
 What would the immediate next steps be?
 What
would be the steps taken in weeks or
months to follows?
 What
concrete responses would be
developed?
 What
are the limitations of these steps?
Contact info:
 Holiday
Simmons
hsimmons@lambdalegal.org
 Josh
Noblitt
counseling@joshuanoblitt.com