1867: Seeds of Mass Incarceration
1867: Wines and Dwight report states: no prisons in the United States are seeking the reformation of its inmates as a primary goal. Birth of the modern prison system begins in the South.
1790: Walnut Street Prison is founded by Quakers and becomes the first state prison in Pennsylvania. It is based on the idea of penitence, reformation through solitary confinement for self-reflection, religion and work. Thirty-nine years later, this is followed by the construction of the most expensive building of its time in the United States, the Eastern State Penitentiary, on which hundreds of prisons were then based.
Actions for Self-Determination:
1790: Walnut Street Prison is founded by Quakers and becomes the first state prison in Pennsylvania. It is based on the idea of penitence, reformation through solitary confinement for self-reflection, religion and work. Thirty-nine years later, this is followed by the construction of the most expensive building of its time in the United States, the Eastern State Penitentiary, on which hundreds of prisons were then based.
Actions for Self-Determination:
- 1996: Peacemaker court forms to restore harmony of the tribal community in Michigan. Restorative justice processes, whether in indigenous communities or not, frequently come from or draw upon indigenous processes of justice such as Ho'oponopono in Hawai'i or Talking Circles of the Ojibwe, among others.
- 2005: The Restorative Circle Project at Waiawa Correctional Facility in Hawai’i begins. Similarly, Warden Mark Kawika Patterson begins to transform the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Hawai’i into a pu’uhonua, a sanctuary where people would traditionally go to ask for forgiveness and transformation.
- 2010: Communities United Against Violence organizes safetyfest, an 11-day celebration of sharing strategies for safety that are alternatives to incarceration and based on models of transformative justice.
- 2010: Bastoy Island continues to function as an "open prison" in Norway (one in three prisons there are like this). The island has a 16% recidivism rate.*
- How is/was discipline handled at your school? What does your school's discipline process solve?
- How is discipline handled in your family? What does it solve? How is conflict resolution handled in your family?
- Hurt people hurt people. Do you agree or disagree? How can this idea be applied to the criminal justice system?
- Would a "prison" like Bastoy work in the United States? Why or why not?
- Are Prisons Obsolete? [Book]
- System Failure. Documentary on California youth facilities [Online Documentary] *Note: You must click 'Remove this Header' in order to view this link.
- Slavery By Another Name [Documentary, book, online resource]
- The Little Book of Restorative Justice [Book]
- The Little Book of Circle Processes [Book]
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