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| A Larger View |
| Another Approach to Current Events |
| Volume XII Edition 4 |
July/August |
2007 |
In this issue:
Restorative Justice: Its Time Is Growing
Housing Affordability: Ought It To Begin With Workers?
Sex Offenders: Do We Owe Them Anything?
Refugees: Another Consequence of Global Warming
Website of Interest
To Ponder On
Restorative Justice:
Its Time Is Growing
At a time when the U.S. prison population keeps on growing and when recidivism is a definite problem, the outlines of an answer are being more clearly etched: Restorative justice, a way for criminal justice to redress the wrong committed. It uses basic spiritual values all the while including victim, perpetrator and community. Not only do perpetrators take responsibility for what they have done, victims also take part in the process.
Over the last two decades the concept has grown to be included in 44 states, particularly within the juvenile justice system, where the results have been so promising the ideas and principles are now spreading to education. Some schools have adapted the concepts inherent in restorative justice and substituted them for zero tolerance. This year, for example, the Chicago Public Schools system adopted some of the restorative justice principles in revamping its student code of conduct.
Restorative justice is also found in several other countries. A recent large study conducted by the Smith Institute, a London think tank, found that wherever they are used, restorative justice principles lower repeat offenses and repeat incarcerations thus lowering criminal justice costs. They also found that its use gave crime victims greater satisfaction than the conventional system.
At a time when the U.S. is increasingly treating juvenile offenders as adults instead of sending them back through the juvenile system, and when studies show that when these youngsters do time as adults they are more likely to commit more violent crimes than those handled through the juvenile court system, restorative justice and its success all over the world offers sought after answers and ought to be far more in the forefront.
Aside from its successes in criminal justice and in education, the promise of restorative justice could even go beyond the spheres it touches, for it stands to guide us toward a positive use of religion. We are prone to see contemporary religions as the source of many current conflicts, sometimes glossing over their inherent aspects to heal and redeem. All religions believe in justice, in peace, in conflict resolution and in reconciliation, the principles animating restorative justice. Perhaps those very same principles will also empower religions to transform and discover a higher way to strengthen our spiritual common ground and better handle our differences.
Housing Affordability:
Ought It To Begin With Workers?
Housing affordability continues to be a challenge, what The Sate of The Nation's Housing 2007 Report calls a "pervasive problem." The number of households whose housing costs is 30% of their income or more climbed to record levels. The recent surge in delinquencies and foreclosures due to a rise in adjustable rate mortgage payments is one example of how precarious the issue can be for many families. The report asks for "public policy shifts" suggesting that local and state governments ease some of the regulations that drive up costs. It also asks the federal government to spend more money to help those with "heavy housing costs burdens" and for "economic growth (to) dramatically lifts the real income and wealth of the bottom quarter of households." In plain English that does mean to somehow raise the income of those who now can't afford housing.
Maybe that implies salaries, maybe not, but certainly how much people earn is directly related to how much housing they can afford, be they renters or buyers. That is why the same week that the report was issued, a Supreme Court decision stands out all the more. It ruled that the nation’s home health workers are not entitled to minimum wages or to overtime pay under existing federal law. The decision was unanimous pointing to the fact that under the law it does look like the justices had no choice but to rule the way they did. The burden now shifts to the Congress to adjust the law.
If and when they do will they be willing and have the foresight to write it with housing affordability in mind?
Sex Offenders:
Do We Owe Them Anything?
Few things are lower than sexually molesting a child, and we owe children a society where the dangers and chances of their being sexually assaulted are slim to none. That is why sexual offenders are punished, and should be. Yet the way we are currently handling that punishment is something we ought to think through, reconsider and adjust. Increasingly legislatures are trying to pass laws enabling indefinite detention of sexual offenders. Nineteen states have passed laws legalizing the detention of sexual predators even after their sentence is served. In prison, child molesters often wear different color clothing to distinguish them from the rest of the prison population, and outside prisons many laws preclude them from being able to reintegrate to society. Those laws often mean that someone who is called a sexual predators may have served his—or hers—time but still may end up homeless, since many communities or neighborhoods will not allow them to settle there. The irony is that many of those individuals then fall through the cracks and cannot be tracked down by law enforcement agencies. And there’s always the fact that our current laws entail large expenditures since indefinite detention is expensive.
From our point of view, however, the real problem is not money or homelessness, it is the prevailing attitude, one that psychiatrist Richard B. Krueger calls hysteria and likens to a witch-hunt. We are so intent on punishing these offenders, that as a society, we become blind to facts including those of treatment opportunities. We even lump all sex crimes together without a distinction between those, which are not "hands-on." Some experts say that crimes like possession of child pornography or exhibitionism are quite different from sexual assaults and ought to be treated as a separate category.
Nothing will change, legally or otherwise, unless we learn to change our attitudes, unless we relent on our punitive mind-set, unless we link laws to the studies and research showing hope for treatments, shedding light on the nuances of the crimes and perpetrators. Christians would call it love. Buddhists would call it compassion. Others would call it forgiveness. By whatever name it is an element of social justice. Child molesters ought to receive from society no less than the principles we are expecting them to live by and adhere to.
Refugees:
Another Consequence of Global Warming
The Maldives Islands are among some of the world's most beautiful, and now not only is their beauty endangered by global warming, their population is also at risk. Rising sea levels, a ripple in the long arm of global warming, may force the people of the Maldives Islands to seek new homes, and at a time when the world is already struggling with the number of refugees needing help, the prospect can be threatening. Besides the Maldives, other areas are also slated to suffer as a result of global warming, whether it be because of desertification, rising sea levels in other areas, deforestation, salination or other drastic alterations resulting from climate changes. These changes are likely to produce hordes of refugees, or at the very least create a refugee problem. The current example of Iraq and the difficulties the region is undergoing dealing with its scores of refugees shows how severe the problem can be when one is not prepared to handle that many people. A spokesperson for the UN high Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) says that the global political climate for refugees has already become harsher. "Growing xenophobia, intolerance, political manipulation by populist politicians who mix up the issues—the whole debate on asylum and migration has been confused."
While the UNHCR is trying to look ahead and develop contingencies plans, it is an issue that will greatly benefit from our understanding, one that can in turn make elected officials less weary to tackle the issue and find solutions before the problems of refugees not only extend poverty but spread disease and terrorism in a world that is now too interconnected for such issues to be ignored.
Website of Interest: www.volunteer.cheaptickets.com
Voluntourism: Adding Purpose To Vacations
Increasingly people want to combine vacations with service. It's no longer a matter of going to a given place to see the sites, but to link with a particular organization and do volunteer work for however long one may choose. The www.voluntourism.org site gives a lot of information about how to go about it, what kind of questions to ask, for example, does the organization you will be working with have insurance in case you get hurt. Still, it is not the best site to find an organization to neither link with nor find an opportunity that will tug at your heart. Strangely enough in terms of getting ideas for where to volunteer or for finding an organization that may match your interests, one of the many such sites is one like www.volunteer.cheaptickets.com which has lists a click or two away, plus of course whatever travel information will be needed for you to get there. The volunteer opportunities are not for Summers only and range from several days to several weeks, all making adding meaning to one's time off that much easier.
To Ponder On
No Need To Be Moses
"In the world to come I shall not be asked, "Why were you not Moses?" I shall be asked, "Why were you not Zusya?&qu
Rabbi Zusya
A Larger View is published by the Inner\Outer Partnership, a tax-exempt educational organization probing how trans-religious spiritual principles can be agents of individual and societal change. We are funded through donations. Please send any - as well as any comments - to P.O.Box 1293, Pac. Pal. CA 90272-1293. Also contact us by email at alargerview@earthlink.net or call 310-836-7710 or visit our web site at www.innerouterpartnership.org
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