Restorative Justice at Michigan State

Restorative Justice (RJ) is a peaceful conflict resolution process that works by bringing together all parties of a conflict and helping them identify and heal the harm their conflict or misconduct has caused. Because RJ is based on respect, we consider the following quote from RJ visionary, Howard Zehr, foundational to all our efforts.

“Restorative Justice is respect.

Respect for all, even those who are different from us; even those who seem to be our enemies. Respect reminds us of our interconnectedness, but also of our differences.

Respect insists we balance concerns for all parties. If we pursue justice as respect, we will do justice restoratively.”

—Howard Zehr, The Little Book of Restorative Justice

In the fall of 2010, the Restorative Justice committee worked hard to implement RJ throughout Residence Life, Student Life, and introduce it to incoming students on campus as a positive conflict resolution method. Though RJ has been around longer than just a semester, this year marks a new commitment to the power of RJ through circles and conferences. All of MSU’s senior Residence Life staff and a large portion of the undergraduate staff have been trained in either RJ Circles or RJ Conferences. Furthermore, the Department of Student Life has been able to offer RJ as a solution to conflicts when student enter into the adjudication process on campus. We hope to have many opportunities to demonstrate our work and, combined with ongoing assessment, should see the positive changes of restorative justice in conflict resolution.

http://reslife.msu.edu/rj

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Directed and produced by: Nick Miller [http://www.nickmillerphotography.com]

Production Assistant: Brandon Emerson

Music:

"Ambience" by Marko Zecevic [http://soundcloud.com/marko-ech-a-sketch]

"Sleeping Out" by D33J [http://d33j.bandcamp.com/]

"The Sun" by Marko Zecevic

"Makin It Snow Ice Flakes" by Marko Zecevic