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Introduction
Lorenn Walker is an adjunct assistant professor in the public health department of the school of social work at the University of Hawai'i. Lorenn develops and studies interventions promoting social and civic engagement for people harmed by trauma that apply restorative justice and solution-focused approaches. She is currently working on reentry planning processes for incarcerated people and their loved ones and is interested in doing a project for military personnel returning from deployment.
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Publications (64)
Hawai‘i Friends of Restorative Justice has developed and implemented a reentry planning process to support incarcerated individuals as they prepare to reenter society. With 16 years of successful practice, research has shown that the program has many benefits, including reducing recidivism by 26 percent among recipients. In this paper, we use syste...
This chapter describes the development and implementation of a programme providing higher and continuing education for imprisoned women in Hawai‘i. The purpose of the chapter is to show how the programme, which was based on principles of restorative justice and peace education, connects to and illustrates peace psychology. The programme consists of...
This chapter addresses the question of whether modern restorative justice emerged from and simply replicates traditional practices by tracing its history and comparing it with the Native Hawaiian traditional Indigenous healing practice ho’oponopono. The two distinct types of group processes are compared and contrasted by applying each approach to t...
Abstract: This paper analyzes the history and components of the traditional family-based Native Hawaiian conflict resolution process ho‘oponopono and modern restorative justice (RJ) practices as described by Zehr (2002). The two distinct group processes are compared and contrasted by applying each approach to the same case study. Ho‘oponopono has b...
In 2015 the United States District Court for the District of Hawai‘i Pretrial Services office collaborated with Hawai’i Friends of Restorative Justice (HFRJ), a small Honolulu non-profit, to provide and measure the outcomes of a reentry planning circle process for incarcerated individuals either facing a federal prison sentence or who had been sent...
This chapter is based on a study that reviewed recidivism outcomes for adult men and women imprisoned in two Hawai'i state prisons who participated in restorative justice reentry circles prior to release. These men and women were tracked for at least three years after their release. Self-selection bias by choosing to have a circle was reduced by co...
Hawai‘i is a multicultural island state that has been experimenting with a facilitated restorative reentry planning circle process for incarcerated individuals who meet with loved ones. The circle process considers loved ones' needs for repairing harm and the incarcerated person's needs for successful reentry including reconciliation with loved one...
Opposition to using restorative justice to address violence against women mainly concerns the fear that women will be re-victimized if they engage with men who endangered them. While law enforcement and criminal justice approaches are necessary to address violence against women, women's choices about when and how to use law enforcement and prosecut...
Shame can be felt after causing harm and after being harmed by wrongdoing.
Failure to address shame can increase the possibility of the victim-offender
overlap, making victims more likely to offend and offenders more likely to be
victimized. An online, individually applied, restorative apology process
could help prevent the victim-offender overlap...
Hawai’i has been experimenting with a restorative reentry planning process for incarcerated people who are accountable for their harmful behavior and imprisonment, and who want to make amends with their children, other harmed loved ones, and the community at large. Between 2005 and 2013, 100 circles were provided for 494 participants including appr...
Parole, probation, and prison supervise people convicted of crimes until most are released back into the community. According to Braithwaite & Mugford, 1994, and Maruna 2011, reintegration rituals may be vital for the rehabilitation of people who engage in criminal behavior. Just as the rituals of criminal trials confirm the wrongfulness of behavio...
While restorative practices are generally for people who take responsibility for committing crimes, there are psychological advantages in assuming responsibility for dealing with injustice regardless of who caused the problems. This kind of responsibility taking is future oriented and is not the same as being accountable for committing a crime. Thi...
Restorative Justice Today: Practical Applications looks at how restorative practices are being used in a variety of areas throughout the world today. The book shows readers a range of restorative practices that can be implemented with youths and adults, in schools, neighborhoods, prisons, child welfare agencies, and international institutes of just...
This two-pronged pilot program was designed to decrease inmate recidivism while involving victims of criminal offenses to participate in reconciliation with the offenders and their victims. This program uses solution-focused (SF) and restorative justice (RJ) approaches. Even though SF and RJ approaches originated from two different fields, they bot...
Conferencing is a restorative justice practice that also provides opportunities for participants to develop coping skills and resiliency. Research has established that there are protective factors which can promote individuals’ resiliency. Specific elements of the conference process provide the conference participants with the opportunity to develo...
In an effort to find effective alternatives to the traditional criminal justice system and to include the community in trying to "make things right" after wrongdoing, KVH [Kalihi Valley Homes] implemented a family group conferencing (conferencing) program. The Real Justice model of conferencing was used. The program was part of large federal drug e...
Hawai‘i Governor Linda Lingle distinguished herself as the first governor in the United States to veto a reentry bill. But Hawai’i community justice advocates never gave up and they were well organized. In July 2007, the Hawai‘i State Legislature convened a special session to override some of Governor Lingle’s vetoes. In this session, Senate Bill 9...
Conferencing is a restorative justice process based mainly on the practices of the Maori people of New Zealand. Conferences are similar to many indigenous people’s practices including Africans, Hawaiians, and North American Indians. Conferencing is a group process for conflict resolution used when someone who has harmed others, admits wrongdoing. W...
Before we implement longer mandatory sentences for third-time offenders, we should make an honest attempt to rehabilitate them. We need to get these offenders to reflect on how their behavior affected people, and what might be done to repair the harm it caused, including providing drug treatment when necessary. Restorative justice is a public healt...
Most people who commit crimes naturally desist from it eventually. Today it is acknowledged by criminal justice researchers that most people simply quit committing crimes regardless of prison. This phenomenon is known as desistance. Knowledgeable corrections experts also know that the most important factor that influences desistance from crime is h...
The Huikahi Restorative Circle is a group process for reentry planning that involves the incarcerated individual, his or her family and friends, and at least one prison representative. The process was originally called Restorative Circles, but was renamed Huikahi Restorative Circles to distinguish Hawaii’s reentry planning process from other restor...
“Restorative Justice as a Solution-Focused Approach to Conflict and Wrongdoing” facilitator training is a 12-week program designed to help inmates learn self-control and getting along with others. The total 24 hours of training are scheduled as two hour sessions for one evening each week, which covers topics such as listening skills development, us...
It is time we appreciated our strengths, including the wisdom of the Native Hawaiian people, in addressing our prison problem. Hawaiian culture has valued healing and reintegration more than the failed Western approaches we have been using. A larger part of our corrections budget should be spent on integrating people back into our community, instea...
The Huikahi Restorative Circle is a reentry planning group process that addresses individual incarcerated people's needs for achieving criminal desistence. The Circles use public health learning principles including applied learning experiences to increase self-efficacy and hopefulness, restorative justice, and solution-focused brief therapy langua...
This article describes the Modified Circle process and its potential for increasing criminal desistance with the aim of influencing corrections programs to use the process. A Modified Restorative Circle is a group process for an incarcerated individual to plan for meeting his or her needs for a successful reintegration back into the community. The...
Pono Kaulike is a pilot program for people who plead guilty to criminal offenses, the people hurt by the crimes, and their supporters. The program was piloted in Honoluluʼs District Court of the First Circuit and has been previously described (Walker & Hayashi, 2004 & 2007). “Pono Kaulike uses the solution-focused brief therapy approach, which care...
The loved ones of imprisoned people, especially children, suffer trauma and health problems from having a parent or relative incarcerated. These serious problems have a disproportionate effect on minorities like Native Hawaiians. A Restorative Circle is a three-hour group process developed in Hawai‘i to address the needs of imprisoned people, their...
Rather than focusing on problems and discussing them in detail, trying to understand motivation for behavior, the solution-focused approach instead asks people to think about what they want in life, and to imagine how they might achieve their preferred future. Solution-focused brief therapy is a proactive approach that finds strengths in people ins...
This paper describes a literary and service based violence prevention program for secondary students at-risk of dropping out of school. The teenagers read out loud picture books to elementary students and facilitate discussion about the stories that deal with conflict. The program promotes self-efficacy for the secondary students and models positiv...
“I was surprised I did it. I never look in the paper and I never would call anyone, but I just did it, and I saw this cheap studio. So I called and they said to come down and fill out the application. A lot of people were there looking at it when I came. I can’t believe it! I got the place! I’m moving in tomorrow!” Kent, a 20-year-old former foster...
Environments that respect troubled youth, and learning opportunities that encouirage effort, as the true means to a successful life, can transform lives.
Restorative justice addresses both physical and emotional needs, including the need to repair relationships and build positive connections, after wrongdoing. Three basic questions are addressed by restorative practices: 1: Who has been affected by the wrongdoing? 2: How have they been affected? 3: What can be done to repair the harm? Answering thes...
A Restorative Circle is an approximately three-hour group planning process for individual inmates, their families and prison staff. The Circle results in a written transition plan for the inmate preparing to leave prison. The plan details his needs, which include the need for reconciliation with his loved ones, any non-related victims not present a...
Homeless youth is a growing problem in Hawai’i where “we have seen a nearly 200% increase in runaway arrests for both males and females” in the last decade. (Kassebaum, et al.1997 p.9). Hawaii’s runaway increase, and resulting homeless children, reflects a growing world wide problem.
In this article, the author describes the Violence Prevention Through Cooperative Learning (VPTCL) project. Developed in 1999 by the Hawai'i Friends of Civic and Law Related Education, this hands-on program aims to support at-risk secondary school students and help them learn problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills. These skills are protecti...
According to Hawaii Revised Statutes (2001), an 'Ohana Conference is a “family-focused, strength-based meeting facilitated by trained community facilitators designed to build and strengthen the network of protection of the extended family and the community for the child.” The statutes further read, “Ohana conferences include extended family members...
The restorative practice developed for this project simply gives victims an opportunity to tell their stories in a small group setting. They can talk about how they have been affected by the crime and what might assist them in repairing the harm. An eventual goal of the pilot program is that the crime victims who participate in the program become f...
While the modern restorative justice movement began in the 1970s, "restorative justice has been the dominant model of criminal justice throughout most of human history for perhaps all the world's peoples." Many indigenous cultures, including Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, have never stopped using it. One goal of modern restorative justice i...
The Honolulu Police Department con- ducted an experimental diversion project for first time juvenile offenders in the City and County of Honolulu. Juveniles were diverted to restorative justice conferences instead of tra- ditional diversion programs. Conferences are based on the assumption that crime damages relationships between people. Conferenci...
While prisons can keep dangerous people from harming the general public, the current move to impose harsher punishment and imprison people for third-time graffiti is a terrible idea that would lead to more serious problems for our community. Prison is a dangerous place. Putting a tagger in prison is likely to make him a more hardened criminal in th...
Our state prison system should follow the federal example and spend more on rehabilitation. In 2008 the state prisons operated on about $200 million, spending about $20 million on programs, yet about $63 million was paid to a private corporation to keep people incarcerated on the Mainland. Prison funds should be reallocated for rehabilitation, incl...
E makua ana is the translation of becoming an adult into Hawaiian. In Hawai’i, over 130 E Makua Ana Youth Circles have been held for teens emancipating out of foster care. Former foster children are one of the most vulnerable groups of young people in our country (Wald and Martinex, 2003). Former foster children make up a hugely disproportionate sh...
The Circle is a group reentry planning process designed in Hawai'i for an incarcerated individual to make a transition plan for successful reintegration back into the community.
Participatory education is more effective than the lecture format for learning (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). The same is true for dealing with student misbehavior. Instead of a teacher or principal simply telling an offending student that their behavior was wrong and asking them why they acted badly, it is more effective to have students participate i...
Despite the lack of supportive research, the belief that drug babies suffer permanent damage is widely held among educators, social workers, and parents. Fundamental principles of psychology tell us that these widely held beliefs are themselves damaging. They create lowered expectations and can result in developmental deficiencies when there is no...
What is justice? Is it really retribution, punishment and vengeance? Or should justice restore people after they have been harmed? Who should decide what justice is when someone admits that his or her behavior has hurt another?
