Seeing and Believing By Ronald W. Nikkel

I tend not to take things at face value. If something sounds too good to be true – it probably is. Behind the ideas and claims of other people I suspect and often find hidden motives and meanings. God forgive me for being so sceptical.

Almost every time I visit prison and talk with inmates I find the same scepticism coming back at me. What can I possibly say in response to their unbelief – their disbelief? The gospel sounds like a fantasy, too good to be true, out of touch with the gritty stuff of reality. How can I even begin to prove the existence of God or persuade them of God’s presence in the filth and over-crowding of cell-block “B”? "I don't believe in anything, except myself," mutters one inmate; “can’t trust no-one.” "Show me God, and I’ll believe it! Where's God been hiding when everything is so [messed] up?" I tried the God thing and bummed out," interjects another prisoner. "I gave it a chance, and it didn't do nothing for me. If God is so great, why doesn't he show up right here and now?”

I listen to their challenge and respond with the stories of men and women who have “found” God in prison. I recount the true stories of people whose experience of God has opened their eyes to a greater reality than their present pain and physical circumstance, and stories of forgiveness and transformation and reconciliation. Miraculous stories of faith that is “out of sight.”

"You've got to see it to believe it!" barks the hawker in front of a circus sideshow. "Unbelievable, but true—the incredible unexplainable mystery of the horse-cow. Half cow, half horse—a living breathing scientific mystery—the body of a cow with the head of a horse. Come see for yourself and believe."

I chuckle to myself as I watch the curious and the sceptical pay their admission fee and enter the tent. “You’ve got to see it to believe it,” shouts the hawker once again. Meanwhile I think of my words to the prisoners – “you’ve got to believe it to see it,” I say to them.

A few years ago I was in Africa where a visiting evangelist from North America had brought his miracle-healing crusade to one of the large cities. All over town, signs and billboards featured a huge photo of the evangelist proclaiming "claim your miracle tonight . . . see the miracle-working power of God heal the sick!" One evening I went to the stadium and joined the thousands of sceptical, curious and hopeful people who were streaming in. I wondered if the people around me were coming because they believed in miracles, or if they were coming out of curiosity or a hunger to see and be convinced. Would seeing be believing, or would believing be seeing?

"Show us a miracle," the Pharisees demanded of Jesus, even as the lame were walking and the blind from birth were seeing for the first time. "Show us a sign so that we might believe," they challenged. Yet Jesus refused to perform on demand, citing their unbelief and chastising them for having neither eyes to see nor the ears to hear the great things God had done through the ages and was doing among them even now. Ever sceptical, they refused to believe that the things Jesus was doing among them were real, of God.

"Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!" cried two blind men as Jesus walked by. The crowd accompanying Jesus tried to quiet them down and keep them on the sidelines, but they cried out all the more. Calling for them to be brought to him, Jesus asked, "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord, we want to see!” they cried. Moved by their simple faith, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately their blind eyes were opened. Again and again, the gospels recount stories of Jesus being amazed by the faith of unlikely people who simply and profoundly believe that He will meet them in their need. The two blind men who called out for Jesus couldn't see a thing, they had never seen him and they had never seen a miracle with their own eyes. But they had faith, perhaps a faith born in desperation, hoping and believing that Jesus could give them sight. Jesus touched them and they began to see.

They believed, they saw, they followed Jesus!

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see…There are so many – Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets….Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies…we have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless – the world didn’t deserve them! – making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
(Hebrews 11:1, 2, 32-38 as translated in “The Message”)

*Adapted from a September 2006 Conversatio Morum
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Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.
Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.
To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org
Conversatio Morum is brought to you weekly by Prison Fellowship International. To comment on Conversatio Morum please email conversatiomorum@pfi.org Reprints permitted with acknowledgement


Prison Fellowship International
PO Box 17434
Washington, DC 20041

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Red de Justicia Enero de 2012

La C. C. de El Salvador firma un convenio para implementar un proyecto de servicio comunitario
En agosto de 2011, la C. C. de El Salvador firmó un convenio de cooperación con USAID (entidad de asistencia internacional del gobierno estadounidense) para para entregar supervisión y servicios organizativos para una alternativa de servicio comunitario para los delincuentes juveniles. El convenio proporciona ayuda financiera y técnica y el ministerio nacional esta ofreciendo una gama de opciones de proyectos para varios juzgados de menores infractores, en municipios ubicados en el departamento de San Salvador.

Según la C. C. de El Salvador el actual sistema de justicia para menores infractores utiliza el encarcelamiento como primera opción para responder a todas las infracciones incluyendo aquellos programas alternos existentes fuera del proceso penal en forma. Bajo el Artículo 36 de la Ley Penal Juvenil, los procedimientos para los delincuentes juveniles acusados de delitos menores pueden terminarse de varias formas incluso mediante convenios de conciliación con las víctimas. Dentro de los convenios, los menores pueden acordar en proporcionar cierta cantidad de servicios comunitarios. Estos son los casos en los que la C. C. de El Salvador estará trabajando.

Para abordar el proyecto, la C. C. de El Salvador busca ofrecer más alternativas de restauración tanto para los menores infractores como para las víctimas. Por ejemplo, quieren proporcionar una gama de oportunidades de servicio que la víctima y el menor infractor puedan discutir durante la conciliación de modo que el trabajo realizado tenga un significado para la víctima. También el trabajo, tanto en la comunidad como con los menores infractores, está estructurado de tal forma que respeta la dignidad humana del ofensor. También quieren asegurar que el trabajo emprendido vaya a proporcionar un beneficio real a la comunidad, permitiendo al joven a comprender su contribución a la comunidad y ayudarlo a construir más positivas conexiones con la comunidad. Los proyectos de trabajos propuestos incluyen:

Plantar árboles a lo largo de las orillas de los ríos para ayudar a controlar la erosión del terreno y disminuir el impacto de las inundaciones
Proporcionar mantenimiento a edificios usados por grupos de la comunidad e iglesias
La operación de mecanismos para la distribución de agua potable en los vecindarios
Al diseñar el proyecto, la C. C. de El Salvador buscó formas de crear oportunidades para aprender y comprender para los participantes. Esto incluye oportunidades para compartir refrigerios y platicar tanto del trabajo que están haciendo como de los acontecimientos de su vida diaria. El ministerio también planea incluir una adaptación del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®de PFI para permitir a los delincuentes juveniles a reunirse con víctimas del delito para hablar de las dificultades y daños causados por el comportamiento delictivo.


Luego de firmar el convenio de cooperación, la C. C. de El Salvador trabajó con la Suprema Corte de justicia y otros asociados para ofrecer un taller de capacitación en el tema de la justicia restaurativa. También se han reunido con el Instituto Salvadoreño de Protección a la Niñez y la Adolescencia y varios juzgados juveniles para desarrollar planes de trabajo y mecanismos de referencia para menores infractores que quieran dar servicios a la comunidad. La meta es dar servicio a 100 menores infractores en el primer año.



Recursos en Línea: Principios y Lineamientos de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Acceso a Asesoría Legal en los Sistemas Judiciales
Una reciente reunión de expertos convocados por la oficina de las Naciones Unidas para las Drogas y el Delito desarrolló el documento Principios y Lineamientos de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Acceso a Asesoría Legal en los Sistemas Judiciales (en lo sucesivo principios y Lineamientos) para ayudar a los Estados miembros a atender los problemas que se suscitan en esta importante área de los sistemas judiciales.

La introducción de los Principios y Lineamientos explica la importancia de la asesoría legal como “un elemento de un sistema judicial justo, humano y eficiente. Los posibles beneficios incluyen la reducción del tiempo en que un individuo es detenido en prisión preventiva, la reducción de la población carcelaria y el atender temas tales como la sobrepoblación carcelaria, los encarcelamientos erróneos y la saturación de trabajo en los juzgados

Los Principios y Lineamientos están divididos en dos secciones que perfilan los diversos aspectos de la asesoría legal. Los 18 lineamientos incluyen:
Provisión de asesoría legal
El derecho a estar informado de la existencia de la asesoría legal
Otros derechos de los sospechosos, arrestados, detenidos, acusados, condenados por un delito penal
Asesoría legal en el periodo anterior al juicio
Asesoría legal durante los procedimientos ante el juzgado
Asesoría legal con posterioridad al juicio
Asesoría legal para las víctimas
Asesoría legal para los testigos
Implementación del derecho de las mujeres para tener asesoría legal
Medidas especiales para los niños
Sistema de asesoría legal a nivel nacional
Proporcionando los recursos para el sistema de asesoría legal a nivel nacional
Recursos humanos
Asistencia mediante paralegales
Regulación y supervisión de los proveedores de asesoría legal
Asociación con servicios de asesoría legal no gubernamentales y con universidades
Investigación y datos
Asistencia Técnica
El documento Principios y Lineamientos será presentado a la Comisión de las Naciones Unidas para la Prevención del Delito y la Justicia Penal en su Vigesimoprimera sesión a celebrarse en 2012.



Por favor recuerden rezar por nuestros hermanos y hermanas en El Salvador y por todas las Confraternidades Carcelarias que están trabajando por la reforma de la justicia alrededor del mundo.


Red de Justicia es presentado a usted por el Centro para la Justicia y la Reconciliación, una programa de la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional
Si tienen algo que quisieran incluir (solicitudes de ayuda, actualización sobre esfuerzos de reformas penitenciarias en su país, palabras de aliento y similares, favor de enviarlas a Lynette Parker en la Secretaría de PFI (lparker@pfi.org )

Compilado y dirigido por Lynette Parker y Dan Van Ness
© 2012 por Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional
Todos los derechos reservados conforme a la ley
La reproducción es permitida con consentimiento del autor

Love Wins By Ronald W. Nikkel

Dear friends,
Let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God.
Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love:
not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God,
and God in him.[i]
More than anything, Christmas is an amazing love story. It is a universal story for all people of all time. American psychiatrist, William Glasser, suggests that our human need for love and belonging is one of the deepest of all needs and underlies our wellbeing as individuals, families, and society.[ii] Our need to love and to be loved transcends all the differences of race, culture, generation, ideology, and religion. From the beginning of our lives we are dependent on the love of other people, and the quality of their love for us significantly shapes our emotional, social, and even physical health.

During my early years working with delinquent youths I noticed a clear link between their behaviour and the “state of love” in the families or homes they came from. Kids growing up in homes characterized by conflict, or where parental love was either manipulative or capricious, inevitably “acted out” their insecurity and hunger for love in attention getting behaviour or escapism. I very quickly realized that the key to helping these kids did not simply lie in discipline and reward or other behaviour modification strategies, but in a meaningful, dependable, and safe personal relationship with someone who would love them unconditionally.

To be loved unconditionally is probably the most powerful thing in our personal experience. For when someone’s love for us neither fades nor falters as a function of our own mood swings and delinquencies, or our attitudes and inclinations, we are inevitably drawn and compelled to respond to them.

The Christmas story is about that kind of love – God who unconditionally loves humanity without consideration for our checkered history of self-indulgence, delinquency, rebellion, and escapism - giving himself without reservation to the human family by becoming the “Son of Man.” Nothing is spared as God comes – unconditionally loving us in spite of and in the midst of our delinquent and disfigured human appetites to love and to be loved. God knows how much we as humans are forever acting out – looking for love in all the wrong places and escaping into indulgences of the mind and body that dull our deepest need. And still he loves us totally.

This Advent I find myself being drawn into, completely won over once again, by the amazing story of God’s unconditional love for me; a compelling and open story of Jesus, friend of sinners, a vulnerable baby in a shepherd’s crib – “The Son of Man” – one of us!

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.[iii]





[i] I John 4:7-10,16
[ii] William Glasser, “The Identity Society” (Harper and Row, New York, 1972)
[iii] Excerpted from “Oh Love of God” by Frederick M. Lehman (Songs That Are Different, Volume 2, 1919)
Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.
Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.
To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org

Conversatio Morum is brought to you weekly by Prison Fellowship International. To comment on Conversatio Morum please email conversatiomorum@pfi.org Reprints permitted with acknowledgement

Prison Fellowship International
PO Box 17434
Washington, DC 20041

Add us to your address book

Copyright (C) 2011 Prison Fellowship International All rights reserved.

PEACE STRAINS by Ron Nikkel

PEACE STRAINS
By Ronald W. Nikkel

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father, brothers all are we,
Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now,
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow,
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me! [i]

At the end of this week the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony will be held in Oslo, Norway. Granted annually since 1901 for achievement in the cause of world peace, the Prize has been awarded to more than 124 persons or organizations. [ii] But unlike other Nobel prizes that mark significant advances in science and medicine, it is doubtful that the Peace prize represents any appreciable advance in realizing world peace.

I had the privilege of nominating Jean Vanier, a man I hold in high esteem for the Peace Prize. He has done far more to exemplify what it means to live in peace with people and more to help people understand the dignity and worth of human beings than anyone I know. But while it is good to recognize and celebrate individuals or organizations that are “heroes” in the cause of peace, one cannot say that the world has become a more peaceable and safer place as a result.

We continue to yearn and strain for peace that always eludes us, as much today as when the Peace prize was first awarded in 1901 to Jean Henri Dunant, originator of the Geneva Convention and founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We even fight for peace and try to enforce peace with weapons of war. The means of peacemaking among nations is often based on political coercion, economic sanctions, and threats of intervention. While global conflict was averted during the “cold war” by threats of mutually assured nuclear destruction (known as MAD) between the USSR and the USA, I well remember the fear I grew up with as a school kid when we practiced running into our bomb shelters.

Every year the world’s attention is drawn toward peace on September 21 – the UN International Day of Peace. The day is inaugurated by the ringing of the “Peace Bell” at the UN headquarters in New York. The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents and was presented to the world community as a gift by the United Nations Association of Japan. The inscription on the side of the bell reads, "Long live absolute world peace."[iii]

This year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the International Day of Peace and ironically peace does not yet live among us – much less absolutely. The theme of this year’s event was, “Peace and Democracy: make your voice heard,” and I couldn’t help but wonder if we are looking for peace in all the wrong places by all the wrong means. Does peace really equate to democracy and individual self-expression? In America the political process is as conflictive and fraught with hostility as any place on earth – one begins to fear for the security of its people should the vitriolic political partisanship become so polarized that everyone’s voice is heard but no one is listening to anyone else.

On the global scene as US and NATO troops are being withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan in time for Christmas, conflicts continue in those two countries even as conflicts erupt in neighbouring countries. It seems that there is a new “springtime” of violence and that there is no region of the world that is currently conflict-free. The peace we all strain for is not only under threat from other nations but equally from groups within our own nations.

“Is a world without wars even possible?” asked James T. Moore, in an editorial column he wrote about world peace. “If it is, it will be the mother of all miracles. If it isn’t, [then] awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to anyone is a tragic joke.”[iv] However, there is more to peace than the cessation of conflict and the absence of terrorist threat. Peace is ultimately a condition of pervasive social, political, economic, environmental harmony, and a state of well being between all people – family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, strangers, and foreigners.

During this second week of Advent I am once again trying to meditate on the meaning of Jesus coming into the world as the “Prince of Peace.” For more than 2000 years our best human efforts have neither eliminated war nor reduced violence. Peace has not overtaken the world and even those who follow the “Prince of Peace”[v] engage in conflict one against the other. We live in an anguished, conflictive and bloody world – and amid economic and political uncertainties and difficult relationships we also wage our own personal battles against situations and people. We live in conflict as much as we live in peace.

“May the peace of the Lord be always with you,” I intone as we exchange “the peace” with each other in church. But what is this peace of the Lord -- this “peace on earth” that was announced with the birth of Jesus? Is it just an internal peace or is it really a peace between peoples and nations? How will the peace we long for ever be realized?

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born into a world of hostility and conflict. As the refrains of “peace on earth” echoed through the night, Jesus entered human existence as a helpless baby in a hostile empire. His family became refugees and all his life, Jesus was subjected to ridicule, hostility, and rejection. Yet he lived as a man of peace who respected those who rejected him, loved those who laughed at him, and forgave those who abused and tortured him.

I don’t think Jesus would have won the Nobel Peace Prize for living as he did – and I don’t think that anyone has ever nominated him for the prize, even posthumously. And yet Jesus continues to be the moral reference point for peace and for peacemaking. He said to those who follow him “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”[vi] In the midst of human hostilities and conflict Jesus came into the world to show that the way to peace is personal – it begins with individuals who choose peace in places of confrontation and violence. It is not just a matter of peace plans, peace prizes, or peace treaties, or even peacekeeping forces. It is about living at peace with God and our families, our friends, our neighbours, our adversaries, and the strangers who threaten our way of life. Peace is a miracle of love – the love of Jesus taking root in our lives and in our relationships with all people.


Oh I've been smiling lately,
dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be,
some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train

Get your bags together,
go bring your good friends too
Cause it's getting nearer,
it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer,
soon it will all be true

Now I've been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why can't we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again[vii]



_________________________

[i] “Let There be Peace on Earth” by Jill Jackson and Mark Miller circa 1955
[ii] http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/
[iii] http://www.un.org/events/peaceday/2002/sg210902.htm
[iv] http://americandaily.com/index.php/article/2697
[v] Isaiah 9:5-7
[vi] John 14:27
[vii] “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens (1971 Recording from his album “Teaser and the Firecat”

Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.
Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.
To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org
Conversatio Morum is brought to you weekly by Prison Fellowship International. To comment on Conversatio Morum please email conversatiomorum@pfi.org Reprints permitted with acknowledgement

Prison Fellowship International
PO Box 17434
Washington, DC 20041

Add us to your address book

Copyright (C) 2011 Prison Fellowship International All rights reserved.

The Heart of Justice
By Ronald W. Nikkel


There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilization–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as... a gnat.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit–
immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play.
But our merriment must be of that kind …which exists between people who have,
from the outset, taken each other seriously–
no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
And our charity must be real and costly love,
with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner–
no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.[i]


“Ministerio de Justicia y Gracia” stated the official Plaque at the entrance to Costa Rica’s penitentiary administration headquarters – “The Ministry of Justice and Grace.” “Well, I wonder how that plays itself out.” I mused aloud to my colleague as we entered the building to meet with the Minister several years ago. During that meeting and our subsequent visit to La Reforma maximum security prison it quickly became evident that grace was hardly part of the criminal justice equation. Whatever may have been intended when the Ministry was first established lingers on as a mere vestige of bygone idealism. Whether overtaken by the realities of managing a growing prison population, or pressured by negative public attitudes toward offenders, or skewed by political demands on justice, today the Ministry of Justice and Grace has lost its heart and is largely about the incarceration and management of criminal offenders.

This is not an indictment on the criminal justice system of Costa Rica, as much as it is a universal indictment on how justice is seen and done in countries throughout the world. For justice does lose its heart when it becomes only about the forensic determination of guilt or innocence and the application of penal sanctions for the purpose of punishing offenders and protecting society.

Justice without a heart is ultimately as judgmental, cold, and retributive as “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” During a debate on capital punishment in a 1914 session of the Canadian House of Commons, George Perry Graham, a Member of Parliament, observed somewhat ironically, “We can argue all we like, but if capital punishment is being inflicted on some man, we are inclined to say: ‘It serves him right.’ That is not the spirit, I believe, in which legislation is enacted. If in this present age we were to go back to the old time of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ there would be very few Honourable Gentlemen in this House who would not, metaphorically speaking, be blind and toothless.”

Surely, justice does not consist only in the cold logic of forensic facts, faults, and forfeiture, which is the normal structure or skeleton of justice. Rather the heart of justice is that which animates justice to be life-affirming, life-preserving, and life-giving. The heart of justice is grace by which people are attracted and compelled toward responsibility, respect, reconciliation, and restoration. While the structure of justice necessarily entails judgment, it is grace that recognizes the unique sanctity of the human person. The heart of justice therefore is justice with a heart – a heart of grace that affirms human dignity and seeks the wellbeing of offenders and their victims. Justice that exists only to judge and to punish is justice without humanity.

Thomas Aquinas observed that “mercy does not destroy justice, but is a certain kind of fulfilment of justice. ...Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; (and) justice without mercy is cruelty.”[ii] In making his summation near the end of a recent criminal trial a defending attorney put it this way – “It is often said that justice is not an exact science…A scientific, mathematical, or literal application of the law will sometimes lead to the antithesis of what the great majority of us know in our hearts would be just. Sometimes being merciful is the only way to achieve justice.”[iii] While justice demands fairness and that we never give a person less than their due, grace permits us to give a person more than justice could ever require.

The prophet Micah’s summation of human duty is “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.”[iv] Justice and mercy belong together; separated to themselves they become distorted caricatures. Justice without grace becomes impersonal, dispassionate, and destructive. Grace without justice undermines human dignity, responsibility, and development. Justice is the skeleton and grace is its heart. There is no justice without the animation of grace that touches human beings with dignity, hope, and the possibilities of transformation, reconciliation, and restoration.


Evil isn’t simply a philosophers’ puzzle but a reality which stalks our streets and damages people’s lives, homes and property. The quest for a solution is not a quest for an intellectually satisfying answer to the problem of why evil is there in the first place. Rather, the quest for a solution to the problem of evil is a search for ways in which the healing, restorative justice of the Creator God himself …can be brought to bear … within the present world of space, time, matter and messy realities in human lives and societies.[v]

Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.

Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.

To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org

A Toxic Justice

A Toxic Justice
By Ronald W. Nikkel

“A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values
is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception
which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
One who is injured ought not to return the injury,
for on no account can it be right to do an injustice;
and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man,
however much we have suffered from him.”(Socrates) [i]


In 399 BC, Socrates, the famous Athenian philosopher, stood for trial based on two accusations: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities." On these accusations he was charged with impiety and corrupting the morals of the youth of Athens.[ii] Judged guilty by the majority of votes cast by five hundred jurors, Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a potion concocted of poison hemlock. As toxic as the potion was that killed Socrates, so was the toxicity of the justice system used by those in power to protect their familiar gods and the social status quo of Athens.

For justice to be served, it must not only seek and uphold that which is true, but it must be administered in such ways and by such means that do not undermine or violate the purpose of justice, or be unjust in addressing a wrong. The purpose of a criminal justice system is simply to deliver equal justice for all - protecting the innocent, assisting victims, and prosecuting offenders in order to create a more peaceful society.

However our delivery of justice typically falls short of that purpose and becomes toxic. A toxic justice is justice done and delivered in such a way that it has the unintended (or intended in some circumstances) consequence of damaging people and the good of society. Toxic justice is evidenced –


When victims are ignored and their pain and loss are overlooked.
When courts and legal systems are tools of political and economic self-interest in the hands of those with money and power.
When the public wants to “lock offenders up and throw away the key,” expecting tough prison sentences to turn criminals into citizens.
When the wrongful actions of addicts are punished while their addictions go untreated.
When justice that is inordinately delayed, essentially becomes justice denied.
When the outcomes of serving prison sentences are homelessness, unemployment, divorce, poverty, and still more crime (recidivism).
When prosecutors make deals with offenders to bolster their conviction rates.
When police manipulate evidence or take the law into their own hands.
When access to good legal representation is beyond the reach of the poor.
When society’s voyeuristic fascination with crime and violence feeds a culture of fear and revenge.
When imprisonment causes families to fall apart and the children of prisoners are stigmatized – far more likely to be the next generation of offenders.
When you and I, upstanding law-abiding citizens, are quick to judge and so very sceptical and slow to lend a helping hand to men and women coming out of prison.
When we don’t really know what justice looks like, or what we should expect to see when justice is really done.

During visits with thousands of people involved with criminal justice, I have met many who have a vision and passion for justice that makes things right, healing the damage done by crime, and helping offenders take responsibility for their actions. Yet, we live in a world tainted by corruption, greed, and conflict. Our systems of justice are in as much need of reformation as are the offenders we seek to correct. Much of what we accept as justice is actually toxic, and the collateral damage is seen in the broken lives of victims, families of offenders, offenders, and in fearful communities..

It would be naïve to think that any justice system can ever be perfectly just. But, as followers of Jesus we are called not to judgment and revenge but to seek justice that brings reconciliation and peace, healing, and restoration; to work for the good of victims, offenders, their families, and the well being of our communities.

So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness, for brightness but we walk in deep shadows.
Like the blind we grope along the wall feeling our way like men without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead…
Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has tumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey…
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene….[iii]




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[i] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/socrates_2.html#ixzz1bcmmE2rY
[ii] http://reemreginatatar.com/literature/socrates.html
[iii] Excerpts from Isaiah 59:9-16




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Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.

Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.

To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org

Justice from the Dark Side

By Ronald W. Nikkel

As protestors numbering in the tens of thousands marched and occupied financial and political centres around the world, I found myself resonating with their outrage against the injustice of economic exploitation. I too have been hurt by declining investment values while those who manage my meagre investment funds seem to profit ever more. Something is terribly wrong in the world when the gulf between the rich and powerful interests and the poor and powerless grows ever wider. Why should investment managers and wealthy financial institutions profit ahead of those who entrust them with their funds?

Last week, in the aftermath of another Christian church being burned in Egypt, Christians rallied in protest against the injustice they feel as an oppressed religious minority. Witnessing this injustice, many Muslims resonated with the Christians’ cause and courageously marched in public support and solidarity with their Christian friends and neighbours.

During his struggle for civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned for his public “disobedience” in protesting the injustice of inequality and discrimination suffered by African Americans. Writing from Birmingham Jail he observed prophetically that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”[i] When one group in society is allowed to suffer chronic injustice, society itself will be neither safe nor secure.

Plato, the Greek philosopher of the fourth century BC, said that justice is a quality of the soul – a virtue by which people forego their innate desire to taste every pleasure and to get selfish satisfaction at the expense of others. Writing at a time when Athenian democracy was on the verge of ruin, Plato wrote against the “amateurishness, meddlesomeness, and political selfishness which were undermining Athenian society.[ii] The city-state had become divided between the rich and poor, the oppressed and the oppressors; the only antidote to pervasive injustice in society was for “justice” to reign supreme. But the question is – what is justice? Plato spent much of his life working to describe and define the nature of justice as the fundamental virtue of a well-ordered society.

However, defining justice comprehensively is difficult, and one commentator suggested that in the end Plato may not have fully known what justice is, but he certainly knew what it is not. Some years ago I read a thought-provoking book entitled “What War Taught Me About Peace”[iii] in which the author explored an understanding of the nature of peace derived from his experience of its opposite - war. When it comes to justice, it seems to me as well, that injustice is far easier to define and describe than justice.

The words of injustice are many - oppression, transgression, exploitation, discrimination, segregation, inequality, inequity, partiality, bias, malice, prejudice, unfairness, violence, abuse, misuse, malfeasance, partisanship, favourtism, maltreatment, and many more. We so clearly see and understand what justice is not, especially when we personally suffer wrong from the attitudes and actions of other groups and individuals; or from discriminatory and exploitive bureaucratic, political, economic, social, and even religious “powers that be.” As a result, we are more prone to rail against the tangible injustices we know than to work for the justice we can’t fully comprehend. And so our criminal justice systems reflect society’s negative or punitive response to crime and injustice, much more than being a positive and pro-active process of developing a more just society.

For Plato, a just society was not simply comprised of just laws, equitable systems, and fair treatment, but one that is comprised of virtuous individuals. He saw justice as a societal virtue that cannot exist independently from wisdom, courage, and self-discipline, which are the virtues of the people in that society. Inasmuch as injustice reflects the immorality of people and society, justice reflects the moral character of society. Justice in any society is not only about how we respond to crime and treat offenders – it is comprehensively about advancing and protecting the wellbeing and peace of all people in that society.

Finally, remember that we cannot give what we do not have. If we do not love ourselves, we will be hard pressed to love others. If we are not just with ourselves, we will find it very difficult to look for justice with others. In order to become and remain a social justice advocate, you must live a healthy life. Take care of yourself as well as others. Invest in yourself as well as in others. No one can build a house of justice on a foundation of injustice. Love yourself and be just to yourself and do the same with others. As you become a social justice advocate, you will experience joy, inspiration and love in abundant measure.[iv]






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[i] Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 (Martin Luther King was a black civil rights leader & clergyman in the US)
[ii] http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Anci/AnciBhan.htm
[iii] Robert Muller, “What War Taught me About Peace” (Doubleday, New York, 1985)
[iv] Bill Quigley, Loyola University in New Orleans, is a well known social justice lawyer and activist (as quoted, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/326061)





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Ronald W. Nikkel, PFI President & CEO
Ron has served as PFI's president since 1982. Widely recognized as an expert on criminal justice issues, Ron has visited more than 1,000 prisons in every region of the world and met with church and political leaders, as well as criminal justice officials.

Ron's new devotional book Radical Love in a Broken World, featuring daily meditations, is now available on Amazon.com as is his previous book Your Journey with Jesus.

To Learn more about Prison Fellowship International, visit www.pfi.org

ENLACE GLOBAL 11

Para ver una copia electrónica, por favor haga click aquí.

LIEN GLOBAL OCTOBRE 11

Pour voir la version électronique, veuillez cliquer ici.

JUSTICE NETWORK

Octubre de 2011

Llegando a los marginados de Lesoto
A finales de agosto, la C. C. de Lesoto se asoció con Visión del Mundo para un taller de 3 días titulado “Agentes Constructores de la Comunidad.” Atendiendo a 20 hombres jóvenes conocidos como “muchachos del rebaño”, el taller buscó elevar la conciencia sobre el daño del delito y la responsabilidad por las acciones realizadas.
Según Joseph Mpakanyane, Director Ejecutivo de la C. C. de Lesoto, el distrito Mafeteng de Lesoto experimenta un nivel elevado de crímenes cometidos por los “muchachos del rebaño” incluyendo el homicidio y la violación. Los hombres jóvenes de entre 16 y 34 años llevan una vida muy difícil atendiendo al ganado en áreas desoladas bajo muy duras condiciones del clima. Según la UNICEF, muchos de los muchachos del rebaño no reciben ni siquiera la educación rudimentaria y desarrollan comportamientos altamente antisociales. La suya es una vida que Joseph conoce bien ya que el pasó 13 años de su propia juventud como un “muchacho del rebaño”.

Al estar desarrollando el taller de justicia restaurativa, Joseph buscó crear un espacio para la discusión honrada y respetuosa. Basado en el contenido del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® de la PFI, las sesiones del taller incluyeron:
¿Qué es el delito y la violación?- Para explorar lo que la justicia restaurativa entiende del delito
Responsabilidad.-Para discutir que significa tomar la responsabilidad por cometer una ofensa
Confesión y arrepentimiento.-Para entender el significado, poder e importancia de la confesión y el arrepentimiento
Hacer reparaciones.-Para entender el hacer reparaciones como una respuesta al delito
Una mujer que había experimentado el crimen compartió su historia en forma tal que el daño no pudo negarse. Al mismo tiempo demostró gracia al expresar un corazón de perdón para aquellos que cometieron la ofensa en su contra.

El Ministerio de Justicia de Lesoto ayudó al taller de justicia restaurativa enviado a dos individuos a participar en la ceremonia de inauguración. En su discurso clave, el Juez Masenyentse expuso como los “muchachos del rebaño” podrían jugar un papel importante en el desarrollo de la comunidad a pesar de que parecían ser como la sociedad perdida. En su discurso el Juez Ts’eleso Monapathi hablo acerca del papel que ellos podrían desempeñar en promover la justicia.

Al describir su experiencia de haber dirigido el taller, Joseph dijo: “Fue sobrecogedora la forma en la que El Espíritu Santo ministró un cambio completo y la paz a aquellas almas preciosas de la sociedad aún perdida con la que las prisiones están abarrotadas.” En una sesión de “que es lo que sigue”, muchos de los “muchachos del rebaño” se comprometieron a solicitar a sus jefes respectivos a organizar reuniones en las que compartan con sus comunidades lo que han aprendido .



La C. C. de Nicaragua está promoviendo la asesoría legal para los prisioneros
En su trabajo con los prisioneros, los voluntarios de la C. C. de Nicaragua frecuentemente encuentran prisioneros que ya han cumplido sus sentencias pero que no han sido liberados debido a demoras judiciales así como a otros asuntos legales. En respuesta a ello, el ministerio nacional desarrolló dos asociaciones que resultaron en convenios con la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Nicaragua y con la Universidad Americana en Managua. Los convenios crean mecanismos para que los voluntarios de defensa social de la C. C. de Nicaragua, ayudados por estudiantes de Derecho, proporcionen asistencia legal para revisar y procesar casos penales.

Como parte de los convenios, los asociados organizaron un taller sobre “Aspectos Generales y Procedimientos en la Ejecución de la Sentencia” en la Universidad Americana los días 11 y 12 de agosto. Los participantes exploraron varios aspectos del Derecho Penal y las sentencias en Nicaragua. Según el abogado Ernesto Espinoza, uno de los voluntarios de Defensa Social de la C. C. de Nicaragua, la capacitación proporcionó el conocimiento necesario para permitirles tomar los casos de los prisioneros dentro del proceso legal y ayudarlos a dejar la prisión. Explicó que el programa ya tiene una lista provisional de 60 casos para su revisión. Según los convenios, los voluntarios y los estudiantes de Derecho deben procesar tanto como 200 casos cada año a través de la Oficina de la Defensoría de Oficio.



Recuerden rezar por nuestros hermanos y hermanas en Nicaragua y Lesoto.






Red de Justicia es presentado a usted por el Centro para la Justicia y la Reconciliación, una programa de la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional
Si tienen algo que quisieran incluir (solicitudes de ayuda, actualización sobre esfuerzos de reformas penitenciarias en su país, palabras de aliento y similares, favor de enviarlas a Lynette Parker en la Secretaría de PFI (lparker@pfi.org )

Pf Europe Newsletter April 2011

READ THE NEWSLETTER HERE

PFI: GET INVOLVED

In-prison Volunteer Opportunities
Take the love and truth of Jesus Christ behind prison walls. With caring, commitment, and training from Prison Fellowship, you can help inmates navigate the road to transformation.
Mentor a prisonerFacilitator / InstructorEvent VolunteerIn-Prison Team Member

Community Volunteer Opportunities
The challenges of a prison sentence don’t stop at the gate. With a heart of compassion and training from Prison Fellowship, you can help ex-prisoners struggling to return to the community as productive citizens, and you can offer hope to families coping with a loved one’s incarceration.
Mentor an ex-prisonerReentry team memberAngel Tree church coordinatorAngel Tree area coordinator

source

Red Árbol de Sicomoro Marzo de 2011

Marzo de 2011
Mirando en retrospectiva a los prisioneros y víctimas atendidos a través del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® en 2010En 2010, once organizaciones nacionales de la Confraternidad Carcelaria reportaron sus experiencias en sus Proyectos árbol de Sicomoro® (STP). En conjunto llevaron al cabo 214 cursos de STP en 83 prisiones. Atendieron 3202 prisioneros y 423 víctimas.
Aquellas organizaciones nacionales de la Confraternidad Carcelaria que reportaron sus experiencias fueron las C. C. de Australia (Australia Occidental), Colombia, Inglaterra y Gales, Guam, Hungría, Italia, Holanda, Nueva Zelandia, Escocia, Sudáfrica y Zambia.
Si ustedes llevaron al cabo actividades del Programa Árbol de Sicomoro® en el 2010 y quisieran incluir sus estadísticas en la cuantificación anterior, contacten a Lynette Parker (lparker@pfi.org).

Eventos por Convocatoria del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®La Convocatoria Mundial de la Confraternidad Carcelaria está rápidamente acercándose y los eventos relacionados con el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® están siendo planeados. Estos eventos incluyen:
Compartiendo Experiencias del Árbol de Sicomoro para los que hablan españolEl evento a la hora de la comida el 29 de junio reunirá a aquellos de los países que hablan español que trabajan o están interesados en el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. Este será un momento informal tanto para compartir experiencias como para hacer preguntas acerca de su implementación.
Compartiendo Experiencias del Árbol de Sicomoro para los que hablan inglésEste evento a la hora de la comida el 30 de junio reunirá a los que hablan en inglés que trabajan o están interesados en el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. También será un momento informal para compartir experiencias y hacer preguntas sobre su implementación.
Taller de Introducción al Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®Este taller de una hora de duración proporcionará una visión general del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® para aquellos miembros de la Confraternidad interesados en aprender más sobre el programa y su posible implementación.Los eventos a la hora de la comida están limitados en cuanto al número de participantes, de modo que si usted quiere participar por favor contacte a Lynette Parker (lparker@pfi.org).

Videos en LineaEl video proporciona un excelente foro para comunicar tanto las metas como el poder del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. Los siguientes videos que están en línea, hacen justamente eso.
El Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® de Australia OccidentalEn este video producido por Miles de Imágenes de la Confraternidad Carcelaria de Australia (Australia Occidental), víctimas, ex prisioneros, voluntarios y familiares de prisioneros comparten sus experiencias de estar participando en el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/where2/australia/the-sycamore-tree-projectae-video-from-western-australia
Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®: Entrevista con Lyn ConnollyEn este video de 23 minutos, Lyn Connolly describe sus experiencias yendo a la prisión para contar el relato de ser una víctima del delito como parte del programa Árbol de Sicomoro de la C. C. de Inglaterra y Gales. Ella narra las muy fuertes emociones al describir cuando recibió por primera vez la noticia del asesinato de su hijo, y como respondieron los hombres de la prisión. http://www.pfi.org/cjr/newsitems/sycamore-tree-projectae-interview-with-lyn-connolly
Haciendo voluntariado con el Árbol de SicomoroEn este corto video, una voluntaria de la C. C. de Inglaterra y Gales describe su experiencia de trabajar en el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/where2/england-and-wales/volunteering-with-sycamore-treeHay una lista de videos sobre el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® que está disponible en la página web PFI website en http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/where2/england-and-wales/volunteering-with-sycamore-tree.

Comparta sus Experiencias del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®Ya sea que se trate de una solicitud de oración o un relato sobre algún acontecimiento particular del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® la Red Árbol de Sicomoro proporciona un foro para compartir estos relatos con nuestros hermanos y hermanas de la Confraternidad Carcelaria alrededor del mundo. Si ustedes tienen noticias o una actualización de lo que hacen y que quisieran compartir, por favor envíenlas a Lynette Parker (lparker@pfi.org).Po favor acuérdense de rezar por nuestros hermanos y hermanas que están trabajando en el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® alrededor del mundo.
La red árbol de sicomoro llega a ustedes gracias a la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional. Para aportar un artículopara la Red Árbol de Sicomoro, o solicitar ayudaal Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®, contacten a Lynette Parker en: lparker@pfi.org.
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Recopilado y editado por Lynette Parker y Dan Van Ness© 2011 por la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional (Prison Fellowship International)Todos los derechos reservados conforme a la ley.Se permite su reimpresión con reconocimiento del autor

PF NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY

READ THE NEWSLETTER HERE

PF Hungary

HUNGARYAN NEWSLETTER

Enlace Global

El boletín Enlace Global de la CCI ya está en el correo y Uds. lo deben recibir pronto. Para ver una copia electrónica, por favor haga click aquí.
Compartan sus Noticias con los Ministerios CC Alrededor del MundoPor favor recuerden enviarnos sus noticias más recientes, fotos e historias para que podamos incluirlas en las publicaciones futuras de Enlace Global. Sírvanse remitir por correo electrónico los progamas y eventos de la CC a Elizabeth Street a: estreet@pfi.org. También agradecemos sus comentarios sobre nuestro boletín.
Gracias por todo lo que Uds. hacen por los prisioneros, ex-prisioners, víctimas y familias.


Copyright © 2011 Prison Fellowship International, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you represent a Prison Fellowship national ministry or you have subscribed to a Prison Fellowship International publication. Our mailing address is:
Prison Fellowship International44180 Riverside ParkwayLansdowne, VA 20176

Enero de 2011

La C. C. de la República del Río Niger proporcionando esperanza a través de la ayuda legalPor muchos años, voluntarios de la C. C. de la República del Río Niger han recaudado información sobre prisioneros con muchas necesidades y han compartido éstas con un equipo de asesores legales. Una vez que la información es compilada, representantes de la C. C. de la República del Río Niger visitan los juzgados para recabar mayores detalles del caso. Si el asunto es sencillo, los representantes trataran de resolverlos. Si esto no es posible, el ministerio acude a un equipo de abogados cristianos para que representen a los prisioneros en los juzgados. Generalmente estos casos recaen en dos categorías: Individuos a los que se mantiene en reclusión por largo tiempo previo al juicioCasos de injusticia donde los que se les mantiene presos cuando aparentemente son inocentes.Recientemente el trabajo de ayuda legal de la C. C. de la República del Río Niger tomó un nuevo aspecto cuando representantes de la embajada de Burkina Faso que se mantenían presos en prisiones de la República del Río Niger y reportaron sus condiciones. En respuesta a ello, representantes de las dos embajadas y de la C. C. de la República del Río Niger visitaron una prisión en el poblado de Kolo donde habían identificado a 30 ciudadanos de Burkina Faso. Al hablar con los prisioneros, el equipo descubrió que muchos de ellos habían sido encarcelados por cosa de siete a diez años sin someterlos a juicio.
El equipo de ayuda legal de la C. C. de la República del Río Niger asumió una mayor investigación en cada uno de los casos. El 27 de noviembre, los abogados defendieron diez de los detenidos en reclusión previa al juicio que finalmente tuvieron su proceso judicial. Uno de ellos Tindano Alzouma, fue encontrado inocente y liberado luego de haber cumplido siete años en reclusión.
Actualmente la C. C de la República del Río Niger está en diálogo con la embajada sobre una alianza continua para servir a los ciudadanos de Burkinabe Faso que están presos en prisiones Nigerenses.

La C. C. de México Ofrece Capacitación en Justicia RestaurativaA invitación del Instituto de Formación del Poder Judicial del Estado de Guanajuato (Instituto de Capacitación de los Juzgados de Guanajuato) la C. C. de México ofreció un seminario de justicia restaurativa como parte de un diplomado sobre mecanismos alternativos de resolución de controversias. Aproximadamente 70 jueces, magistrados, abogados y otros actores del sistema judicial de Guanajuato asistieron el curso de capacitación conducido por la Directora Ejecutiva de la C. C. de México, Ángeles Flores Lara los días 8 y 9 de noviembre.
Las sesiones del seminario incluyeron: Concepto de la justicia restaurativaPrincipios y valores de la restauraciónModelos internacionales de la justicia restaurativa y el papel del Estado en su aplicaciónJusticia restaurativa y el Método APACEntre justicia y transformaciónDonde el amor y la justicia se encuentranSegún Ángeles, los participantes expresaron un alto grado de escepticismo al inicio del curso. Uno elevó la pregunta: “¿Cómo podemos hablar de restaurar a un criminal cuando lo que se requiere, según la opinión pública es el castigo? Sin embargo, conforme ella explicaba los conceptos y definiciones, los comentarios se volvieron hacía preguntas sobre su implementación.
Para ayudar al grupo a desarrollar una mayor comprensión sobre los valores restaurativos y su aplicación, Ángeles diseñó una actividad interactiva en la cual vieron un video que resaltaba la dignidad del ser humano. Los participantes en el seminario analizaron el video y respondieron a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué valores básicos o restaurativos encontró en el video?¿Dónde radica el valor de la persona?¿Cómo podemos vivir estos valores en el juzgado?¿Cuáles son los obstáculos que podremos encontrar al practicar y vivir estos valores?En respuesta al seminario, un grupo se los estudiantes se acercó a Ángeles y al Presidente de la Mesa Directiva, el Padre Bernardo Skertchly, acerca de formar una sección de la C. C. de México en el Estado de Guanajuato.

Diplomado Internacional en Justicia RestaurativaPFI ha preparado una sesión especial en el Diplomado en Justicia Restaurativa de la Universidad de Queens luego de la Convocación Mundial de la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional del 3 al 9 de Julio de 2011. Las sesiones comenzaran en la noche del 3 y terminaran en la noche del día 9 (salida el día 10).
El curso, que normalmente toma dos semanas, consistirá de seis días intensivos de lecciones, videos, trabajo de grupo y presentaciones dentro de la clase así como tareas a ser finalizadas antes de que los estudiantes regresen a casa. El curso ofrecerá una visión complete de conjunto sobre la justicia restaurativa, sus raíces criminológicas y teológicas, sus procesos y las implicaciones de política pública.
El claustro de maestros incluirá oradores invitados de los varios programas para que proporcionen una perspectiva práctica de como la justicia restaurativa funciona en la realidad.
El curso solamente está disponible para aquellos que son competentes en inglés, tanto hablado como escrito.
Para solicitar su admisión al diplomado acuda a registration page. Para mayor información contacte a Lynette Parker (lparker@pfi.org)

Recen por favor por nuestros hermanos y hermanas en la República del Río Niger y en México.

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Red de Justicia es presentado a usted por el Centro para la Justicia y la Reconciliación, una programa de la Confraternidad Carcelaria InternacionalSi tienen algo que quisieran incluir (solicitudes de ayuda, actualización sobre esfuerzos de reformas penitenciarias en su país, palabras de aliento y similares, favor de enviarlas a Lynette Parker en la Secretaría de PFI (lparker@pfi.org )
Compilado y dirigido por Lynette Parker y Dan Van Ness© 2011 por Confraternidad Carcelaria InternacionalTodos los derechos reservados conforme a la leyLa reproducción es permitida con consentimiento del autor

Red Árbol de Sicomoro

Diciembre de 2010

Lanzamiento en Italia del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®El sábado 6 de noviembre, miembros de la recientemente constituida C. C. de Italia produjeron su primera sesión del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® (STP) en la Prisión Opera de Milán. Para este primer STP, el ministerio reclutó siete víctimas, la mayoría de los cuales había perdido familiares por crímenes violentos mientras que la administración de la prisión seleccionó siete prisioneros que habían sido sentenciados por crímenes violentos. Carlos Paris uno de los facilitadores, describió la primera sesión como muy intensa y con muchas lágrimas. Las sesiones continuarán hasta mediados de diciembre.
El primer STP de la C. C. de Italia es el resultado de nueve meses de preparación comenzando por la capacitación del equipo del secretariado de PFI en febrero de este año. Después de recibir la capacitación, la directiva de la C. C. de Italia condujo varios cursos de capacitación en el país para preparar varios equipos y facilitadores del programa.

Usando el Árbol de Sicomoro®en Hungríapara Construir Asociaciones para la ReintegraciónA solicitud de un amigo, Vidia Negrea asistió a la sesión final de un Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® sesión que realizó la C. C. de Hungría. Durante la sesión, los participantes hablaron de sus experiencias en el programa incluyendo las letras de solicitud de perdón que los prisioneros habían escrito a sus víctimas directas. Escuchando los relatos, la practicante de la justicia restaurativa pensó que ella podría ayudar a los prisioneros a emprender más pasos hacia la reparación del daño, mediante la entrega de las cartas a las víctimas directas.
Uno de los prisioneros participantes estaba cumpliendo una sentencia de trece años por homicidio. Vidia tomó su carta dirigida a la madre de la víctima. Su meta era más que entregar la carta. Ella quería comenzar un proceso que podría incluir la reunión del prisionero con su propia familia en una reunión del grupo familiar para la toma de decisiones y con la madre de la víctima para propiciar la reparación y la reconciliación entre ellos. Para ese fin Vidia incluyó a personas de ambas partes que ayudaran en el proceso.
Según Vidia el experimento tuvo un impacto sorpresivamente positivo en todos los involucrados. A partir de esta experiencia ella espera continuar trabajando con su amigo (un oficial de libertad cautelar) que también sirve como voluntario en la C. C. de Hungría, para desarrollar un proceso de cuatro partes para la reintegración, programa basado en los principios de la justicia restaurativa y sus procesos: El Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®como una experiencia introspectiva relacionada con el daño y las personas afectadas por la ofensa.Círculos restaurativos y conferencias del grupo familiar para la toma de decisiones para ayudar al prisionero y a su familia a manejar el impacto del comportamiento ofensivo en la familia y trabajar en reconciliar sus relaciones.Platicando con los representantes de la comunidad y con profesionales trabajando con miembros de la familia.Platicando con las víctimas directas y con los representantes de la comunidad para atender el daño hecho por el comportamiento ofensivo.

Motivando a los Facilitadores del STP en Nueva Zelandia A comienzos de este año, la C. C. de Nueva Zelandia reunió a diecisiete facilitadores para una conferencia del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. El evento proporcionó una oportunidad para discutir temas, compartir experiencias y recursos, y capacitación. Junto con la interacción entre los facilitadores, el evento también tuvo oradores de la administración de la C. C. de Nueva Zelandia. Los temas tratados incluyeron: Qué es el delitoAdministración de imágenes de los delitos y papeleo y trámitesRecursos usados por varios facilitadoresEnrolando víctimas como participantesQué está bien y qué noSegún Jakie Katounas, gerente de Servicios de Justicia Restaurativa, la conferencia proporcionó una oportunidad para motivar a los facilitadores y desarrollar planes para crear una mayor conectividad entre la administración y las regiones donde se está operando el STP.
Hay Nuevos Manuales del STP Disponibles en Línea El secretariado de PFI recientemente ha completado una actualización de los manuales del Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®. El nuevo juego de folletos incluye la guía del programa, la guía de sesiones y un nuevo cuaderno de trabajo del participante. Están disponibles como contenido privado en la página webPrison Fellowship International Si usted no tiene un nombre de usuario y contraseña para ingresar al contenido privado de dicha página, por favor póngase en contacto con Lynette Parker (lparker@PFI.org). Baje los manuales en: Inglés http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/stpresources/implementation/stp-manuals-2010/englishFrancés http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/stpresources/implementation/stp-manuals-2010/frenchRuso http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/stpresources/implementation/stp-manuals-2010/russianEspañol http://www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/stpresources/implementation/stp-manuals-2010/spanish
Por favor recen por nuestros hermanos y hermanas que están trabajando con el Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro® en Italia, Hungría y Nueva Zelandia.
La red árbol de sicomoro llega a ustedes gracias a la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional. Para aportar un artículopara la Red Árbol de Sicomoro, o solicitar ayudaal Proyecto Árbol de Sicomoro®, contacten a Lynette Parker en: lparker@pfi.org.
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Recopilado y editado por Lynette Parker y Dan Van Ness© 2010 por la Confraternidad Carcelaria Internacional (Prison Fellowship International)Todos los derechos reservados conforme a la ley.Se permite su reimpresión con reconocimiento del autor

PF EUROPE NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2010

PF EUROPE NEWSLETTER OCTOBER