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Restorative Justice Committee |
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Social Action Home Page UUCC Environmental Papers and Articles Coming Back to Ulster County - Resource List Death Penalty Testimony by Wanda Goldstein Death Penalty Testimony by John Marsh The Innocence Project Brooklyn Conference on Prisoner Reentry |
The Restorative Justice Group has worked for several years on criminal justice issues. We have organized bus trips to Albany to urge legislators to reform the New York State drug laws, and hosted a talk by Judge Edward Feeney on the workings of the Ulster County Drug Court. We held two well-attended conferences, one on the Drug Laws and the other on the problems faced by ex-prisoners returning to their communities. In the course of our work we have formed important coalitions with members of the faith community of Ulster County. The conference "Coming Back: Transition From Prison" prompted a major undertaking by our Group to create a Resource List specifically designed for people released from prison or jail. Many in the helping professions have expressed a need for better sources of information to help this group make a successful reentry into our community. Support has come from the New York State Universalist Convention in the form of a grant for $1950.
Print
copies are provided free to ex-prisoners and to the agencies and
community groups who help them. (Inquire at the office of the
congregation.) In addition to this website, the book is also available
online at www.reentry.net. Several Committee members have become volunteers at Eastern Correctional Facility, one of the maximum security prisons in our area. They participate in Quaker meetings and donate books to the prison library. (Contact any Committee member if you have books you would like to donate.) After New York’s Death Penalty statute was declared unconstitutional by the NY Court of Appeals, the Committee studied the statute and hosted letter-writing campaigns on the issue. (See below for further information on this topic.) Some Past Events:
June 25th,
2005 9:00am-3:00pm June
2nd, 2005 9:30am-4:00pm April 2005
July 10th, 2004 Retreat at Eastern Correctional Facility. Several UUCC members joined a Quaker group for a retreat at Eastern Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison near Ellenville. April 8th, 2004 The Graduation Ceremony for the Drug Court was attended by members of the Restorative Justice group. March 21st , 2004 The Sunday service, sponsored by the Restorative Justice Group, featured speaker Theodore Haywood. Mr. Haywood is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He has worked with Episcopal Social Services and has been a facilitator in Alternatives to Violence programs for more than 20 years. He earned a Masters in Professional Studies, a BA in Psychology and a BSW in Social Work during his incarceration. He is now working as a social services professional in and outside of prisons. He was a speaker at the conference Coming Back held at UUCC in 2001. December 17th, 2003 The Innocence Project was the subject of discussion for Issues of Our Times. The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal clinic created by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. It involves the use of DNA testing to reopen cases of long-term or death row prisoners who maintain their innocence. The group discussed several of these cases, and examined the factors that led to the wrongful convictions in their original trials. December 1st, 2003 Brooklyn Conference on Prisoner Reentry Senator Edward Kennedy was the keynote speaker for a conference on the reentry of prisoners into society after their release from incarceration. The theme was "A New Deal for Justice: Civic Reinvestment." Sponsors were Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, the DA's Community Relations Office, NYC College of Technology and The Open Society Institute. |