Healing Justice Coalition perceives crime as a violation of people and relationships. Offenders, victims and the community all share the collective, painful experience, but must transcend the brokenness to take responsibility for healing relationships. In this process, we seek to involve offenders, their families, the community, schools, universities, religious leaders and their congregations. And coordinate all of this with the legal acumen of a solid attorney in the community who is dedicated to a fair justice system for all.
America’s Juvenile INJUSTICE System
We will work to increase the number of congregations across the breadth of faith traditions in the U.S., high schools, law schools and universities participating in Juvenile Justice Week of Faith. These groups will be encouraged to go beyond prayer, meditation, reflection or presentation on the need to restorative juvenile justice to become involved in outreach activities working towards this goal.
As a diverse coalition, Healing Justice Coalition seeks to implement a multi-faceted approach of legislative advocacy and direct service to support restorative justice for juveniles instead of divisive, punitive measures that further fracture families and communities.
Our Mission
As leaders from diverse faiths, including Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant and Sikh traditions, we share religious precepts that respect the dignity of all human life, while offering compassion to heal the brokenness in society. With a sense of responsibility, we promote these principles towards establishing a juvenile justice system that emphasizes restorative justice over the severe social, human and economic cost of punitive punishment. Healing Justice Coalition’s ultimate focus incorporates direct service, public education and advocacy implemented by member congregations, participating attorneys, and legal service providers. Through these actions, we grasp the opportunity to effect systemic change for achieving the vision of restorative justice.
Our Vision
We view the need for religious leaders and their congregations and students in high school and universities to participate in direct service towards facilitating restorative justice. Outreach will include educational, literacy and tutoring programs to help juveniles become self-sufficient adults, since 70 percent of adult offenders never completed high school and over half cannot read at a third grade level. Conflict resolution and self-esteem programs will offer communities alternatives to violence. Community healing also involves victims. Their needs can be addressed by the outreach of religious congregations. And we will work to create a network of community participants, political leaders and religious congregations that visit incarcerated youth, encourage them to strive towards becoming positive, contributing members of society and walk with them on their journey of growth and healing.