Restorative justice models of reconciliation seek to provide alternatives to punitive punishment styles of justice. At its core, restorative justice aims to achieve individual healing, relationship reconciliation, and community building. In the Oakland public school system, where many students are from communities of color, restorative justice serves to disrupt the school-to-prison-pipeline which utilizes punitive punishments in the school–detention, suspensions, and expulsions–in addition to actual criminal charges that push students (read: children) into the criminal justice. Models of justice focused on healing rather than punishment work to disrupt stereotypes of youth of color, and offer models of growth and development that undermine tropes of toxic masculinity.
– Brett Goldberg
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