Search results for: prison abolition

For Abolition: Prisons and Police Are More Than Brutality, They’re State Terror

Saturday, 12 November 2016 00:00 By Frank Castro, The Hampton Institute | News Analysis photo above: Jobs For Felons Hub; Edited: LW / TO This is an incredibly powerful assessment of “state terror” in arguably the most oppressive democracy of recent times: the United States of America. The author’s analysis rings true at every turn: […]

Spirituality of Penal Abolition

image above: goodreads.com WN: Ruth Morris, Canadian Quaker who won numerous humanitarian awards, invited me to present this paper at ICOPA IX in 2000. ICOPA stands for: International Conference on Penal Abolition. It was the ninth conference, held in Toronto, where the first such conference, then on “Prison Abolition”, was held, also organized by Ruth. […]

The Fall of the Prison

Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee Griffith, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993. 258pp. WN: This is a profound piece of liberation theology – for prisoners and all of us captives! An excerpt: “The gospel is profoundly scandalous, and until we hear at least a whisper of its scandal, we risk not hearing any part of […]

The Gospel and Prisons

image above: christianlifemissions.org WN: I wrote this several years ago. A very brief touching on biblical prison abolitionism. An excerpt: “The gospel is profoundly scandalous, and until we hear at least a whisper of its scandal, we risk not hearing any part of it (The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee […]

Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004

WN: Some of the papers on Restorative Justice are understandably repetitive, though I culling the obviously such. image above: sikhnet.com Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004 By Wayne Northey In 1974 two youths who had been drinking and had been “talked to” by the police already, took out their frustrations on the small […]

Houses of hate:

Dangerous, racist and falling apart. By nearly every metric, the nation’s penal system is not just failing, it’s making things worse. By Justin Ling February 28, 2021 photo above: Medium security range at Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba (Correctional Services Canada/Flickr) WN: The article highlighted does not sugar-coat the reality: Canadian prisons (and […]

Why this ‘genius’ scholar is mapping out the world’s largest jail system

photo above: Kelly Lytle Hernández, who received the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant, views prison abolition through the eyes of rebels Fri 11 Oct 2019 by Sam Levin WN: In a revised forthcoming publication by Wipf and Stock Publishers, namely Volume One of Justice That Transforms, I write: Longtime Restorative Justice promoter Howard Zehr once directly critiqued […]

Justice That Transforms — Book Series

First 3 Volumes Fall 2018; Volume One Republished January 2020; two more projected late 2023 SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. WN: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018. They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) […]

Select Bibliography of Key Restorative Justice Works

Select Bibliography of Key Restorative Justice Works Compiled by Wayne Northey WN: Today, I updated a bibliography, especially weighted towards theological and generally academic works, that I have appreciated. Compilation of this list began decades ago. I think most are still discoverable, the links current. It is copied below, and there is a link to […]

Book Reviews List

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. A Farewell To Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Gospel of Peace –Brian Zahnd Against The Death Penalty: Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment –Gardner C. Hanks A Gentler God: Breaking Free of the Almighty in the Company of the Human Jesus […]

Towards A New Paradigm of Justice

WN: Contemporary Western Restorative Justice theory and practice were not first developed by Americans, though they have greatly contributed to its worldwide expansion. In particular Howard Zehr’s name stands out in the earlier and subsequent years; but not as theory originator, or first practitioner. From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, […]

Restorative Justice

  NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]

Justice and Peace:

Lumen Christi Institute Streamed live, October 7, 2021 image above: smp.org WN: The Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network does excellent events. One presentation you will hear is not just about reform: it is about “radical reconsideration” of Public Safety, including a call for abolition of the police–in favour of a far more powerful communal presence […]

States of Incarceration

by Emily Widra and Tiana Herring   Tweet this September 2021 WN: My strongest statement about the horrors of worldwide incarceration and penal abolition is here: Restorative Justice: Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice: Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform. It was done for The Kenarchy Journal, Volume 2, Article. For the full PDF, please click on the […]

Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. The website is dedicated to: The Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire.     More on Empire below. PLEASE NOTE: the Sitemap. There is also a list of all Book Reviews separately, and alongside each post. You may search the Blog too. Please consider […]

Canada’s Solitary Confinement Deemed “Torture”:

WN: Please consider signing the petition begun today. After nearly fifty years of work in Canada’s Criminal Justice System, and seeing personally and professionally how prisons in general, solitary confinement in particular, often do irrevocable harm to their keep, it seemed appropriate to use this platform for the petition. All statements are supported in the […]

Opinion: Prolonged solitary confinement is torture. It’s time for all states to ban it.

Opinion by Tammie Gregg and Donna Lieberman April 28, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. PDT image above: Julie Lai for The Washington Post WN: My wife Esther and I felt uniquely fortunate to have attended the Conference below: CURE International Conference Costa Rica 2017 Over 40 prison reform advocates representing a dozen countries participated in CURE’s 7th […]

Out of Sight / Out of Mind

The Magazine: Spring 2021 COVID-19 in prisons got our attention. Manitoba has quietly been home to the highest incarceration rates in the country, with a grossly disproportionate number of Indigenous people behind bars. And Canada has one of the highest prison rates in the world. Members of our UM community who’ve witnessed a broken system […]

Dianne Tramutola-Lawson–Class of ’60

WN: Dianne is one of the amazing volunteers in charge of Colorado CURE. Please enjoy this brief interview: You may also click on St. Mary’s Academy link to article; and here is the link for St. Mary’s Academy. My wife and I have had the good fortune of being members, and I represent Canadian CURE. […]

Why America’s Great Crime Decline Is Over

March 24, 2021 Derek Thompson Staff writer at The Atlantic photo above: wisegeek.com WN: The “new model” called for in the interview highlighted below is ever one of the “Beloved Community.” Brutal, violent response to crime is in itself the greater crime; one that has short-term benefits, but massive long term harms. I argue this […]

Introducing: The Kenarchy Journal

NOTE on image above: Foot washing by UK artist Dinah Roe Kendall WN: It is exciting to introduce The Kenarchy Journal! Roger Mitchell1, the Editor and Founder, created the neologism, “kenarchy,” explaining: Kenarchy is a newly constructed word signifying an innovative, inclusive reconfiguration of Jesus’ politics of love. It is derived from ken(osis): emptying out […]

Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity.

Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity. By Christine Mungai, Truthout Part of the Series: Religion’s Role in the Struggle for Justice December 16, 2020 photo above: howafrica.com WN: This is the central theme of this website! A significant portion of what follows is from the previous highlighted part. There is […]

Life Under the Bomb Means a Life of Resistance

Published on Thursday, August 06, 2020 by Common Dreams by Rev. John Dear photo above: “Our message over the years has been simple and urgent: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They don’t make us safer; they don’t provide jobs; they don’t make us more secure—these are age-old lies. Instead they bankrupt us, economically and […]

The Last Temptation

How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]

‘Death row nun’ explains why she does it

Sister Prejean tells prisoners they’re worth more than their crimes By Agnieszka Krawczynski of The B.C. Catholic Wednesday, 10 May 2017 11:56p photo above: Sister Helen Prejean meets Joel Ivany, the director of the Vancouver Opera’s performance of Dead Man Walking, in Vancouver April 29. (Agnieszka Krawczynski / The B.C. Catholic) WN: Canada abolished the death […]