Over the last two years, our committee has been examining and revealing the nature of our nation's criminal justice system and the relationship between the military and prison industrial complex to Community Friends Meeting. As a result of our study, we have come to the following conclusions:

We live in a nation that mistakenly uses violence to achieve peace.

• Our military kills, maims, and injures the minds of people, including those who make up our armed forces,

• Our police apprehend and sometimes kill people, frequently without due process,

• Our criminal justice system uses deception, argument, and punishment to correct offender's behavior while excluding victims, families, and communities from the decision making process,

• Our penal system violates the dignity of inmates, and

• Our economic system, in conjunction with the above systems, directs further wealth and status to over-privileged people while extracting labor, monies, and dignity from the underprivileged.

As Friends, who believe that all are equal in the sight of God, we hereby state that we cannot affirm the sanctity of these systems in their present form. While we do not believe that their ideologies are in alignment with a God of mercy, we contend that they can be restored by the redemptive Light of Christ. As such, we call upon God to transform them until they be made fair and right and avail ourselves as instruments to be used by God in their redemption.

Below are our sources and some reports we created:

Character and Effects of the Criminal Justice System (2013-2014)

The New Jim Crow – Book and Study Guide (Book in Meeting's library)

Argument: Mass incarceration maintains a racial undercaste in the United States

“The House I Live In” – Documentary (DVD in Meeting's library)

Argument: Mass incarceration is a result of the War on Drugs

“Broken on All Sides” – Documentary (DVD in Meeting's library)

Argument: The character of the criminal justice system, esp. intersection of race and mass incarceration

Relationship between the Military and the Prison Industrial Complex (2014-2015)

Audio recording of April 26, 2015 second hour

Contains Kate Anthony's, Charles Moore's and Don Rucknagel's reports and discussion of them.

Report about Police and Guns by F. Kate Anthony

Descriptions of unarmed people killed by police in 2013 (File compiled by F. Kate Anthony's)

Descriptions of unarmed people killed by police in 2014 (File compiled by F. Kate Anthony's)

For-Profit Prisons by Charles Moore

The Effects of Violence on Veterans by Don Rucknagel

“Slavery by Another Name” - Documentary (Can be viewed on-line)

Argument: Forced labor of African Americans did not end after emancipation but became worse. Informed viewers may see this tragedy at the roots of the issues discussed above.

Restorative Justice Presentation and Movie Night (April 10, 2015)

Restorative Justice: Recreating Right Relationship - PowerPoint presentation by Rhonda Pfaltzgraff-Carlson

Restorative Justice Books

The Little Book of Restorative Justice – Book by Howard Zehr (Book in Meeting's library)

Argument: Restorative Justice is an alternative approach to responding to wrongdoing

The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison: Rebuilding the Web of Relationships – Book by Barb Toews

Argument: Restorative Justice is an alternative approach to responding to wrongdoing

Changing Paradigms: Punishment and Restorative Discipline - Book by Paul Redekop

 Argument: Restorative Justice is an alternative approach to responding to wrongdoing

Restorative Justice Videos

A Victim's Story [British English]

Description: The events that changed the life of a victim

The Woolf Within [British English]

Description: The events that led up to restorative justice changing the life of an offender

Victim-Offender Conferencing [British English]

Description: A victim and offender's reflection about restorative justice ten years after a crime

Family Group Conferencing [British English]

Description: Two teen-age boys and their mothers enact a crime and restorative justice conference

Reflections on Restorative Justice [American English]

Description: A teen-age boy and others reflect about a crime and restorative justice