With crime and its aftermath often rippling through Monterey County, more than a hundred residents gathered at Hartnell College on Saturday to talk about how victims, offenders and the community can transform the negative effects of crime into positive solutions.

Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. The “Restorative Justice Conference: Justice that Heals” was hosted by the Community Restorative Justice Commission of Monterey County and Restorative Justice Partners Inc. and focused on how to reach safety through healing and understanding.

This can include victim-offender mediation, a process that often involves powerful “energy of healing,” said keynote speaker Mark Umbreit, founder and chair of the National Association for Community and Restorative Justice as well as professor and founding director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota.

The conference on Saturday attracted a wide array of people including victims of crime, advocates of the homeless, probation officers, a prison warden, counselors and others.

Those attending the conference could choose between several breakout sessions held on topics including a program teaching at-risk youth about the dangers of using weapons and violence; strategies to dismantle the “school to prison pipeline;” reentry practices that heal and reduce recidivism; restorative justice practices in Monterey County; and restorative dialogue skills for everyday life.

To read the entire article written by Chelcey Adami, please click here