The Road to Repair: Restorative Justice in the Aftermath of Serious Violence and Harm

Webinar recording available here: https://wscadv.org/resources/webinar-recording-the-road-to-repair-restorative-justice-in-the-aftermath-of-serious-violence-and-harm/

Join us as we discuss the use of community-based circles in the aftermath of serious harm and violence, including domestic and sexual violence. A panel of restorative and community-based practitioners will share the models and practices they apply to support those responsible for violence in their accountability, and those who have survived in their healing and resilience. Presenters will describe foundational principles and values, as well as the tensions and possibilities of this work in the context of the criminal legal system and its intersections with racial justice work more broadly.

Martina Kartman is a Soros Justice Fellow at the Public Defender Association. Martina focuses on moving away from imprisonment as a frontline approach to addressing violence, and building responses to harm that uphold the needs, humanity and dignity of all impacted people. She currently runs a restorative justice-based circle process to support the healing and accountability processes for individuals in Washington State prisons and to support the healing and resilience of survivors of all forms of violence. Martina received the UW Bonderman Fellowship, Karin Stromberg Contribution to Social Justice, the Herring Phelps Award for Scholarly Activism, and the Meena Vashee Scholarship for Survivors. Martina is a graduate of the University of Washington with a B.A. in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and Law, Society, and Justice. She holds a JD from the University of Washington School of Law, where she was a William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholar.

DeVitta Briscoe is the Survivor Network Coordinator at the Public Defender Association. She draws on her personal experience as a survivor of multiple forms of violence and her professional experience providing intervention, and frontline support for youth of color to reduce gun violence, ensure police accountability, and empower grieving families. After losing her son, Donald McCaney in 2010, DeVitta founded the McCaney Project, partnered with the Tacoma’s Gang Reduction Project and a Pete Carrol campaign to address youth violence, and help raise awareness and bring safety education around firearm use. After her brother, Che Taylor, was killed by Seattle Police in February 2016, DeVitta organized other families impacted by police violence to grieve together, build community and organize for change. As a group, they changed state law in Washington and transformed the King County Inquest Review Committee, to ensure officer-involved shootings are a more transparent process. She is also trained to facilitate Restorative Justice-based healing circles, and the Alive & Free™ violence prevention methodology.

Priya Rai is the Community Solutions Coordinator at API Chaya, and is a graduate from the University of Washington School of Law. She is a queer, mixed race, prison abolitionist who is dreaming wildly and fighting to win. She is dedicated to building power in marginalized communities by mobilizing against violence, and through finding transformative community-based solutions to harm. She has worked in the anti-violence and anti-prison movement for over a decade, and believes in the inherent power of the people and our communities to create a world where no one is disposable. Her work looks like building up skills, tools, and knowledge for hundreds of community members to respond to harm and having the loving and equitable relationships that they want, directly intervening in violent situations, and facilitating many healing processes.