Most states now have legislation that endorses restorative justice. This episode explores questions such as: How important is legislation for restorative justice implementation? What can legislation provide? How does it limit or ensure best practice? What advocacy is needed to promote policy change? How can restorative justice practitioners and programs collaborate to have greater political influence? Teiahsha Bankhead, Ph.D., LCSW, is a social justice activist, a restorative justice advocate, a licensed psychotherapist and a professor with both MSW and Ph.D. degrees in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. Born to a Black radical mother during the uprising of the Watts Rebellion and coming of age in South Central Los Angeles during the embittered racial relations and social unrest of the civil rights era ignited within Dr. Bankhead a passionate commitment to social justice advocacy and transformative community empowerment. Dr. Bankhead has a commitment to racial justice, racial healing and restorative economics. She has taught racial, gender and sexual orientation diversity, theories of criminal behavior, and US social policy at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She speaks and holds circle on the subjects of School-Based Restorative Justice, Race and Restorative Justice, the Indigenous Roots of Restorative Justice, Social Justice and Restorative Justice, Truth-Telling and Racial Healing, Youth-Led and Movement-Based Restorative Justice, the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Mass Incarceration, and Restorative Cities. Ames Stenson hails from Denver, Colorado and their family tree has been rooting on stolen land in the west since the 1700s. Ames currently serves as the program manager with the City of Englewood, CO Municipal Court Restorative Justice Program; the board president for the Colorado Coalition for Restorative Justice Practices; a founding board member of the Restorative Rainbow Alliance; previously served as the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice’s online programming coordinator and recently retired from seven years of teaching as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. They have a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice, a master’s in Theological Studies and a master’s in Social Work and consider themselves to be a lifelong learner. Ames loves spending time with their family, Kyla and Russ, and doing all-things-fun from travel to sports to geocaching – it’s a yes!

In Colorizing Restorative Justice, practitioners of color relate their experiences in the field, examining the inherent contradiction of using these practices within Western, white dominant, settler societies. This episode will explore questions around how cultural competency can be prioritized in equitable systems design, including: How do we account for our own implicit biases when building equitable systems? How do we monitor bias in facilitator discretion? How can we ensure that communities most impacted by inequities in the criminal legal system are included in equitable systems design, implementation, and facilitation? As an attorney, social worker, and RJ practitioner, Ish Orkar has dedicated her career to trying to answer the question: how can we best live in relationship with each other? Ish is passionate about creating liberatory and healing spaces, working with organizations to evaluate and redesign existing systems, and supporting individuals as they engage in restorative practices. She enjoys being both a facilitator and a student in shared learning spaces on restorative living, mental health, wellness, and workplace inclusion and belonging. Her favorite place to be is sitting in a circle, and she welcomes invitations. Learn more about Ish and her work at www.grounded-intention.com

Around the United States, restorative justice programs establish different criteria for eligibility for restorative justice including the age of the responsible party, the willingness of the harmed party for the case to go through restorative justice, the type of offense, prior record, and more. There is also an extensive range of subjective measures that decision-makers responsible for referrals to restorative justice programs weigh in considering suitability. These factors and more can create significant inequity in access to restorative justice. This episode explores the issue of inequitable access to restorative justice and potential solutions. Seth Lennon Nguyen-Weiner is a husband and father of 3 small children. He has been a restorative justice enthusiast for nearly 20 years now. He is a lawyer by training, having graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles where he was taught by the visionary law professor Scott Wood. He co-founded the Loyola Restorative Justice Project with Professor Wood, which today operates as a program of the Center for Urban Resilience at Loyola Marymount University. Today, he is honored to work full-time with the Life Comes From It philanthropy circle alongside many incredible practitioners and organizations. He is also a graduate of the Community Studies program at UC Santa Cruz and the Consciousness Studies program at Rudolf Steiner College. He lives in Weehawken, New Jersey. Richard Cruz has been with the Ahimsa Collective since 2018. He is native and his relations are through his mother (Georgia) Assiniboine Sioux, Nakota, and Arapaho. He also has an American college education and has earned Certifications as a Substance Abuse Treatment Counselor and Communications Technician. He currently holds a position as the Co-Executive Director. He believes in celebrating our differences and new experiences and healing our communities and history. He lives in the Bay Area of California.