Local community justice leaders heard from national experts at the “Community Justice Luncheon” hosted by the Fresno Pacific University Center for Peacemaking & Conflict Studies at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, November 3, 2016, in the AIMS Center on the main FPU campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno.
Fresno County has long been a leader in restorative justice through a partnership between law enforcement, the courts and criminal justice system and CPACS. This event featured three members of the Vermont Department of Corrections, which has instituted a community justice center in each of the state’s 20 counties, using restorative justice and outcome-based reentry programs, and the chief prosecutor for Phoenix, AZ.
Participants included Chris Barton, administrator of restorative justice for the Vermont Department of Corrections; Barbara Morrow, Orleans Community Justice Center Director; Stuart Recicar, reentry coordinator, Burlington Community Justice Center; Will Gonzales, chief prosecutor, City of Phoenix; Mary Louise Frampton, faculty director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California Berkeley School of Law; John Swenning, director of the Reedley Peacebuilding Initiative; and Seya Lumeya, community justice conference coordinator, CPACS.
Local guests represented law enforcement, the courts, probation, the district attorney’s office and the community. Fresno County Superior Court Judge David Gottlieb was the master of ceremonies.
The event was sponsored by Circles of Support and Accountability, Prison Fellowship, the Central Valley Community Foundation and FPU.