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Criminal Justice Conversations with David Onek: Javier Stauring, Office of Restorative Justice in LA

In Episode #27, Javier Stauring, Co-Director of the Office of Restorative Justice of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, discusses his experience ministering to incarcerated youth and their families, the pros and cons of closing California’s Division of Juvenile Justice, the power of restorative justice, his efforts to end life without parole for juveniles, and more.

Javier Stauring Interview Highlights

Stauring on the Overlap of Incarceration and Victimization in Families:

“The sad reality is that many of the moms who come and visit their kids at juvenile hall on Sundays, the day before they were at the cemetery visiting their other son. Families that are impacted by the experience of incarceration are also overwhelmingly impacted by murder and other forms of victimization.”

Stauring on the Proposed Closure of California’s State Division of Juvenile Justice:

“The ideal situation is to house youth as close to their families, as close to the communities that they will be coming back to, as possible. But we really need to ensure that the counties are capable of rehabilitating and giving services to the youth that would be coming back to the counties.”

Stauring on Trying Juveniles as Adults:

“I don’t think you’ll find any research that says trying kids as adults is a smart thing or an effective thing to do. As much as we can, we should try to keep kids in the juvenile system, where at least in theory the mission is to rehabilitate youth. When we send them into the adult system, I think we’re giving up on kids.”

 

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The Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast with David Onek features in-depth, thirty-minute interviews with a wide range of criminal justice leaders: law enforcement officials, policymakers, advocates, service providers, academics and others.

The Podcast gets behind the sound bites that far too often dominate the public dialogue about criminal justice, to have detailed, nuanced conversations about criminal justice policy.

Podcast host David Onek is a Senior Fellow at Berkeley Law School and a former Commissioner on the San Francisco Police Commission.

You can find more information on the Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast and listen to all past episodes on the Podcast web site.

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