What does it look like to build safer communities without relying only on punishment?
A free, two-day summit Sept. 23-24 will give community members a chance to explore ways of responding to harm and encouraging accountability outside the carceral system, supporting people returning from jail or prison and building safer communities.
The Justice Is Community Summit will include panels, speakers, food, an art exhibit and opportunities to connect with local organizations that focus on community healing, conflict resolution and restorative justice in education. Featured speakers will be state Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Katrina E. Callsen, as well as Dr. Howard Zehr, widely known as a pioneer of restorative justice in the United States. The event is designed as a “choose-your-own-adventure,” allowing attendees to participate in any of several sessions.
The summit is organized by Central Virginia Community Justice, a Charlottesville nonprofit that helps people who have been harmed and people who caused the harm to work together toward healing and accountability outside the traditional court system.
Unlike the traditional court system, restorative justice requires everyone involved agree to participate and gives them a role in deciding how to address the harm, according to CVCJ. This approach can be less traumatic than the traditional court system for the harmed person, and can lead to lower rates of reoffending for the person who caused the harm, according to CVCJ, while offering an alternative to some of the costs and limitations of the legal system.
Take action
Attend a community summit to hear ideas about building safer, stronger communities without relying solely on the prison system
Attend the free “Justice Is Community Summit” in Charlottesville from Sept. 23-24.
The first day’s sessions will take place at The Point Church, 105 Ridge St., from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The second day’s sessions will take place at The Jefferson School City Center & Carver Recreation Center, located at 233 4th St NW, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Check out the full schedule, parking information and register for the free community summit here. Admission is free, but registration is required.
While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.
More about incarceration and re-entry
How Virginia’s re-entry system fails formerly incarcerated women — even when they do everything right
Jessica Cook, a single mother from Charlottesville, did everything the court asked. Her life shows how fragile “success” can be after incarceration for women.
Despite federal funding cuts for justice programs, the Uhuru Foundation continues to disrupt cycles of incarceration
The nonprofit helps people like Alphonso Washington, who lost his mother at 13, and lost hope — until Uhuru stepped in to help.
A handful of people incarcerated at the local jail are training for careers in the culinary industry
“It made me realize that there is more that I can do,” said Tyreek Ragland, 25. “I feel like I learned a lot about cooking, and about myself.”
Educational programs at regional jail offer inmates hope
“Hope is the thing with feathers,” begins a famous Emily Dickinson poem: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without the words, and never stops — at all. The poem was a class favorite for the students of Margo Browning’s enrichment English class. Other popular authors, she said, included Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. Browning teaches at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, which houses almost 450 inmates. Over the past year, staff and administrators have expanded the educational program at the jail with the hope of preparing inmates for re-entry into society and reducing…
More local News
What goes into making local news? Charlottesville Tomorrow joins a statewide panel on different models
Our CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Angilee Shah, will speak at Washington and Lee University on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Virginia registrars wait to learn if mail-in voting rules will change substantially days before early voting begins
President Trump’s executive order has been blocked in district courts over the summer, but the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say.
Have an opinion on the Dominion–NextEra merger? Share it with your elected officials on Sept. 14
The $67 billion deal has generated scrutiny from consumer advocates and lawmakers about potential increases to Virginia residents’ electric bills.
Take this five-minute survey to help shape Charlottesville Tomorrow’s reporting
Our newsroom wants to better understand your local news and information needs.
‘Most people won’t know what happened here’: stories of loss and uncertainty emerge after Free Bridge encampment clearing
While the clearing of the Free Bridge encampment may have appeared orderly, residents reported stolen belongings and some lost everything they owned in a fire.
