CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres Molano
Geopolitical location of space:
601 Tully St
Syracuse, NY
Extant? Yes
Architect:
Deanna Van Buren
Start date: 2004; project officially opened in 2015
End date: ongoing
A peace-building centre that uses a traditional Native American approach to justice, focuses on healing and community restoration rather than punishment.
Participation in the peacemaking program is voluntary. In cases that involve victims, the prosecutor is responsible for explaining the process to the victim and obtaining their consent. Prior to the sessions, the NWSPP staff meets with the defendant and the victim if desired, to explain the peacemaking process.
Yes, The NWSPP takes referrals from the police, courts, and schools to address numerous crimes and conflicts, including disputes between neighbours, landlords & tenants, and families.
The meetings are facilitated by community members trained peacemakers to allow the affected parts to communicate and reach agreement about restitution and/or repair. With the court referred cases, the agreement is put on a legal record.
Yes, the centre is designed for safe listening for both individual and group sessions, moreover the NWPP service is free and confidential.
Victims, defendants, family members, friends, and others who were affected by the dispute. All participants have an opportunity to speak out about how the dispute affected them.
This is a private house that belongs to the NWSPP. The space is managed by the organisation to serve the community.
The house was vandalized by some youth and as a consequence they have had to lock the doors, which were open before.
The NWSPP is located in a two floor house. When the Center was designed, community input was included in every step of the process. There is a main meeting space located on the second floor; it includes a big empty space for group meetings, a seating area, a desk space and a small kitchen with a dining bar. This space benefits from good natural lighting and ventilation. It is predominantly white, with soft calming colours used for the furniture and decoration.
In the meeting space, participants generally sit in a circle, focusing on the center where symbolic objects can be placed to be a reminder of the shared values among those in the circle. A talking piece is used as a way to ensure respect. As usual, the talking piece is passed within the circle and only the person holding it can speak.
The centre has a community organized food garden, located within a four minute walking distance from the house.
“Originally, it was originally a family home that was no longer in use, and had been taken over by a school of education professor at Syracuse University, and that they had made it into a commercial space. So you’re no longer allowed to live there. The space has been turned over into a commercial space. So something so it can’t be used residentially but when you look at it from the outside, it is obviously a two story home.”
The centre is located in a high crime neighbourhood in Syracuse, and during the first year of functioning, it provided help to over 75 residents in the Near Westside. Moreover, it was the first facility of its kind in the entire country.
The Syracuse Peacemaking Project addresses crimes and social disorder through restorative justice, community justice, and people power. It uses a peacemaking approach, a traditional Native American method, that focuses on healing and restoration instead of punishment.
The centre services such as RJ to solve community-based conflicts are free of charge. In addition, the centre organises place-based projects created and implemented by community members, such as the food garden.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
