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Written Work
You will find two kinds of writing here. Pillar posts on foundational concepts — what Restorative Justice actually is, where it comes from, how the practices connect to the philosophy underneath them. And shorter pieces: reflections on what comes up in the work, observations from practice, things worth thinking through in writing.
Neither is meant to be read once and forgotten. Come back to the pillar posts when you need to ground yourself again. Read the shorter pieces when you want to think alongside someone who is still figuring things out too.
A Holiday is NOT Justice: A Restorative Read on Juneteenth
Juneteenth marks the day enslaved people in Galveston learned they were free—two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The delay exposes the core problem: a country can name a harm while refusing to repair it. In 2021, Congress made Juneteenth a federal holiday instead of pursuing reparations. This essay rejects the holiday as a substitute for justice. It traces how chattel slavery transformed into convict leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration—systems that remain active today. Using restorative justice questions—who was harmed, what are the needs, whose responsibility is repair—the essay maps what true accountability requires: government action, institutional reparations, and structural change. Repair is not impossible. The barrier is will.