Restorative Justice Week, running from November 20 to November 26, seeks to highlight the significance of access to restorative approaches to address harm. This week is for celebrating, raising awareness, organizing events, for restorative justice. Too many people affected by harm do not have access to restorative practices which can lead to healing. These processes seek to bring survivors, perpetrators, and community members together for facilitated conversations to promote accountability and transformation. Restorative justice approaches are ingrained in many indigenous…

Marquette Law School established the Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI) under the leadership of the Hon. Janine P. Geske, who had served as Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice from 1993 to 1998. Justice Geske returned to the Law School as Distinguished Professor of Law in 1998 and launched our RJI in 2004. Even upon her “retirement” from the faculty in 2014, we—Professor Geske, in particular—kept the RJI going. Last year, we were able, in light of the generosity of Louis Andrew, L’66,…

On October 11, 2022, the Marquette Law Andrew Center for Restorative Justice held a public conversation with Mary Kay Balchunas, a mother whose son, a police officer, was murdered in 2004. Professor Janine Geske focused on the positive impact restorative justice can have for surviving victims. She asked Mary Kay to introduce her son to the audience and describe what happened to him. Mary Kay’s son, Jay, was covering an undercover shift for a colleague. Jay stopped to get a…