Joaquin Becerra, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, will take part in the restorative justice panel “Bringing Victims & Offenders Together at UCSB and Beyond” on Friday, February 27 at 12 noon in the Mary Cheadle room, 3rd floor of the UCSB Library. The panel is part of the ninth annual UCSB Reads 2015, in which the campus and Santa Barbara communities are reading the same book, Piper Kerman's best-selling memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. The event is free and open to the public.
In addition to Becerra, who is also Assistant Director in the Office of Judicial Affairs at UCSB, the panel will include attorney Laurel Kaufer, Co-Founder of Prison of Peace and Lizzie Rodriguez, Co-Executive Director of the Conflict Solutions Center in Santa Barbara. Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. According to the National Institute of Justice, “it involves holding offenders directly accountable to people and communities they have violated, restoring the emotional and material losses of victims, and providing opportunities for dialogue, negotiation, and problem solving.”
The panelists will share their experience using restorative justice in local prisons, in the Santa Barbara community, and with students at UCSB. A Q-and-A session will be part of the discussion. Light refreshments will be served.
Becerra is working on his Ph.D. in the Department of Education, working with Professors Sharon Conley and Richard Duran as his advisors. As an Assistant Director in the Office of Judicial Affairs, he helps to resolve academic integrity and behavioral issues. He also works with Housing and Residential Services in adjudicating student conduct concerns to ensure that residence hall and apartment communities continue to be safe places for personal and academic development. Becerra is an alumnus of UCSB (BA) and Indiana University (MS).