Repair in the Middle of Everything 

Derek Miodownik Robert Brenneman

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Vermont’s restorative justice leader Derek Miodownik on what it takes to repair harm, and what to do with harms that can’t be undone.

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In This Episode

Derek Miodownik works for Vermont’s Department of Corrections as the Community and Restorative Justice Executive. He joins Just Stories to trace how improv theater led him to mediation and a youth court experiment in Red Hook, Brooklyn; how Vermont wrote restorative justice into state policy; and what reparative boards and Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) actually look like in practice. He then sits with the hardest question: what do you do with harms that can’t be undone?

Links

Credits

Host: Rob Brenneman

Senior Producer: Yebu Ji

Sound Engineering: Grant Bachman & Alex Dugger

Background Research: Alaina Wolfe

Marketing Manager: Melissa Troyer

Audience Engagement Manager: Courtney Dobrzykowski

Directed by: Duane Stoltzfus

Music

Theme Music: Umbilical Moonrise by Lotus

Suzanne by Leonard Cohen 

Deep Krawlen from Blue Dot Sessions

Dolomite from Blue Dot Sessions

Strickland from  Blue Dot Sessions

Burham Street from Blue Dot Sessions

A Palace of Cedar from Blue Dot Sessions

Guest

Derek Miodownik

Community & Restorative Justice Executive

Derek Miodownik has been a restorative justice practitioner and program administrator for the past 26 years. Before moving to Vermont in 1999, he worked for the Center for Court Innovation, where he implemented and directed the Red Hook Youth Court in Brooklyn, NY. Presently, he is the Community & Restorative Justice Executive for the Vermont Department of Corrections. In this role, Derek oversees grant-funded partnerships with statewide Community Justice Centers and Transitional Housing providers. As part of his training in the field of Conflict Transformation, Derek has studied in Rwanda, where he was able to directly observe the post-genocide Gacaca Court process. He has also developed restorative justice program capacity in Armenia and the Republic of Georgia through his work with PH International.

Vermont Department of Corrections