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Christian Leaders Institute Restorative Justice Program

Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) seeks to give justice officials options in bringing restorative justice to our communities in the following ways:

Restorative Justice Ministers

Christian Leaders Institute offers training for Restorative Justice Ministers with ordination options for volunteer prision ministry and chaplaincy.

Michigan Department of Corrections and Christian Leaders Institute Partner for Free Classes in Prisons

Christian Leaders Institute offers over 90 free classes.  Michigan Department of Corrections has approved the development of an inovated pilot project. This pilot project will bring classes into six michigan prisons. This project was approved by Heidi Washington, director of Michgian Prisons late in 2019. The hope is to work with Edovo to have a prision edition of Christian Leaders Institute available for prisoners that will not be connected to the internet for security reasons.  If they are released from prison, their work will be transfered to Christian Leaders Institute for credit. This project begins with the funding in early 2020.

New Life Card

When prisoners are released, their reputation has taken a damaging hit. Christian Leaders Institute is launching the New Life Card program that is designed to help former prisoners restablish their reputations. Click here to find out more details.

History of the Restorative Justice Journey

In the fall of 2017, Heidi Washington met CLI president Henry Reyenga at a breakfast gathering. After exchanging business cards and connecting, Washington invited representatives of the CLI staff to discover whether CLI could help with those on parole or probation. Heidi Washingon and Kyle Kaminski outlined some problems to be solved.

These were some of the discussed needs in how the Michigan Department of Corrections and Christian Leaders Institute could address common concerns.

  1. Most prisoners and probation or parole offenders have little resources for higher education.
  2. Higher education has a positive impact on lowering the recidivism rate.
  3. Faith-based options are acceptable and have proven themselves to help bring restorative justice.
  4. There is an old saying: “You can not expect what you can not inspect.” There has to be a way that justice officials can easily monitor offender’s progress if this education option is to serve our communities.
  5. There must also be an expectation that offenders connect with community resources and community mentors for their success.
  6. Credible record keeping including the tracking of activities and grades.
  7. High-security processes in place in regard to individual privacy.
  8. A welcoming spirit for community business and partners who hire offenders and help bring restoration.

Christian Leaders Institute helps address these needs as we work with Kyle Kaminski on this project.

Both staffs agreed to due diligence to see if Christian Leaders Institute and the Michigan Department of Corrections could work together and possibly be a model for other departments of corrections throughout the world.

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