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The Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI) is a group of Penn State students, faculty, staff and community stakeholders committed to empowering and supporting system-impacted, currently and formerly incarcerated individuals through education and meaningful engagement in civic life, according to Efraín Marimon, assistant professor of education and director of the Restorative Justice Initiative as well as the Social Justice Fellowship.
“We believe in the power of trauma-informed practice, liberatory pedagogy and transformative education, and are dedicated to leveraging Penn State’s size, scope, reach and resources to help make education accessible to all sectors of society,” Marimon said.
“Much of our emphasis for this week will be on the need to remove structural barriers to education while preserving the human dignity of those impacted by the carceral state," added Marimon. "We hope that Justice Education Week will create awareness in our communities of the issues surrounding incarceration and the power of education.”