On Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. Tim Hansen, Restorative Justice Planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, will speak to the criminal justice students on the Eagan campus. I invite all students who may be interested to attend this session. Tim is a dynamic speaker and is very knowledgeable about the growing field of restorative justice.

Here is Tim’s bio: Restorative justice is a framework which views crime and conflict as primarily a violation of people, relationships and communities rather than a violation of the state. Restorative justice proposes that the focus of justice should be on healing the wounds of crime and strengthening communities to prevent more crime. Tim Hansen is the Restorative Justice Planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections. He works with communities and systems professionals in Minnesota and elsewhere to explore and implement principles of restorative justice. Tim provides education, skills training, and technical assistance as he works with leaders in corrections, neighborhood groups, law enforcement, faith communities, human services, victims services, civic organizations, and education to develop a comprehensive response to crime, based on restorative justice. He has also provided training for the National Institute of Corrections, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Department of Justice), the federal Balanced and Restorative Justice Project and has presented at numerous national conferences. Tim has worked with victims and offenders for over twenty years. He has a bachelor's degree in Psychology, Speech/Theatre Arts and Sociology from Winona State University. He is a Wisconsin Licensed Social Worker and worked for several years with homeless families and children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tim is a graduate of the Training for Restorative Justice Trainers Course through Florida Atlantic University and the National Institute of Corrections. Locally, Tim is involved in a number of restorative efforts. He volunteers for the Dakota County Corrections Restorative Conferencing Project and is very active with the Minnesota Restorative Services Coalition.

Liz Hurley-Felling, Rasmussen College- Eagan.

On Saturday, March 8, 2008, Amy Spring, Reference Librarian for the Eagan campus, and instructors for the Paralegal Studies program Liz Hurley-Felling and Kirk Olson, gave the paralegal students an opportunity to visit the law library at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN.  There were 9 students who attended from various parts of the metro area.  One student even came from as far away as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

The day began at noon when we all met a William Mitchell.  Kirk Olson had prepared some short exercises to allow the students the opportunity to manually research various aspects of the law.  Since this program is only offered online, the students have had access to the electronic research tool Westlaw and were not exposed to how to research legal issues in a law library.   

The first 30 minutes were spent with Amy showing us where everything was located in a law library and how materials are organized.  We then were able to gather in a room where we discussed the brief exercises and what we would like the students to find.  We had students pair up and Kirk and Liz assisted the students in locating the information. 

The exercises consisted of looking up information in legal encyclopedias, finding Minnesota Statutes (and Minnesota Statutes Annotated), federal statutes in United States Codes Annotated, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision.  All students located their respective materials and we gathered again in the room where we spent the next hour discussing how the students located the material and how different it was from electronic research.   Since this process is vastly different than typing in a keyword in Westlaw, the students had to locate the materials using indexes and common name searches.   It was a great exercise to demonstrate how challenging manual research can be and also that it is more time-consuming than electronic research.  We also had an opportunity to explain in more depth the information the students were reading and answer questions that may not be brought up in class.   

The purpose of this fieldtrip was to show the students how to manually research but also to minimize any fears they may have about going into a law library by themselves.  It was important for them to know that these libraries are open to the public and they can go into them anytime.  They were encouraged to try some exercises on their own at a local law library.  We explained that academic law libraries (those at law schools) were open late hours where county law libraries are usually only open during the times the courthouse is open.    

 We followed the 2 hour session with lunch at Axel’s Bonfire Grill on Grand Avenue.  This gave us a chance to socialize a little before we ended the day at about 3:30 p.m.  It was one of the best experiences we could have provided for these students.   It is my hope that we can do this again!