Restorative Justice: Main Principles and Issues. Probation

Luana Walsh will present the main idea of restorative justice, models and programs that are being successfully applied in the U.S. as an alternative to incarceration. She will talk about restorative justice in different stages of criminal justice (pre-arrest, arrest, pre-conviction, post-conviction, post-incarceration) and the role of the victim and community in this process.

Early in her career Luana Walsh worked as a law clerk in the Court of International Trade, and as a prosecuting attorney. The bulk of her career, however, has been spent as a trial attorney in the Office of the Public Defender in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. where she is now the Deputy Public Defender.

Walsh is a faculty member for the Transition into Law Practice Program, (for the Georgia Public Defender Council), where she teaches new lawyers practical trial skills. She is also the training director for the Office of the Public Defender.

As a part of her ongoing duties, Walsh works at the Fulton Industrial Boulevard Community Court which is an “Accountability Court” based on the concept of “restorative justice.” It is her strong belief that restorative justice is a necessary component of any robust criminal justice system as it addresses the underlying factors which contribute to criminal behavior while acknowledging the harm that is brought to the community.