The National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI) moderated forum on “Safety and Justice: How Should Communities Reduce Violence?” will be held on March 9, 5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol, Conference Room 229.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Social Sciences Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Public Policy Center and Spark Matsunaga Institute for Peace, as well as the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution at the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary, are co-sponsoring the forum.

The issue guide was developed by the NIFI and is part of a national effort to learn what citizens believe about safety and justice issues. The issue guide presents three options for considering how communities should increase safety while at the same time ensuring justice.

This issue guide is a framework for citizens to work through these important questions together. It offers three different options for deliberation, each rooted in different, widely shared concerns and different ways of looking at the problem. No one option is the “correct” one; each includes drawbacks and trade-offs that we will have to face if we are to make progress on this issue. They are presented as a starting point for deliberation. They are not the only options available. Results of this forum and other forums on this issue will be shared in May at the Public Voice, an annual meeting in Washington D.C. with the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forum Institute and policy makers.

The NIFI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization funded through the Kettering Foundation. NIFI serves to promote public deliberation and coordinate the activities of the National Issues Forums network. Its activities include publishing the issue guides and other materials used by local forums groups; encouraging collaboration among forum sponsors; and sharing information about current activities of the network.

Review the issue guide, “Safety and Justice: How Should Communities Reduce Violence?” ( PDF ).