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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2012

Douglas E. Noll and Laurel G. Kaufer have won the 2012 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award for their pro bono project, Prison of Peace. Prison of Peace supplies communication, mediation, and peacemaking skills to convicts at Valley State Prison for Women, a maximum-security prison in Chowchilla, CA.

The California Lawyer Lawyer of the Year Awards acknowledge attorneys throughout the state whose legal work made a profound influence in 2011, including 26 achievements in 20 areas of legal practice.

Kaufer and Noll, both professional Mediators produced Prison of Peace, in late 2009, in response to a composed request Kaufer got from Susan Russo. Russo, who is serving life without parole, felt that mediation skills would assist life and long-term convicts lessen the violence in their prison. The program started in very early 2010.

Inmates who have actually undergone Prison of Peace training often experience remarkable individual changes. Prison of Peace helps them find or re-discover their very own humanity, become conscious of their very own feelings, and start to comprehend and reflect back the feelings of others. In learning peacemaking and mediation skills, they are taught exactly how individuals avert individual accountability and just how to morally re-engage those who have come to be morally disengaged. As a byproduct, they naturally re-engage themselves resulting in much better relationships within the prison, and in some cases with their relative.

According to Warden, Walter Miller Because the start of the Prison of Peace program the organization appears quieter and with less violence. Graduates of Prison of Peace de-escalate and solve conflicts amongst fellow convicts and between convicts and personnel, with created reports, when possible, documenting the completion of full Mediations, and also many arguments prevented.

Through an intense, year-long training program, a group of inmates have actually now become Prison of Peace fitness instructors and have actually been instructing their very own workshops under the guidance of Kaufer and Noll, making Prison of Peace the first recognized internally sustainable prison Peacemaking program, a style intended to be shared with prisons around the Nation.

In recognition of their pioneering work, the very first 15 women trained as Peacemakers and Mediators, were rewarded the Southern California Mediation Association Cloke/Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award for 2010.

About Douglas Noll
Doug is a full time peacemaker and mediator, focusing in tough, complex, and intractable disputes. He is an adjunct professor of law and has a Masters Degree in Peacemaking and Argument Studies. Mr. Noll is AV-rated and was a business and commercial trial attorney for 22 years before resorting to peacemaking. Doug is a founding board member of Mediators Without Borders, and the 2012 President of the California Row Resolution Council.

He is an Other of the International Academy of Mediators, a Distinguished Other of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, a Diplomat of the California and National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, a core faculty member of the American Institute of Mediation, and on the American Arbitration Association panel of mediators and arbitrators. Mr. Noll was one of the first UNITED STATE mediators accredited under the international mediator requirements established by the International Mediation Institute. Doug is the writer of Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Methods Could Better Solve Globe Conflicts (Prometheus, 2011), the champion of the international peace and justice book award.

About Laurel Kaufer
Recognized as one of Southern California’s “Greatest Lawyers” in the industry of Alternate Quarrel Resolution, in 2010 and 2011 by UNITED STATE News & Globe Report, Laurel Kaufer, transitioned from a lawsuit to neutral practice in 1995. Kaufer, a Mediator and Arbitrator with ARC in Los Angeles, CA, is the instant past chair of the California State Bar Association Standing Committee on Disagreement Resolution, a Diplomat of both the California and National Academies of Distinguished Neutrals, and teaches in the Certificate Program for Mediation and Disagreement Resolution at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Kaufer served for years on the Boards of the Southern California Mediation Association and Ventura County Row Services.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Kaufer founded the Mississippi Mediation Project to supply Conflict Resolution resources in difficult hit areas of the state, strengthening their physical, cultural and economic renewal. A long-time consumer proponent on health insurance concerns, Kaufer has recently taken her advocacy to a brand-new level, promoting the use of appropriate dispute resolution systems in diplomatic and public policy arenas, with her participation in DEPUTY 15, the U.N. Temperature Modification Conference 2009, working on legislation developing a pre-foreclosure Mediation process in response to the real estate situation, along with proceeding her work in health-care, both as an independent individual promoter and as an advisor to The Margolin Group.

For press inquiries call Diane Dennis/Inspired Media/dianeden (at) centurytel (dot) net

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