Highland Lakes Democratic Women welcomed Channing Neary as the featured speaker for their June meeting.  Ms Neary is a third generation Texas Attorney. She has learned that what it takes to be a leader in her field is to be an expert, but never lose feeling compassion for her client. This insight is what led Ms. Neary to work for restorative justice. The three primary stakeholders in restorative justice are victims, offenders and their communities of care, whose needs are, respectively, obtaining reparation, taking responsibility and achieving reconciliation.

Ms Neary strongly feels that the criminal justice system is broken. She stated that the cost of incarceration can be 3 times, or more, costly than if money had been spent on true rehabilitation. The system must have open hearts & minds about what justice is. The goal of each community should be to repair this criminal justice system.

Per Ms Neary, in the United States, over 2M people are incarcerated  - 22% are violent offenders, 17 is the age considered to be an adult. Texas is one of 3 states that charge children as adults.  There are 70,000 children in residential detention centers (including immigration detention) in the United States.

In closing, Ms Neary quoted poet Amanda Gorman - “We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice.” 

The June HLDW will be Thursday, June 23, 2022, at 11:30 am. The speaker is Channing Neary and there will be a fundraiser plant sale. Channing Neary has been a licensed attorney for the past eighteen years practicing criminal law exclusively in Travis and surrounding counties. She has worked as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. Recently, she began an Executive Fellowship through FUSE Corps to design and implement a community- based restorative justice program for youth with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. She is passionate about criminal justice reform, particularly in the areas of substance use disorder, mass incarceration, and restorative justice. 

The Plant Sale will have House Plants, Succulents and Cactus, all  homegrown by HLDW members. The come in all sizes, all prices.

We are meeting at Double Horn Brewing Company. Attached below is their menu. Please select the item you are ordering for lunch and when you RSVP, list that selection in your response. Each person will pay individually for their lunch. Parking is available both in front and back of the location.

Please RSVP to Sandra Chapman grantexas6@yahoo.com by Monday June 13. In your RSVP please list your lunch selection from this menu https://www.doublehornbrewing.com/food-menu/ OR Choose from these favorites:

Crabby Cado Appetizer - fried avocado and crab salad $12.99
Pear Pecan Salad w/ balsamic vinaigrette $9.99
Cowboy Burger $9.99
Smoked Reuben $12.99
Chicken Tinga Tacos $3.99 per taco
Fish Tacos $4.99 per taco