Robyn E. Buseman, creative criminal justice reformer, adjunct professor, and mural arts advocate, has died at 68
"There was nothing not real or present about Robyn," a colleague said. "She did her work with great attention and intention, rigor, and she also did her work with love, an abundance of love."
Robyn E. Buseman, 68, of Plymouth Meeting, a creative criminal justice reformer, former adjunct professor at Temple University and Chestnut Hill College, and tireless Mural Arts Philadelphia advocate, died Thursday, Dec. 29, of metastatic urothelial cancer at her home.
Inspired throughout her life to confront and correct legal, social, and economic inequities, especially in the criminal justice system, Ms. Buseman found ways to use art, gardening, animal care, carpentry, cooking, photography, and other people-oriented activities to help those struggling to find their way in the world.
“What people have to realize is well over 90% of people in prison are coming out,” Ms. Buseman said in 2013. “And if we’re not doing anything with them while they’re in prison, they’re going to come out and commit more crimes.”
Her ultimate goal, she told the Daily News in 2008, was “to always be vigilant to provide opportunities for everyone.” Her partner, Mark Kreider, said: “She believed in the restorative justice process involving both the victim and the perpetrator. She felt deep passion for what she believed in.”
As director of restorative justice for Mural Arts Philadelphia from 2005 until her retirement in 2018, Ms. Buseman coordinated with prisons, probation departments, community organizations, and other groups to develop programs for people and communities “divided by the criminal justice system” that use art and creativity as the focus of their rehabilitation and future success.
She arranged art shows and sales, mentored artists, directed symposia and workshops, and talked widely on criminal justice reforms. “Robyn could envision a more just world and understood that to get there one had to believe, work hard, be tenacious and inventive,” Jane Golden, founder and executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia, said in a tribute. “Our gift was that we met and got to work with Robyn, an extraordinary person who touched so many lives.”
The program director at St. Gabriel’s Hall in Audubon from 1995 to 2005, Ms. Buseman encouraged empathy and cooperation through gardening, animal care, and other nontraditional methods to adjudicated delinquent males. “I watched her change Philly with her compassion and determination,” a former colleague said in a tribute.
Earlier, she worked as a juvenile probation officer in Chester County, oversaw a Philadelphia shelter for delinquent males, and served as a court liaison to Philadelphia Family Court. She also spent a year as a project facilitator at Eastern State Penitentiary historic site and was an adjunct professor specializing in criminal justice at Temple and Chestnut Hill.
Throughout her career, Ms. Buseman strove to find innovative and effective methods to turn retribution into rehabilitation. She said in 2008 that she wanted “people to realize that people do make mistakes. And while some have committed horrible things, they should be viewed as humans. It’s about education, rehabilitation and leading people to regain purpose and focus. Perpetrator or victim, everyone suffers.”
The Guild, one of her signature programs at Mural Arts Philadelphia, was designed in 2009 for people in need “to develop marketable job skills and reconnect with their community.” It routinely works with 100 clients per year and recently launched a new women’s reentry program.
At St. Gabriel’s, she developed the Mitchell Program in 1998 that used animals, nature, and other means to reestablish “a sense of trust and responsibility” with youthful offenders.
Born Jan. 19, 1954, in Long Beach, Calif., Robyn E. Buseman grew up in Southern California and graduated a semester early from Lakewood High School in 1972. She enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, but dropped out after her criminology major was discontinued.
She became one of the first women to work at a refinery for the Union Oil Co. in California, met John Williams, and they had daughters Maya, Janine, and Anna, and relocated to West Chester. Maya died earlier.
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Ms. Buseman earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at West Chester University in 1985 and, while working full-time, received a master’s degree in administration of justice from Shippensburg University in 1993. She met Kreider in 2013 after she and Williams separated, and they lived together in Plymouth Meeting.
In a tribute, a friend celebrated Ms. Buseman’s “unique combination of toughness, compassion and competence.” Another friend said: “Few people have that particular mix of candor and kindness.”
Ms. Buseman enjoyed traveling, gardening, photography, and spending time with her grandchildren. She and Kreider toured national parks across the country, and visited Europe, India, Tanzania, and elsewhere.
She loved live music, was a huge Eagles fan, and volunteered as a local judge of elections. A master gardener, she and Kreider turned their property into a bird-friendly habitat full of native plants.
“She will be remembered,” her family said in a tribute, “for her commitment to justice, passion for nature, and love for her family.”
In addition to her daughters, partner, and former partner, Ms. Buseman is survived by three grandchildren, two brothers, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
A celebration of her life was held Jan. 3.
Donations in her name may be made to the Bread & Roses Community Fund, P.O. Box 22426, Philadelphia, Pa. 19110.