Restorative Justice views crime and conflict as harm - harm to relationships. Relationships, once harmed, need repaired. Restorative Justice typically brings victims, offenders and community members together to process what happened and how to make things right.
I love Restorative Justice. I've been working directly as an Executive Director for nearly five years. I've had five years of full-time work completely devoted to what I see as art and science. I get to be surrounded in Restorative practice.
Prior to that, I implemented programs restorative in nature as a supervisor in human services. There are highly restorative processes and things on the end of the 'restorative' continuum. My work took a turn towards restorative after receiving training in victim-offender conferencing back in 1998.
Circles are the vehicles I choose to facilitate Restorative Justice. There are few 'modes' of transportation when using the overall Restorative Justice approach.
The most important aspects are involving those involved and using a collaborative approach. The most recent book, and currently my favorite, on Restorative Justice, is Restorative Justice is Changing the World, by Carol Harcarik.
A recent incident of harm has me re-examining myself. My student intern had her car vandalized. The suspected vandals are youth that were part of a community clean-up project. I don't like what the young people did. I feel sorry for them being so angry that they would lash out.
I want the police called. She wants the police called. Our first reactions are that they need to pay. Then I play the tape ahead and watch the video in my mind. What will the future look like? I see it with Restorative Justice.
Unlike most cases that come to me, I don't have a great deal of faith this will work. Now I am the skeptic I typically deal with. Like the people I work with to come to restorative justice (victims and community members), I have my information. This time I am much closer to the harm. (I'm not sure I will be the right person to facilitate, should we get this crime in Restorative Justice.) There is a lesson here for me. I get a much clearer sense of how victims might feel.
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