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Hull made the choice to begin increasing the quality of life for residents and members of the community. They trained 25,000 people who work with young people, from schools to community centers to law enforcement agencies, across the city to change things for the next generation and create a restorative city.
At its heart, restorative justice requires both parties working together to better understand each other’s needs and motivations in order to repair their relationship, find forgiveness, heal the harm done and find a peaceful resolution. This does not mean that perpetrators are absolved with a pardon.
The restorative lens also requires the wider community, who are indirectly impacted by the harm, to come together and offer support for this healing journey while ensuring the underlying needs/grievances that caused such harm are minimised. Likewise, communities engaged in the process learn to replace punishment with healing, hatred with forgiveness. This allows the space required to overcome shame, intimidation and judgement for both victim and offender, while facilitating the restoration of harmed relationships.
The International Institute for Restorative Practices (the IIRP), located in Bethlehem, PA, is the world’s first accredited graduate school that specializes in studying the field of restorative practices, providing education, research, and consulting services.
At the heart of restorative practices is the understanding that human beings are instilled with the need to connect and grow with each other. The IIRP supports students and community leaders with the tools they need to transform relationships and effect change within their own lives as well as within public and private K-12 educational institutions, public and private four-year residential colleges and universities, non-governmental agencies (NGOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs). Through strong academic offerings combined with a real-life approach to education, the IIRP helps mend issues and makes resilient and meaningful relationships thrive.
Dedicated to Growing and Teaching the Science of Relationships and Community Master of Science | Graduate Certificate | Professional Development The International Institute for Restorative Practices (the IIRP), located in Bethlehem, PA, is the world’...
More than 5,600 Jamaicans across the island have been equipped with skills in restorative justice (RJ) better enabling them to prevent and manage conflicts.
Acting Director of the RJ Branch in the Justice Ministry’s Social Justice Division, Saccsha Ebanks, said the RJ facilitators in each parish have been instrumental in the training process.
“Every day our officers get the chance to participate in the healing of our nation. Every day they guide our clients towards achieving peace and harmony. Being trained in RJ practices enables citizens to prevent conflict and solve them when they arise,” she told JIS News in a recent interview.
Restorative Justice is a range of processes that advocates that the people most effective at finding a solution to a problem are the people who are most directly impacted by the problem, creating opportunities, for those involved in a conflict to work together to understand, clarify and resolve the incident and work together towards repairing the harm caused.
The Centre for Restorative Justice was formed in 1997 as a response to community concern about the over-use of incarceration in South Australia and because victims of crime at that stage were not able to engage appropriately in the functions of the criminal justice system.
Notes for an address by The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, PC, QC, MP Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, September 13, 2018
Extract: The first initiative is expanding the use of restorative justice, which emphasizes repairing the relationship between the victim and the offender. Restorative justice is focused more on collaboration and inclusivity, and is often more culturally relevant and responsive to specific communities. Victims have a powerful voice, and this process allows them to be heard and to heal, while at the same time, holding the offender accountable for their actions.
In this sense, I sometimes view restorative justice as acting as a kind of “circuit-breaker” from the cycle that so many find themselves caught in. While restorative justice has been part of Canada’s criminal justice system for over 40 years, and has proven effective over that period, it is still not widely available across the country.
A 2011 Department of Justice Canada report found that Indigenous people who completed a community-based alternative to mainstream justice, such as restorative justice, were significantly less likely to re-offend than those who did not. I am committed to expanding this resource so it can be more widely used and accepted across the country.
Academic article: Extract:
The Australian National University and Australian Institute of Criminology were commissioned by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Justice and Community Safety Directorate to undertake an impact evaluation of the restorative justice conferencing program. There were two components to this evaluation.
The first involved the analysis of surveys of offenders, victims and their support persons conducted by the Restorative Justice (RJ) Unit following each conference.
The second involved using criminal history data provided by ACT Policing to conduct an analysis of reoffending among the 1,143 participants in restorative justice conferencing (RJC) compared with 4,668 young offenders dealt with at the same time through the normal process, whose criminal history had been tracked until September 2016.
The purpose of the handbook is to provide more in-depth information about restorative justice for professionals working with offenders, ex-offenders, or people at risk of violent radicalisation and group violence. Restorative justice is not in opposition to current criminal justice practices, but complementary. It has proven to provide the justice system with alternative approaches that when implemented properly can increase victim satisfaction, reduce re-o ending, and increase community cohesion. Throughout the handbook, different aspects of violent radicalisation and restorative justice are presented, from a general introduction of the topic to example of trauma informed practice. This information is presented in six modules, each of which concludes with a brief quiz.
In my conversations with other educators, there is usually confusion around the definition of restorative practices due to the common emphasis placed on restorative justice, which focuses on repairing relationships when harm has occurred as an alternative to punitive approaches to discipline. In contrast, restorative practices focus on not only repairing, but also building and strengthening relationships and social connections within communities.
The mainstream conception of restorative justice is credited to Howard Zehr and is thought to have originated within the criminal justice system in the 1970s. However, a 2017 report from the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, notes the growing demand from the field that practitioners acknowledge many of the values and practices of restorative justice come directly from Indigenous communities in North America and across the globe.
'The Justice Reform Initiative is an alliance of people who share long-standing professional experience, lived experience and/or expert knowledge of the justice system, who are further supported by a movement of Australians of goodwill from across the country and across the political spectrum.
We believe jailing is failing and that there is an urgent need to reduce the number of people in Australian prisons. We believe that the over-use of prisons is fundamentally harmful to those in prison, their family and friends, and the broader community.
We believe that prisons are ineffective as a deterrent, ineffective at reducing crime, and ineffective at addressing the drivers of criminal justice system involvement. We believe that the over-use of incarceration is a waste of human potential and a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
The evidence shows that the majority of people entering prison usually arrive there because of an underpinning cycle of disadvantage and that prison both exacerbates and entrenches a broader cycle of disadvantage, which needs to be broken.
We believe the moment has come for change, with a combination of political, economic and social forces coalescing to create an opportunity to genuinely challenge and respond to our overreliance on incarceration – and offer up an alternative vision.'
'Connecting individuals building restorative communities on campuses around the world. Restorative universities care about community. That means respectful relationships come first. We work to build these respectful communities in our student body, residence halls, faculty and staff.'
Adam Voigt has been teaching and leading schools in some of Australia’s most challenging locations for more than twenty-five years. He has a history of transforming student lives and teacher practice by fostering school cultures that are strong, relational and hallmarked by stakeholder trust.
More than ever, we need inspired and inspiring teachers and school leaders. Yet their status and morale have never been lower.
Restoring the pride, focus and community perception of our educators is now a national imperative that involves cultivating a positive account of teaching expertise in every Australian school.
The future of a respected teaching workforce lies in a brave, new frontier of work. It starts with applying the principles of Restorative Practices to the contemporary school context – creatively and practically.
This initiative aims to transform Newcastle into a restorative city by building social cohesion and healthy communities. Newcastle has pockets of disadvantage in relation to unemployment, income, education, housing, child welfare, and criminal justice.
The School of Law and Justice is initiating change by working with a growing network of community partners to support the city’s proposed social and cultural transformation.
In the criminal justice system, it is anticipated that there will be less offending, decreased recidivism, increased rehabilitation of offenders, and greater victim and offender satisfaction with the process.
Additionally, members of the community will be provided with skills to effectively build relationships and resolve disputes, which aim to result in greater wellbeing, social coherence, and improved educational and social outcomes. Workplaces and organisations will have improved communication skills, improved productivity, and strengthened relationships.
As a result, Newcastle will become a happier and safer city, where residents can address harm and inappropriate behaviour.
'IIRP Continuing Education brings together leading research, theory and practice. We offer a growing array of online professional development events to teach you concepts and soft skills needed to stand out in your professional environment. Our experienced instructors are skilled practitioners, adept at helping you learn and implement restorative practices in your setting. For more than 10 years, the IIRP Graduate School has pioneered master's-level online learning in the social science of relationships and community. Our faculty bring their wealth of knowledge to support the design and structure of our online offerings.'