Can restorative justice help balance the scales for African-American youth?
Nov 04, 2011
from the article by Rebecca M. Stone in the Miami Herald:
Darryl is a 12-year-old African American boy whose mother, Ariel, is a single parent. Ariel left high school after becoming pregnant with Darryl and has struggled to find anything but minimum wage jobs to support her family.
One day when he was out with another friend, Darryl and his friend snuck into the neighbor's house and stole a video game. The neighbors called the police.
One might conclude that the future does not bode well for Darryl. In fact, we probably would not be surprised if we were to learn later on that he was in prison. However, there is much more to his story, and much to learn from it. The police response ultimately resulted in a restorative intervention and provided Darryl with an alternative approach.
....I met Darryl when he was referred to the restorative justice program in which I work. Restorative justice is a way of responding to crime that focuses more on people and relationships, and less on the law that has been broken.
Whereas the criminal justice system typically asks, "What law has been broken?" "Who broke it?" and "What punishment does s/he deserve?" a restorative justice approach asks a different set of questions: "Who has been harmed?" "What needs to be done to repair this harm?" and "Who is responsible for repairing it?"
In this relational response to crime, offenders talk about the incident, consider what they were thinking, actively process how to prevent it from happening again, write apology letters and, in many cases, meet their victims in a facilitated conference in which they answer questions, apologize directly and collaboratively come up with a plan of repair. Offenders often find that the restorative justice approach is more demanding than the traditional punitive approach, as they personally see the consequences of their actions.
In Darryl's case, the neighbor wanted an apology letter and did not need to meet with Darryl. She said she hoped that he would learn a lesson from this experience. Darryl said he had. That was more than 18 months ago, and he has not committed another crime since.
Restorative justice is not the sole solution to correcting the disproportionate crime and incarceration rates among African American youth. However, it is one compelling step that has decreased recidivism and deserves to be promoted more widely across the U.S.
