Lynette Parker

How do our words affect others and our practice?

By Lynette Parker Late last year, I posted an article titled, “What are we looking for?” in which I asked how our expectations of process outcomes influence our practice. Recently, I started thinking about this again but in relation to the language we use to describe restorative justice and restorative programmes. Specifically, I’m wondering if the descriptors that we use affect the way we communicate with clients and facilitate a process.

Promoting Restorative Justice in Panama

By Lynette Parker Although the authority to use mediation in responding to certain crimes first appeared in Panamanian regulations in 1995, such alternatives continue be underutilised by justice system personnel. Subsequent legislation and policies developed by the Ministerio Público have sought to strengthen mediation including the creation of alternative dispute resolution centres in different parts of the country. In 2009, the government put out a request for proposals for consultants to assist with promoting penal mediation throughout the country. The Centro de Conciliación y Arbitraje (Centro) of the Cámara de Comercio, Industrias y Agricultura of Panama won the contract for the project for the development of a system of alternative conflict resolution. In doing so, the Centro contracted Prison Fellowship Panama as consultants on the project. From 28 June thru 1 July, I had the honour and pleasure to work with representatives from both organisations in a series of awareness raising seminars for justice system personnel.

Restorative Justice Everywhere: Final Update from the UN Crime Congress

Friday (my last day at the UN Crime Congress) was busy with ancillary sessions and sitting through one of the main workshops. The first ancillary session, organised by Prison Fellowship International, looked at Latin American Experiences with Restorative Justice. I opened the session with a brief introduction of the participants describing the goal of the session as opening a dialogue on the various experiences with restorative justice in the region.

Restorative Justice in Prison: Report from the UN Crime Congress

On 15 April, I had the opportunity to participate in an ancillary session discussing the use of restorative justice in prisons organised by the Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers) and Prison Fellowship International. Panel presentations included an international overview of restorative justice in prisons, racism in the prison setting and in-prison programmes serving both victims and offenders.

More on Restorative Justice at the UN Crime Congress

Day two at the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice didn’t yield as many comments of restorative justice, but there were some interesting statements made especially by the delegates from South Africa and Peru. On 13 April, the Plenary continued its discussion on Children, Youth, and Crime with more member states as well as non-governmental organisations and independent experts.

Restorative Justice at the UN Crime Congress

I’m in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, representing Prison Fellowship International at the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Later in the week, I will be participating in sessions on restorative justice in prisons and restorative justice in Latin America. So, I was quite interested to hear several references to restorative justice in today’s opening events. I wanted to share some of what was reported and a few of my thoughts.

Offenders and their children

I was saddened to see that a provision requiring judges to consider the impact on an offender’s children before ordering a custodial sentence was removed from legislation being debated in Scotland. The provisions were removed from the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill to allow more time to debate other contentious issues. While I don’t live in Scotland, I was disappointed by this move because the incarceration of a parent can negatively impact children in several ways:

Can restorative justice become too routine?

I feel a little strange asking this question, especially considering the work of advocates to see restorative justice becomes more wide spread. But, this is something that I’ve been pondering for a while and even more after seeing a brief news item about a defendant being referred to a pre-sentence restorative process for a “careless driving causing death” charge. The news item is short and I don’t know all the issues surrounding the case, but it gave me pause since the victim who died was the son of the defendant.

Going Off Script: What is appropriate for a facilitator to say?

The conversation did cause me to re-examine my role and ask what is appropriate for a facilitator to say in a pre-conference setting.

Prisoners and Community Members Working Together?

by Lynette Parker In looking through my Twitter account, I read the line “Charity volunteers upset by prisoner work placement” with a link to a brief listing of newspaper articles. The dispute involved a charity shop where several elderly volunteers were told that the shop would be participating in a prison volunteer scheme bringing prisoners into to work alongside the volunteers. According to the article, they were to work with the prisoners or “be shown the door.” At the same time, the volunteers – some who had given years of service – expressed concerns about their personal safety.

By No Means Easy: Responding to Conflict in Personal Life

“I’m glad we went through that process before he died,” I recently told my pastor. Jay had been speaking of the death of a long-time member who had participated in a number of church conflicts over the years. The process I referred to was a series of meetings with the individual to discuss the impact of letters he had sent during the past two years to the entire congregation on several contentious issues. These letters created various harms to individual church members as well as to the church family in general. In reflecting on the loss of Mr. M., I couldn’t help but feel that the meetings provided an avenue for church leadership to both express care for him and be open to listening to his positions and the concerns behind them.

What are we looking for?

“Did you see remorse?” “What are we looking for?” “Why didn’t you ask about previous offending?” For the last four years, I’ve volunteered as a restorative conferencing facilitator with a local community organisation. As a part of that work, I now ‘mentor’ new facilitators. Inevitably, I get questions like the ones listed above. It’s always interesting to see the focus of new volunteers as they go through pre-conferences.

Restorative justice as part of a sentence

Recently, a news article describing a case of stolen money arrived in my inbox. As I perused the article wondering why it was included in a news alert on restorative justice, I ran across this sentence: "[Defendant's name] was also ordered to pay at least $200 per month in restitution and continuing paying until $5,382 is paid back, and to write an apology letter and attend victim-offender mediation." I found myself frustrated by the inclusion of a restorative process in a listing of elements in the sentence. As a volunteer facilitator in an organisation that often receives cases of court-ordered restorative processes, I mentally ticked off the various problems that could arise from such referrals.

Facilitating Communication

"What am I going to do now?," ran through my mind as the conference skittered to a complete halt. The young man, although painfully non-verbal, had been cooperative, responding to questions and telling his story of stealing an automobile. Yet, when his mother asked whether or not he was sorry, he refused to answer. With a firm statement of, "I've already answered it," the young offender had us all baffled. Referring to the difficulty of hearing over the air conditioner (I had asked him to speak up a couple of times), I asked if he would mind answering it again. He point blank refused, stating, "I don't repeat myself."

Offering Hope, Encouraging Change

"A place where human potential is squashed." I recently read this quote from someone working in prison ministry in Estonia. I couldn't help but contrast it with a statement made by an offender after a restorative conference, "I was happy because I think they really believe I can change." I remember thinking this was the highest form of compliment for the process and those who participated. When I shared the comment with a colleague, I said, "Sometimes that is all a person needs, the knowledge that someone else thinks he can do the right thing."

Lynette Parker: Restorative Justice…Not Counselling

A few months ago, I assisted with a training event for restorative conferencing facilitators. When asking questions, some of the participants would say, “so when people get this counselling…” and were surprised when I adamantly stated that conferencing is not counselling. Several laughed and joked about it the rest of the day, but the confusion between the two has stayed with me.

Speaking to Scepticism

In mid-May, I taught one module in a Restorative Justice Diploma course organised by Prison Fellowship of Bolivia and the Universidad Publica de El Alto. Course participants included public servants, members of the military, social workers, and others working in the prison setting. As I talked about the implementation and practice of restorative practices, several students raised questions and concerns about such work.

Lynette Parker: Listening to stories

“You don’t know what it means to have a member of the community listen to my story before making his decision.” One young man summed up his experience in a restorative conference with a community representative. Convicted of armed robbery, he had already served two years in prison and returned to his family when the conference took place. His statement reminded me of how powerful a restorative process can be.