The future place of restorative justice in the criminal justice system

from the speech by Justice Minister Lord McNally:

I am an ardent supporter of the principles of restorative justice.  It offers an opportunity not only to assist the rehabilitation of offenders but to give victims a greater stake in the resolution of offences and in the criminal justice system as a whole.  Victim-led restorative justice can allow us to make inroads into the re-offending cycle – with the triple benefit of victims avoiding the trauma of future crimes, the tax payer not having to foot the bill of more crime, and a rehabilitated offender making a positive contribution to society.

As many of you know far better than me, the evidence for the effectiveness of restorative justice is promising. Analysis conducted by my department of a number of restorative justice pilots showed that 85% of victims who participated were satisfied with the experience and there was an estimated 14% reduction in re-offending.

Jul 09, 2012 Country:England&Wales, Region: Europe, Policy, Politics, Evaluation

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Going Dutch: Can we follow the Netherlands and cut our prison population?

from the article by Vicki Helyar-Cardwell on Huffington Post:

Since 2004 the total numbers incarcerated in the Netherlands has fallen from more than 20,000 to less than 15,000. The Dutch Ministry of Justice expects the number of prisoners to continue to decline and to average less than 9,000 by 2015. The Netherlands now uses the spare capacity to lease space at Tilburg jail to house 500 prisoners from Belgium, whose prisons are severely overcrowded. Last week the new French Justice Minister outlined plans to reform prisons, and she is widely expected to re-orientate budgets away from prison building to rehabilitation.

Jul 03, 2012 Policy, Politics, Country:Netherlands, Region: Europe

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