As restorative justice practitioners, hard work needed regarding victims: Five things to do

from Kris Miner's blog Restorative Justice and Circles:

I want to offer some lessons for people who do restorative justice.  These lessons are for working with victims in either a victim-offender dialogue or a talking circle.  I think its important to keep up our compassion towards victims skills.  To really do our best, I have 5 things to work really hard at:

Jan 28, 2010 Limitations, Support, Practice, Victim

• Read More

Cutting crime: The case for justice reinvestment

The British House of Common Justice Committee has recently released a report on the reinvestment of justice resources aimed at reducing crime. The following is excerpted from the Executive Summary:

We decided to undertake an inquiry into “justice reinvestment”, because of three linked issues. 

First, the criminal justice system is a complex network of agencies with substantial public funding operating under increasing pressure but the different parts of the system do not seem to be pursuing the same goals or making cogent contributions to an agreed overarching purpose. 

Secondly, the Government’s main answer to the current overcrowding of prisons and the predicted rise in the prison population—already at a record high—is to provide more prison places rather than to seek to address the root causes of this seemingly incessant growth. These causes include: a toxic cocktail of sensationalised or inaccurate reporting of difficult cases by the media; relatively punitive overall public opinion (compared to much of the EU); a self-defeating over-politicisation of criminal justice policy since the late 1980s and the responsiveness to all these factors of the sentencing framework and sentencers. 

Thirdly, it is clear that authorities and agencies outside the criminal justice system—with relevant objectives, remits and funding—could take more effective action to reduce both the number of people entering the criminal justice system in the first place and the likelihood of re-entry after serving a sentence. 

So questions arise as to whether the existing allocation of attention, energy and funding is the right one. “Justice reinvestment” approaches—which channel resources on a geographically-targeted basis to reduce the crimes which bring people into the criminal justice system and into prison in particular—offer potential solutions to these challenges.

Jan 22, 2010 Country:England&Wales, RJ City, Support, Region: Europe, Policy, Politics

• Read More

How to run a meeting like a restorative justice talking circle

from Kris Miner's blog:

Not everyone is comfortable with Circle, so over time, I have found ways to engage bits without making people freak-out and shut down.  On the same hand, I’ve gotten quite confident at running a Circle, with skeptical people.  (imagine a circle of attorney’s!)

Running a meeting like a Circle,  I’ve promoted the interactive meeting format to include:

Jan 19, 2010 Limitations, Support, Practice

• Read More

Launch of Wentworth Restorative Justice Project in Durban

from the announcement on Imagine Durban:

Khulisa is an award-winning NGO dedicated to preventing crime through promoting rehabilitation, education and reconciliation.

In partnership with the South Durban Basin Area Based Management Programme of Ethekwini Municipality, Khulisa has launched an integrated pilot project aimed at bringing the concepts of restorative justice (RJ) into the Merewent community.

Khulisa helps families and communities support victims who need healing and offenders who want to make amends in order to provide support to the justice system by maximising community participation.

Jan 07, 2010 Policy, Support, Region: Africa, Country:South Africa

• Read More