Restorative Justice in Prisons – An International Perspective

This paper considers restorative justice programmes in prisons, omitting the UK, Belgium and Hawaii, because they were catered for by other workshops at the conference. It covers the 'rest of the world' by country.

International Programmes

There are several programmes, often faith-based, which have been initiated and maintained by groups which are part of world-wide networks.

• Sycamore Tree Project:  a victim awareness programme that uses restorative justice principles run by Prison Fellowship. 
• Communities of Restoration (APAC):  prison communities in which whole prisons are run along restorative lines, based on a philosophy of Christian love.
• Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP): AVP was initiated by Quakers but is now an international movement independent from Quakers. AVP is based on the belief that everyone has inside themselves the creative power to transform violent situations.

USA

• Victim Offender Dialogue (VOD): The primary purpose of VOD is to facilitate and support the healing process of those victims and survivors of violent crime who request to communicate with the offender.
• Citizens, Victims and Offenders Restoring Justice (CVORJ): a 14-week seminar held at the Washington State Reformatory for offenders, victims and community members.
• Bridges to Life: This is a Christian-based programme in Texas with small groups usually containing five inmates, two victims of violent crime and one lay facilitator.
• Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP): The programme immerses offenders with recurring violent behaviour in a 12-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week environment in which they receive counselling, explore reasons for restorting to violence, and learn alternatives to violent behaviour.
• Pennsylvania Prison Society: This NGO offers a variety of programmes including a 10-session, prison-based restorative justice seminar, a day of responsibility, a play raising restorative issues, opportunities for shared dialogue, and mediation support initiatives.
• The Conflict Resolution Initiative: Staff training programme in conflict resolution and training in talking circles, workplace conferencing and mediation.
• Opening Doors of Ohio: Started as a cultural change programme at the Marion Correctional Institution that sought to change the way conflict was handled in the prison. Programme components include: foundation course for prisoners; peer mediation for prisoners; conflict resolution and team building for staff; and a work place mediation programme.
• Amicus Girls Restorative Program, Minnesota: This is a gender-specific programme serving incarcerated, adolescent girls. The programme uses restorative circles at various points of a girl’s incarceration, especially before release, to ease her transition back into the community. There is also a trauma counseling component to address past victimizations.

Victim Offender Dialogue programmes exist within the Correctional Services of Canada. Also, from 2001-2005, a ‘restorative unit’ ran in Grande Cache Institution. In this unit all staff and prisoners received training in restorative justice principles and all disciplinary issues were resolved using a restorative model. The unit closed after a management change in 2005.

Australia

Through the victim-offender mediation service, a trained mediator is available to serve as a go-between for the victim and offender to discuss issues important to return. This service may result in a direct meeting, but this is not always the case.

New Zealand

Prison Fellowship of New Zealand runs several programmes including: the Sycamore Tree Project®, a Community of Restoration programme, and a victim awareness course.

South Africa

From 1998 to 2001,  Pollsmoor Prison offered workshops on creative and constructive approaches to conflict, and mediation and facilitation skills. The current focus is to train staff in restorative justice principles.

Ghana

The African Transformative Justice Project provided a week’s training in victim-offender mediation skills to a varied group of criminal justice professionals, many of whom were prison officers from prisons in or near Accra. As a result of this, there has been a victim-offender mediation project in one of the prisons there.

Latin America

Several Latin American countries have prisons involved in Communities of Restoration (APAC). Another initiative is the Peace Tables created by prisoners in Bellevista Prison in Medellin, Colombia, where imprisoned gang leaders meet to resolve disputes between their gangs both inside and outside the prison.

Israel

A mediation project ran in Hermon Prison in northern Israel for four months in 2003.

Germany

The ‘Focus on Victims’ programme in Hamburg, Germany is a victim empathy programme which takes place during the prisoners’ first three months in the institution.

Italy

An RJ project operated as restorative unit within a wing in an Italian prison. It involved the prisoners, the local and national administration and the local university. However, there were many obstacles due to prison culture.

Netherlands

An RJ project in Nieuwegein Prison for adults started in 2003. The aim is to stimulate offenders to think about the consequences of what they have done and to motivate them to do something to restore the harm done to their victims. The facilitator of the programme organises discussion groups with offenders, using films about RJ and stories of victims. Real victims also come into the prison to talk about their experiences. Some former prisoners also come, to talk about their experiences with RJ projects.

Serbia

A Restorative justice programme in a Juvenile Correctional Institution focuses on conflicts and bullying between inmates within the institution using victim offender mediation.

Marian Liebmann
June 2006