Restorative Justice for Diversion

Articles and resources concerning use of restorative justice instead of charging, making a finding of guilt or innocence or sentencing to the more conventional sanctions used by the criminal justice system.

It could be different…

by Lynette Parker Recently, I’ve been working with a colleague in Liberia on issues related to pre-trial detention. In his country, as much as 85% of the prison population is awaiting trial. My colleague would like to see this change.

A visionary judge makes restorative justice come alive in Alabama

from Ken Kimsey's entry on Fairness Works: In a six-part video series, Judge McCooey talks passionately about her believe that justice requires much more than the court system provides, especially in the area of giving crime victims the opportunity to meet the offenders, face-to-face, in a safe place, and to do so on a voluntary basis. (If you walk out of here and find someone has stolen your car radio, chances are you don’t have much interest in meeting the thief, she says in one segment. But the more deeply you have been hurt, the more likely you want to meet the offender and ask questions like “why?”.) As appealing as her speaking style and warmth is her story about the unorthodox path that led her to the bench. Serving as a judge was never in her long-range plans, but when she won her first election against a well-established Montgomery lawyer, surprising herself in the process, she knew there were some new thing she wanted to try. Finding ways of implementing a restorative justice program was among them, and she set about methodically but quietly to make this happen.

Green Paper: Breaking the cycle - Effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders

from the UK Government's new Green Paper: 78. We are committed to increasing the range and availability of restorative justice approaches to support reparation. Restorative justice is the name given to processes which provide victims with the opportunity to play a personal role in determining how an offender makes amends. This can often include direct reparation. A substantial minority of victims would consider meeting their offender by way of a restorative justice process and those victims who do report high levels of satisfaction. The evidence suggests that the approach may also have a positive impact on the offender’s likelihood of reoffending in the future. Getting an offender to confront the consequences of their crimes directly is often an effective punishment for less serious offences.

Economic analysis of interventions for young adult offenders

from the report for the Barrow Cadbury Trust by Matrix Evidence: This report summarises an economic analysis of alternative interventions for young adult offenders. It concludes that, for all offenders aged 18-24 sentenced in a Magistrate’s court for a non-violent offence1 in a given year: Diversion from community orders to pre-court RJ conferencing schemes (following a police triage service in which police officers make an immediate assessment of the need and likely benefit from a community intervention) is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of almost £275 million (£7,050 per offender). The costs of RJ conferencing are likely to be paid back within the first year of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of over £1 billion. Diversion from custody to community orders via changes in sentencing guidelines is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of more than £12 million (£1,032 per offender). The costs of changing sentencing guidelines are likely to be paid back within three years of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of almost £33 million. Diversion from trial under adult law to trial under juvenile law following maturity assessment is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of almost £5 million (£420 per offender). The costs of maturity assessments are likely to be paid back within five years of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of almost £473,000.

Economic analysis of interventions for young adult offenders

from the report for the Barrow Cadbury Trust by Matrix Evidence: This report summarises an economic analysis of alternative interventions for young adult offenders. It concludes that, for all offenders aged 18-24 sentenced in a Magistrate’s court for a non-violent offence1 in a given year: Diversion from community orders to pre-court RJ conferencing schemes (following a police triage service in which police officers make an immediate assessment of the need and likely benefit from a community intervention) is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of almost £275 million (£7,050 per offender). The costs of RJ conferencing are likely to be paid back within the first year of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of over £1 billion. Diversion from custody to community orders via changes in sentencing guidelines is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of more than £12 million (£1,032 per offender). The costs of changing sentencing guidelines are likely to be paid back within three years of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of almost £33 million. Diversion from trial under adult law to trial under juvenile law following maturity assessment is likely to produce a lifetime cost saving to society of almost £5 million (£420 per offender). The costs of maturity assessments are likely to be paid back within five years of implementation. During the course of two parliaments (10 years), implementation of such a scheme would be likely to lead to a total net benefit to society during this period of almost £473,000.

Griffin on the final report of the National Commission on Restorative Justice

from Human Rights in Ireland: The National Commission on Restorative Justice published its final report in December 2009. The Commission, announced in March 2007, was set up to examine the wider application of restorative justice within the criminal justice system. The Commission was established following the report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights which recommended the development of a restorative justice programme for adult offenders in the Irish criminal justice system.

ZAMBIA: Justice delayed becoming justice denied

Harry Mubita was tired of his wretched condition in prison. He had been in Lusaka Central Prison for more than a year, and still there was no sign that his theft case would be heard. Mubita, a tailor, accepted money from a woman who wanted him to make her a traditional dress known as the Chitenge Outfit – a long skirt and an intricately cut and sewn top, with a matching wrap-around and head-scarf. All made from a single length of material. But he failed to deliver. Mubita also did not refund the ZMK70,000 (about 14.40 dollars) payment, or return the six metres of cotton print. The aggrieved woman told the police, and two constables armed with AK-47 rifles arrested Mubita at his Kaunda Square Market shop. Mubita's case is not unusual.

Wright, Martin, (2002) Restorative Justice Outside the Criminal Justice System: How Far Have We Come? Paper to Second Conference of the European Forum for Victim/Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice. Oostende, Belgium, 10-12 October 2002.

Many people have commented on the difficulty of defining restorative justice. It is like a growing child: as soon as its parents have provided some clothes, it has grown and more are needed. The idea of community involvement in the process is just one example. Its grandparents, so to speak, come from different backgrounds; and many of them were practitioners rather than theorists. This paper will consider how restorative justice started with programmes that brought the community into the criminal justice system or diverting cases out of it, ending with the use of restorative justice outside the system. (excerpt)

More cautionary news from the US

United States public officials are reconsidering sentencing policies, driven by the increasingly high cost implications of current laws and practices. Mandatory sentencing laws, including Three Strikes legislation adopted in a number of states, take discretion away from judges and require prison sentences (often quite lengthy) be served.

Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today

 

Building new prisons costly – cheaper options needed: [New Zealand] PM

 

Penal Reform International. Le travail d'interet general: une alternative à l’incarcération

This leaflet explains community service and outlines its introduction as an alternative to custody in Zimbabwe. (author's abstract)

Penal Reform International. Community service as an alternative to custody

This leaflet explains community service and outlines its introduction as an alternative to custody in Zimbabwe. (publisher's abstract)

Stickle, Wendy Povitsky and Gottfredson, Denise and Connell, Nadine M. and Gottfredson, Denise and Wilson, Denise M. and Connell, Nadine M.. An experimental evaluation of teen courts.

Teen Court (TC) is a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of first-time juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system. TC instead utilizes informal processing and sanctions in order to prevent future offending. Despite its widespread popularity throughout the United States of America, little rigorous research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the TC model for reducing recidivism. Using an experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of TC in reducing recidivism and improving the attitudes and opinions of juvenile offenders in comparison with a control group of youth who were formally processed. Self-reported delinquency was higher for those youth who participated in TC. TC youth were also found to have significantly lower scores on a scale of belief in conventional rules than had youth who were processed in the Department of Juveniles Services. Implications of these findings are discussed. (author's abstract)

Livingston, Michael and Hayes, Hennessey and Palk, George and Livingston, Michael and Stewart, Anna and Hayes, Hennessey. Youth Justice Conferencing and Indigenous Over-Representation in the Queensland Juvenile Justice System: A Micro-Simulation Case Study.

Research suggests that rather than focusing on criminal justice responses, more progress in reducing Aboriginal overrepresentation might be made if the focus was shifted to the underlying causes of Aboriginal crime: substance abuse, family violence, poor school performance, and unemployment. Further development of initiatives to address the underlying causes of offending by indigenous young people, as well as use of effective criminal justice responses, such as youth justice conferencing, likely will be more effective in reducing the overrepresentation of young indigenous people in the juvenile justice system. The results of the simulations indicate that youth justice conferencing is unlikely to contribute significantly to the targets set by the Justice Agreement. While conferencing has the potential to reduce the number of young people reoffending overall, this impact may be more apparent for non-indigenous young offenders, resulting in an increase in the disparity in the ratio of indigenous to non-indigenous young offenders. While youth justice conferencing is only one of a range of criminal justice interventions identified in the Justice Agreement as strategies for reaching the identified goals, it is the only diversionary option that has been empirically shown to reduce rates of reoffending. However, there is a deep need for more rigorous evaluations of the impact of youth justice conferencing on reoffending; simulation modeling is only as good as the estimates that are used as parameters in the models. (Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).

Stout, Brian. Is Diversion the Appropriate Emphasis for South African Child Justice?

Diversion is central to the aim of achieving a South African child justice regime that is compliant with constitutional and international obligations. Future plans for South African child justice are dependent on large numbers of child offenders being diverted. This article presents research suggesting that although diversion from court in South African child justice improves the treatment of many children, it will continue to exclude large numbers of children from the most progressive interventions. The research suggests that the practice of diversion will exclude persistent and serious offenders, and raises questions about whether it is appropriate for advocates of reform to place such an emphasis on diversion. (author's abstract)

Snowball, Lucy. Diversion of indigenous juvenile offenders

Conferencing and cautioning are used as diversionary alternatives in the juvenile justice system and there is evidence to suggest they reduce reoffending. As Indigenous young people are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, an important question is whether they are as likely to be diverted as non-Indigenous young people. This study used modelled data to examine juveniles’ contact with the police and courts, and the differences in juvenile diversionary rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia in 2005. For all states, Indigenous young offenders were more likely than non-Indigenous offenders to be referred to court, non-Indigenous offenders were more likely to receive a police caution, and males and older offenders were more likely to be diverted. The number of prior contacts was similar for all states, with more contacts reducing the likelihood of diversion and with less likelihood of diversion for offenders committing offences against a person. As Indigenous young offenders are more likely to have multiple prior contacts with the system, including detention, further research is needed into the reasons for their high reoffending rates. (excerpt)

McLeod, Colleen and Bazemore, Gordon. Restorative Justice and the Future of Diversion and Informal Social Control

Bazemore and McLeod observe that restorative justice proponents often suffer from a problem of 'disconnect' in the discourse of mainstream debates about juvenile justice policy. Proponents tend to focus on restorative justice as a more satisfying process for individual victims, offenders, and their supporters. In contrast, policymakers and juvenile justice administrators, while they may be interested in restorative justice, want to know how restorative justice connects with the larger juvenile justice agenda and with general public concerns about community safety, sanctioning and censuring of crime, fairness, and justice. In particular, Bazemore and McLeod point to the need to strengthen community capacity for informal social control in response to youth crime. Hence, they argue for a restorative justice 'model' or guiding philosophy of intervention that would connect restorative principles and informal social control at the policy level in that arena of juvenile justice generally referred to as diversion. In pursuit of restorative justice at this policy level, they discuss diversion in American juvenile justice, libertarian and interventionist approaches to diversion, informal social control, social support, and a restorative justice approach to diversion.

Long, Kendall L. Hozhooji Youth Diversion Project

This session will report on the Hozhooji Youth Diversion Project, a program which provides presentations, counseling, workshops and awareness for first-time youth offenders of non-violent crimes. In the Navajo way, Hozhooji means "harmony" or "in a good way." The HYDP project is designed to actively involve the youth, with their family, in a three-session diversionary program that is designed to provide awareness and ultimately provide balance and harmony between the youth, the family and their community. Services offered may include work sessions, traditional sweats, talking circle sessions, ropes courses, and other activities. The goal is to reduce the recidivism of first-time youth offenders by 65 percent.

Wood, Catherine. Diversion in South Africa: A review of policy and practice, 1990-2003

Diversion initiatives in South Africa, writes Catherine Wood, have been practiced since the early 1990s. Since 1996 there has been a substantial expansion in the number of children referred to diversion programs. However, this has occurred in a more or less selective and disjointed fashion as there has been no legislative framework to regulate this development. In view of all of this, Wood in this paper reviews the policy and practice of diversion in South Africa in the 1990s and into the 2000s. She examines the concept of diversion and its introduction and development in South Africa, with reference to the drafting of the Child Justice Bill in 2002. She outlines the new procedures and mechanisms for diversion as proposed in the Bill. Then she analyses developments in the field of diversion that have taken place in South Africa since 1997 in preparation for implementation of the Bill.