Ted Wachtel has been doing his part taking “restorative practices” beyond the criminal justice system to all aspects of society and everyday life for almost a quarter of a century.   
In 1977, Ted and his wife, Susan Wachtel, both former teachers, founded the Community Service Foundation (CSF) and Buxmont Academy, two non-profit organizations that work restoratively with troubled and delinquent youth in southeastern Pennsylvania.  These two organizations currently run six alternative schools/day treatment programs.  CSF also provides and administers twelve group homes and two community-based programs supervising delinquent youths on probation. One of these community-based programs provides support counseling for young people (and their families) upon return from residential treatment programs.

In 1982, Ted co-authored (with Phyllis and David York) the book TOUGHLOVE, a bestseller for parents of troubled adolescents. CSF served as the sponsoring agency for the TOUGHLOVE program, which established parent support groups throughout North America and abroad.

Ted found inspiration in Terry O'Connell, the Australian police officer who developed a "restorative justice" system in which serious adult offenders are brought face to face with their victims.  In 1994, out of that inspiration, Ted established the Real Justice organization to bring the scripted version of family group conferencing to North America.  

Real Justice trains the following groups to facilitate conferences:

• Educators
  

• Youth workers

•  Police, corrections, and probation officers

•  others

Real Justice also carried out the first experimental randomized field trial of conferencing, funded by the National Institute of Justice, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  To assist others in acquiring knowledge and skills in restorative justice practices, Ted has produced a number of educational videos on conferencing and other restorative practices.

---

Important Idea:

If systems are not innately restorative, then they cannot hope to effect change simply by providing an occasional restorative intervention. 
Restorative practices must be systemic, not situational. 

You can’t have a few people running conferences and everyone else doing business as usual.

You can’t have punitive police and restorative courts. 

You can’t be restorative with students, but retributive with faculty.

To reduce the growing negative subculture among youth, to successfully prevent crime and to accomplish meaningful and lasting change, restorative justice must be perceived as a social movement dedicated to making restorative practices integral to daily life.”

(From a paper Restorative Justice in Everyday Life:  Beyond the Formal Ritual presented at the Reshaping Australian Institutions Conference:  Restorative Justice and Civil Society.  The Australian National University, Canberra, February 16 – 18, 1999.  

---

Leading Edge.   Ted Wachtel operates from the conviction that the use of restorative practices builds and restores relationships and community in an increasingly disconnected world.  For that reason, he recently founded the International Institute for Restorative Practices, a non-profit organization which includes not only Real Justice, but also SaferSanerSchools, Good Company and Family Power. These  programs are dedicated to training, consulting and research in restorative practices for schools, workplaces and families.  

---

Reach Ted Wachtel  at   tedwachtel@enter.net

Bibliography