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Biermans, Nadia And d'Hoop, Marie Nathalie. Development of Belgian Prisons into a Restorative Perspective

Biermans and d’Hoop explore in this paper the development of a restorative approach in the Belgian prison system.

Biermans, Nadia. Restorative justice and the prison system

For about two years now, Nadia Biermans, along with others, has been trying to apply restorative justice ideas and practices in Flemish prisons. Based on her experiences, in this paper she raises some questions and makes certain observations about restorative justice in the prison system. She begins by explaining how restorative justice in Belgian prisons began and how it is organized. This leads to discussion of the question of whether restorative justice has a place in prison, the issue of educating and persuading the wider public about restorative justice, and successful ingredients for introducing restorative justice in prisons.

Criminal Justice System (England). Restorative Justice Mapping Exercise of UK Prisons

As part of the Government’s commitment to raise the profile of Restorative Justice (RJ) throughout all Criminal Justice agencies, last July we carried out a mapping exercise involving all establishments to find out how much RJ activity, victim awareness and reparative work is currently taking place. We would like to thank everyone who was involved with the replies. RJ is about managed contact between victims and offenders, in order for victims to get answers to their questions, tell the offender what the real impact of their offending was and receive an apology. Offenders are given the opportunity to make amends for their crime, either to the victim themselves or to the community. The strategy document on RJ, issued in 2003 stated that the Government aims to maximise the use of RJ in the Criminal Justice System as it serves to increase victims’ satisfaction and may reduce re-offending. (excerpt)

Curry, Devinder and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian and Knight, Victoria and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Semenchuk, Mike and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Williams, Brian and Semenchuk, Mike and Patel, Sunita and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian. Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Secure Estate

This research was funded by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales in order to establish the scope of restorative work currently being undertaken within custodial and secure establishments, and to identify and disseminate good practice. It was undertaken by the Community and Criminal Justice Division at De Montfort University, Leicester between 2002 and 2003. The full report describes the use of a range of restorative interventions in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Local Authority Secure Units (LASUs)1 and Secure Training Centres (STCs) (collectively known as the juvenile secure estate). The research aimed to establish the extent to which restorative justice influences the regimes and programmes in secure institutions, as well as to identify good practice that might usefully be replicated elsewhere. (excerpt)

Dinsdale, Jennifer. Restorative Justice in HM Prison Holme House: A Research Paper

The International Centre for Prison Studies initiated the Restorative Prison Project to examine the conceptual framework for imprisonment and to work with the Prison Service in Great Britain to apply restorative principles in the prison setting. One site for this work is HM Prison Holme House in northeast England. In 2001 Jennifer Dinsdale, a graduate student unaffiliated with the Restorative Prison Project, conducted research into the feasibility of restorative schemes in Holme House. She looked particularly at prisoners’ perceptions of the impact of their crimes on their victims, the openness of prisoners to engaging in reparative activities, and prisoners’ perspectives on their relationship to the community outside the prison. This paper reports her research findings.

Eyckmans, David and Dufraing, Dirk and Regelbrugge, Marianne and Dufraing, Dirk. The concept of restorative justice in prison seen from the community and illustrated by the practice of victim-offender mediation

As David Eyckmans, Dirk Dufraing, and Marianne Regelbrugge point out, to understand the topic they address in this presentation, it is important to recognize that Belgium is a federal state consisting of communities and regions. Determination of law and policy in Belgium is shared by the federal government and regional communities and their authorities. The Flemish region is one of those communities. In general, with respect to criminal justice the federal government has responsibility for major functions concerning sanctions and incarceration of offenders. The communities have responsibility more for aid and social services, including those to prisoners and their victims. Since 2000 the federal Minister of Justice has begun to incorporate aspects of restorative justice in prison policy. Against this background, the authors detail the way the Flemish community, in cooperation with federal justice authorities and other organizations, is trying to pursue a restorative initiative toward prisoners and their victims. The authors discuss in this regard the conceptual framework for and outcomes of victim-offender mediation in prison.

Feasey, Simon and Williams, Patrick and Clarke, Rebecca and Williams, Patrick. An Evaluation of the Prison Fellowship Sycamore Tree Programme: based on a statistical analysis of Crime Pics II data.

Within the context of the Sycamore Tree Programme, the questionnaire has been used as an evaluative measure, assessing at both the pre and post programme stages. In doing so a difference measure can be calculated that looks at the degree of change from before to after the programme and therefore can be used to inform about programme impact/effectiveness. Central to the Sycamore Tree programme is the victim empathy area. In this regard, analysis of the V (victim empathy) scale is crucial in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of the Sycamore programme for its participants. (excerpt)

Liebmann, Marian. Restorative Justice and the Prison System in the UK

There has been a recent burgeoning interest in Restorative Justice (RJ) in prisons in the UK, much of it dependent on the enthusiasm of local governors and staff, and the particular circumstances in those prisons. In the UK there are no ‘systematic’ (i.e. regular and predictable, thought out) or ‘systemic’ (i.e. involving the whole prison system) RJ processes which apply to all prisons. Nevertheless it is possible to categorise different forms of RJ, and develop a framework which relates RJ initiatives to different aspects of the prison system and the criminal justice system in general. Initiatives can be categorised by the amount of interface they have with outside bodies, the criminal justice system in general, or the justice system within the prison. This paper is an attempt to do this and to see if such a classification is useful. (excerpt)

Newell, Tim. Restorative Justice in Prisons in England and Wales: Project led by Tim Newell

Restorative principles have an important contribution to make to create safer communities. From the very first contact with the victim to the resettlement of an offender there are opportunities to improve on traditional policy and practice. It is to consider this application of restorative processes in the Prison Service that the project has been set up, led by Tim Newell, from October 2001 till March 2002. As well as having a direct application to the considerations implicit in the recommendations of the Halliday Report concerning sentencing the work of restorative justice addresses many of the newly stated Purpose and Aims of the Home Office. (excerpt)

Newell, Tim. Restorative Justice in Prisons: The Possibility of Change

Tim Newell served as a prison governor in England for over three decades. Retired from the Prison Service, he now works as a restorative justice facilitator. In this paper, he reports on a six month project he carried out as a Cropwood Fellow (a program of the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University) on the potential of restorative practice in prisons. Specifically, through this project he examined the extent to which concepts of restorative justice, developed in community settings, can be applied in custodial settings. After defining restorative justice, he discusses some characteristics of correctional systems, the nature of his project and research method, and key results of his research.

Transforming Offenders in England and Wales.

The Sycamore Tree Project® is an intensive in-prison programme that brings groups of victims into prisons to meet with unrelated offenders.They talk about the effects of crime, the harms it causes, and how to make things right. Prison Fellowship of England and Wales implemented the programme in 1998. In this article, Peter Walker, executive director, offers a description of the programme and examples of its impact.

van Laarhoven, Elly. At That Moment We Saw the True Face of the Child: Youth Justice Conferences in a Juvenile Prison

Youth justice conferences in prisons not only offer benefits to victims, offenders, and their families and social network, but also have a positive impact on the prison atmosphere. Prison staff reported positive results. They suddenly saw offenders in the context of their crime and relational network and discovered a vulnerable side of offenders who expressed feelings of guilt, shame and remorse. Conferences also gave parents an active role in the reconciliation process. The sheer offer of a youth justice conference seemed to give opportunities to speak more freely about morality with the offenders. This happened in individual talks with youth, but also among the offender in peer contacts. Author's abstract