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Rojas Mendoza, Dionisio. 2006. Design of a Restorative Justice Process: Inter-Sectoral Commission for Life and Human RIghts. Barrancabermeja (Colombia). Eastern Mennonite University. Conflict Transformation Program.

This article discusses the possible design of a restorative response to mass violence in Colombia.

Sarkin, Jeremy and Daly, Erin. Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers: Reconciliation in Transitional Societies

With a large number of countries in recent years seeking to make the transition from a period of violence and human rights violations to a more democratic and stable society, the language of reconciliation has become prominent; the pursuit of reconciliation has been touted as the cure for the ills and divisiveness in each country. Jeremy Sarkin and Erin Daly acknowledge both the prevalence and the appeal of the idea of reconciliation. At the same time, they believe that there are serious questions and issues connected with the notion and pursuit of reconciliation, and that these questions and issues are not being adequately considered and addressed by policy makers. Hence, Sarkin and Daly explore certain questions that confront an incipient government in promoting reconciliation as the cure for ills in a transitional society. They first raise broad conceptual questions about reconciliation. This leads to discussion of historical factors fostering reconciliation initiatives, the effectiveness of the pursuit of reconciliation, and mechanisms by which nations pursue reconciliation.

Doyle, Kelly R. Transformative Mediation: Confessions of a Facilitative Mediator and Civil Litigator with Evaluative Tendencies

The purpose of this paper was to discuss whether we need to change the methods we use to mediate to accommodate the concepts and lessons learned from transformative justice and transformative mediation. Each are relatively new concepts and not generally known and accepted in the civil litigation community. Hence, the threshold task is to describe each to the uninitiated and to discuss in particular the potential application of transformative mediation to non-family civil disputes. The goal is to place each squarely on the radar screen of civil litigators. (excerpt)

Acorn, Annalise. Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice

At first, writes Annalise Acorn, restorative justice ideas and practices appealed greatly to her. She had deep misgivings about criminal justice as commonly conceived and applied; especially, as she puts it, with criminal justice as a “conflation of justice with punishment as imprisonment – or as any pure infliction of suffering on the wrongdoer.�? Restorative justice seemed so much more right and worthy as an approach to wrongdoing and injustice. Eventually, however, doubts about restorative justice began to chip away at her initially positive assessment. Her growing skepticism came from several sources, including reflection on her own personal experience, her sense of moral intuition, discomfort with what she perceived as a kind of wishful-thinking “romanticism�? in restorative justice perspectives, and analysis of restorative justice concepts. With all of this in mind, Acorn seeks in this book a critical examination of restorative justice. In particular, she critically assesses the claim that restorative justice can successfully bring together the values of love and compassion, on the one hand, and the requirement of justice and accountability, on the other hand. Toward these ends, she discusses the seductive vision of restorative justice; justice and the teachableness of universal love; restorative optimism; sentimental justice; love and justice; compulsory compassion; and restorative utopias.

Gustafson, Dave. A Story of Victim Offender Mediation

Fraser Region Community Justice Initiative Association (CJI) provides conflict resolution services with a restorative justice focus for a variety of settings in British Columbia including the criminal justice system. David L. Gustafson, the co-director, provides the following story of one of their clients. The story originally appeared in CJIxe2x80x99s 2003-2004 Annual Report.

Lee, Celine. The Power of Engaging Us All In Dialogue

A restorative justice practitioner in British Columbia, Celine Lee has experienced the criminal justice system in a number of ways: victim; victim support worker; victim-offender mediation participant; and criminal justice worker. In all these experiences, she claims she has grown all the more convinced of the power of dialogue. Lee recounts in brief her own journey from being a co-victim after the murders of her mother and sister, including ways in which a victim-offender mediation process helped her deal with the crimes.

Driedger, Otto. Faith Communities Respond to Restorative Justice

While Otto Driedger refers to faith communities "responding" to restorative justice, he contends that they really are not "responding." Rather, faith communities actually gave rise to the modern restorative justice movement. From this perspective, Driedger goes on to point out ways in which churches are involved in applying restorative ideas and practices to crime victims, offenders, and communities. In particular he highlights victim assistance by the Mennonite Central Committee, a video by the Presbyterian Church USA on restorative responses to vandalism and other crimes, a victim offender reconciliation program run by Community Justice Initiatives in British Columbia, community-based chaplaincies for offenders on re-entry, and other church-based structures for accountability and support for ex-offenders.

Haarala, Lloyd. A Community Within

A member and elder of the Anishinaabe of N.W. Angle Band #33, Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Lloyd Haarala is also the native spiritual advisor at William Head Institution, a correctional facility in British Columbia. He tells in this article of a recent Spring Fasting opportunity at William Head Institution. A former inmate nearing the end of his Warrant Expiry Date asked and received permission to live in the facility for the week of fasting to help current inmates. Haarala explains how this exemplifies the value held among First Nations’ people of giving back to their communities. This emphasis on community, also found in restorative justice, is as much a matter of the heart as the head, says Haarala. Further, restorative justice as the importance of family and community should be the norm for society in general, not only when crime or wrongdoing occur.

Drumbl, Mark A. Rights, Culture, and Crime: The Role of Rule of Law for the Women of Afghanistan.

This Article explores the role of rule of law in redressing crimes and human rights abuses committed against the women of Afghanistan. Mainstream discourse approaches the situation binarily, obliging women to choose between international and often distant human rights, on the one hand, or proximate cultural/religious norms, on the other, in order to adjudicate gender crimes. This can lead either to externalized justice or, in the case of the implementation of Afghan local law, to renewed victimization of women in the name of redressing abuses suffered by other women. Local law in Afghanistan is reflected in codes such as the Pashtunwali. The Pashtunwali consists of a blend of custom and practice that emerges from a context of embedded conflict and is filtered through an Islamist lens. The Pashtunwali propounds a restorative approach to human rights abuse in which the abuse is rectified when the family of the abuser transfers money, goods, animals or, preferentially, young girls or women to the family of the abused. Drawing from recent literature on law and culture, this Article posits that custom and culture in Afghanistan as operationalized through the Pashtunwali are politically contingent (and at the moment defined by patriarchal elites) instead of statically or immutably oppressive to women. If thoughtfully constructed, transitional justice institutions can play an important collective role that transcends the adjudication of individual guilt or innocence. They can pluralize the number of domestic actors that contribute to the definition of customary and cultural norms. This implies that transitional criminal interventions could play a democratizing role insofar as they could advance claims by all members of local communities to a right to involve themselves in the formulation of customary law. In the end, this Article links transitional criminal justice to the innovative conception of freedom within culture, instead of freedom from culture. Author’s abstract.

Tonry, Michael. Obsolescence and Immanence in Penal Theory and Policy.

To be useful, theories of punishment must speak to the issues of their times. Predominant modern theories centering on desert and proportionality took shape in the 1970s when they spoke to concerns about racial disparities, procedural unfairness, and beliefs in the ineffectiveness and injustice of rehabilitative programs. None of those concerns continues to galvanize policymakers, practitioners, or the general public. Punishment theories are stuck in the 1970s, speaking still to 1970s issues and unable satisfactorily to address contemporary developments such as burgeoning interest in restorative and community justice, renewed faith in the effectiveness and appropriateness of rehabilitation, and proliferation of drug and other courts aimed at changing offenders. Punishment theories sometimes influence policymakers, and often they clarify understanding of the implications of policy choices. Consequently, there is a need for the development of new theoretical frameworks that can speak to the issues and temper of these times. (author's abstract).

Duff, R. A.. Theories and Policies Underlying Guidelines Systems: Guidance and Guidelines.

Why do sentencing systems require guidelines? This is basically the question R.A. Duff asks at the beginning of this paper. Building on that question, Duff addresses the form that such guidelines should take. In particular, Duff looks at objections to numerical guidelines schemes. This leads to an appeal to an alternative, Aristotelian conception of practical reasoning to argue that a just and rational sentencing system should be based on a discursive rather than numerical set of guidelines. On this basis, Duff discusses how non-custodial sentences – which are central to a humane penal system – can be brought under a guidelines scheme. One way to do this would be to adopt a negotiated sentencing in which the offender participated in the determination of the sentence. This would shift attention to a greater emphasis on the justice of sentencing procedures rather than justice conceived in terms of the sentence apart from the procedures.

Cran, Reginald D.. Restorative Justice Programs for Young Offenders: What Defines Program Success?

Restorative justice has developed from theory into practice. Proponents in the field tout the success of restorative justice programs. Evaluation research has typically provided evidence of high levels of participant satisfaction with restorative justice programs. As evident through the literature, other appropriate benchmarks have not been defined. The goal of this study is to help the Fraser Burrard Community Justice Society located in Coquitlan, British Columbia, determine if their restorative justice program for youth is 'working', and how to go about measuring its 'success'. This study explores how the 'success' of restorative justice has been defined and measured to date, and serves as an initial vital step toward a comprehensive, systematic program evaluation. The findings include that without an understanding of what restorative justice is, what it means, and what the appropriate goals are from various stakeholder perspectives, we can neither measure its effectiveness, nor adequately answer the questions "does it work?" or "is it successful?". The key outcomes of this project are recommendations for determining program success as identified by past program participants. This study provides the Society with information to commence establishing benchmarks to be further developed and tracked though on-going data collection and analysis to examine program success. (author's abstract)

Dhami, Mandeep K. and Joy, Penny. Challenges to Establishing Volunteer-Run, Community-Based Restorative Justice Programs

"In this article we use a case study of the Restorative Justice-Victoria program in British Columbia, Canada, to identify these challenges and suggest how they may be overcome. We focus on: (1) defining and educating the community; (2) creating partnerships with funding and referral agencies; (3) recruiting and training volunteers; and (4) obtaining financial support. The learning that has come from addressing these challenges sheds light on the practical difficulties inherent in supporting a shift from a retributive to a restorative model of justice." (excerpt)

Munro, Randy. Nanaimo Restorative Justice Program.

The Community Justice Forum pre-charge model of Restorative Justice sanctioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) operates under three basic process in British Columbia: 1) The first is police-based, where police officers refer, coordinate, and facilitate. This is a simple, quick, and economical process, often preferred by smaller communities where referrals would be manageable.; 2) In a mid-sized community the program can be community-based, where police refer cases; a community volunteer coordinates the program; and, trained community volunteers facilitate the forums. In this structure, a registered society is usually established to oversee the program; and 3) A third structure, adapted by the Nanaimo Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detachment, is the forming of a partnership with an existing non-profit organization, Nanaimo Region John Howard Society. Trained community volunteers facilitate the forums, monitored by a paid coordinator of the Society. The volume of cases referred in a larger urban area of 85,000 people, such as Nanaimo, required innovative strategies. (excerpt)

Bargen, Catherine. Safe Schools: Strategies for Changing a Culture

Teachers, administrators, and communities are looking for ways to make their schools "safe schools." What, asks Catherine Bargen, does a safe school look like? To make schools safe, many programs are being tried, yet incidents of aggression and violence continue to disrupt and disturb school communities. Bargen maintains that something comprehensive must be done that will encourage a shift in the culture of the way that conflict and punishment are viewed. In this regard, she relates the experience of School District #35 in Langley, British Columbia, and its partnership with Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives to explore how restorative justice principles might affect culture change throughout the local school system.

Parker, Lynette. Encountering Restorativeness: Reflections from Colombia

Restorative justice concepts are ingrained in us as profoundly just ways to deal with conflict. Lynette Parker writes of learning this truth again during conversations with several people in Colombia.

Bargen, Catherine. Safe Schools: Strategies for Changing a Culture

Given trends of increasing violence and harassment in schools, many teachers, administrators, and communities are looking for new, more effective ways of dealing with school conflict. Various policies and programs are being tried - for example, zero tolerance policies, anti-bullying programs, and more - to make schools into "safe schools." Yet all of this raises questions about what a safe school looks like and how it is attained. In this context, Catherine Bargen highlights School District #35 in Langley, British Columbia, a system pursuing safe schools through the application of restorative justice principles to school discipline issues.

Hillian, Douglas and Hackler, Jim and Reitsma-Street, Marge and Hillian, Douglas. Conferencing in the Youth Criminal Justice Act of Canada: Policy Developments in British Columbia

Drawing on principles and practices from the diversion and restorative justice movements in juvenile justice, conferencing is the process that brings selected people together to give advice on decisions regarding the response to a harmful, illegal act committed by a juvenile. The YCJA encourages but does not require conferencing. Conferencing policies and guidelines were drafted within the Youth Justice Policy and Program Support branch of the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development, and these policies were implemented to coincide with passage of the YCJA on April 1, 2003. This discussion of conferencing in British Columbia focuses on six types of conferences: multidisciplinary or integrated management conferences, which involve a meeting of all parties who are working with a juvenile and his/her family for the purpose of developing an integrated service plan; family group restorative conferences, which are designed to bring together a juvenile offender and the person harmed by the offense, along with their respective families and supporters, as well as other key people affected by the harm and relevant community residents; community accountability programs, which are neighborhood programs that accept referrals from police to resolve relatively minor offenses as an alternative to court proceedings; youth justice committees, which act as citizen advisory committees to the youth court; victim-offender reconciliation programs, which bring victims and offenders together with a trained mediator to bring resolution to an offense; and Aboriginal sentencing circles, which involve representatives of the community, the victim, the offender, supporters, and respected elders meeting to determine how an offense should be resolved. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Editor. SFU researchers study anti-violence policies in British Columbia’s public schools

Recent incidents of violence in schools – from bullying to murder – have prompted governments across North America to respond with strict, zero-tolerance policies, including suspension and expulsion of students for a range of aggressive behaviors. Some researchers, however, question such policies. They characterize those responses as “band-aid�? solutions that satisfy parental or community concerns and legal obligations, but do not address the many root causes of youth violence or eliminate youth violence in the long term. Researchers at Simon Fraser University have evaluated intervention programs for youth at risk in schools and communities, and they are currently compiling a comprehensive summary of anti-violence policies and programs in British Columbia schools. On the basis of their work, they argue for multi-level policies and programs – utilizing, for example, community building, peer counseling, and student empowerment – that shift the focus from controlling violent behavior to fostering a culture of respect and caring in schools.

Alberta Justice and Attorney General. The Conditional Sentence of Imprisonment: The Need for Amendment

Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia supported conditional sentences of imprisonment as an effective and appropriate mechanism to divert minor offences and offenders away from the prison system. However, what was intended, by Parliament, as a method to address minor crime without resorting to imprisonment has become, in practice, a sanction used in cases of very serious crime. Offenders are currently receiving conditional sentences of imprisonment for crimes of serious violence, sexual assault and related offences, driving offences involving death or serious bodily harm, and theft committed in the context of a breach of trust. These provinces have agreed to jointly address this issue. To this end, Alberta has prepared this paper. It is not the existence of conditional sentences that is problematic, but rather the use of conditional sentences in cases which should result in actual jail. (excerpt)