Community

While much of the growth of restorative justice in Europe has been at the initiative of governmental agencies, community groups have also played a role.

. "Restorative prison" projects in Hungary.

The Hungarian "restorative prison" projects has nothing to do with the procedure-oriented restorative practices. Instead, these programmes do not involve the party directly injured by the crime but offer a chance to convicts who show remorse to make amends while they serve their prison term. The inmates make reparations to the local community, which is indirectly affected by the crime (due to the violation of the law), and not to the specific and directly injured party, the victim. This means that instead of providing compensation for the specific injury they caused, the criminals improve the local community's life by producing useful and visible results.The common qualities of good practice that enable the prison to be a part of the host town's or area's life are presented below. (excerpt)

. Restorative practices in Hungary: An ex-prisoner is reintegrated into the community.

As the representative of Community Service Foundation of Hungary, the Hungarian affiliate of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), I participated in a group session of the Hungarian Crime Prevention and Prison Mission Foundation in summer 2009 (Sycamore Tree Project — www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/introduction — or Zacchaeus Program in Hungary). There I met the governor of Balassagyarmat prison, where inmates were working in groups on issues related to their crimes and exploring ways to repair relationships they had damaged. Some inmates began accepting responsibility for what they had done and were motivated to make things right and earn forgiveness of victims and their families. Prisoners made symbolic reparation in the form of community service within the prison, but there was still a lot to do to create opportunities for offenders to make contact with victims and shed the stigma of their offense by means of direct reparation. Also, prison management believed it important to support processes,acceptable to victimized families and communities, to help prisoners regain control of their lives and prevent reoffending.(excerpt)

Bakker, Inge and Terpstra, Jan. Justice in the Community in The Netherlands: Evaluation and Discussion

In an attempt to find answers to the growing crime and nuisance in multi-problem urban areas, the Dutch Government introduced pilot projects in four cities in 1997 referred to as "Justice in the Community" (JiC) projects. The Ministry of Justice in 1999 stated that the goal of the JiC was the "promotion of ‘objective and subjective safety’ in urban neighborhoods." The program works by uniting criminal justice and other organizations in the fight against urban crime problems and by increasing the visibility of the Public Prosecution within the community. There are three main types of JiC's: settlement of criminal cases, prevention and extra-judicial activities, and contribution to local policy networks. Generally, the JiC scheme creates rapid interventions and settlements of criminal cases by employing the use of integrated and extra-judicial responses to crime and by employing a range of mediation programs. The JiC scheme also incorporates the victims of crimes as integral members of the criminal justice process. Despite the lofty goals of JiC, the evaluation results did not illustrate that the JiC programs resulted in higher levels of "objective and subjective safety" within the neighborhoods where they were employed. Despite the shortcomings of the JiC scheme in terms of levels of safety, the scheme has shown success in forging partnerships and legitimizing information sharing among agencies. It will be instructive to see how the JiC expands its use of the instruments of criminal justice for the sake of effectiveness without the express legal authority to do so. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org

Community Mediation and Community Development In Scotland

Over 3000 community conflicts in Scotland are resolved through Community Mediation each year. The NGO Sacro has developed a series of manuals for developing a Community Mediation service. The final manual addresses the role of community mediation in fostering community development. In this article, Ian McDonough, mediation adviser for Sacro, provides an overview of the manual with a link to the full-text.

Community Restorative Justice Ireland. Standards & values of restorative justice practice

This paper presents minimal benchmarks of practice for community restorative justice. Section I identifies standards of community restorative practice for programs, participants, and communities. Section II identifies fundamental concepts and values of community restorative justice practice: the meaning of crime; obligations and liabilities; and the goals of justice.

Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland – An Overview

Community restorative justice programmes developed in Northern Ireland as an alternative to punitive "self-policing" by the IRA and Loyalist groups. In this article, Brian Gormally, a practitioner working in Northern Ireland, provides an overview of the development of community restorative justice initiatives, their importance to the community, and the obstacles they are encountering.

Creating Alternatives in Northern Ireland.

Haunted by a history of violence, Northern Ireland communities have increasingly explored restorative responses to crime as an alternative to punishment violence used by paramilitary groups. In 1998, Greater Shankill Alternatives (Alternatives) was created to help young offenders learn the impact of their behaviour on themselves, their victims, and their community.

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.

Gesko, Sandor. Community mediation in Hungary.

After the political changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hungary experienced such developments that fundamentally transformed the values of certain groups of society and their relationships with other groups. This was a common phenomenon in the region. The well-known and familiar relationships of the past, which had been positive and negative but nevertheless had specifically defined the position of various groups in relation to each other, started to deteriorate. (excerpt)

Gormally, Brian. Community Restorative Justice – a new bridge between state and people?

In Northern Ireland community restorative justice projects have been an important part of the peace process.

Koval, Roman. Forming a Ukrainian model of restorative justice.

Restorative justice was introduced in Ukraine in 2004 through a pilot programme run by the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground (UCCG) in Kiev. The pilot programme succeeded in establishing a working partnership with the judicial system, developing a mechanism for co-operation with the courts and training a cadre of specialists in victim-offender mediation (VOM). Due to the achievements made during the pilot programme, the UCCG was encouraged by representatives of the legal system and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to expand the project to other regions of Ukraine. Since the summer of 2004, VOM programmes have been developed in five regions of the country. Co-operating with state and legal institutions in each region, Ukrainian NGOs have developed a variety of mechanisms to implement restorative justice programmes. These activities have had a significant impact. (excerpt)

Lemonne, Anne and Snare, Annika. Restoration and Alternative Solution of Conflicts

This article focuses on the backgrounds of and arguments presented by both the maximalist model and the community empowerment models, within the restorative justice movement. The maximalist model, discussed using the United States’ death row as an example, includes programs designed to establish mediation between offenders and their victims in a prison setting. The community empowerment model demonstrates a shift away from empowering the criminal justice system towards empowering local communities in order to manage conflict resolution. Illustrated by discussing the Norwegian community mediation boards, this article addresses the ways that the divergent models of community empowerment and maximalism coexist within the restorative justice movement.

McEvoy, Kieran and Mika, Harry. Punishment, Policing and Praxis: Restorative Justice and Non-Violent Alternatives to ParaMilitary Punishments in Northern Ireland

During the most recent three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, the linitations of the Royal Ulster Cibstabulary's (RUC) policing of local working class communities has seen the parallel evolution of violent paramilitary systems of 'punishment attacks' and banishments. This paper explores the factors which underpin such punishment. It considers the relationship to the formal justice system and offers a critical analysis of the potential for Restorative Justice Theory and practice to provide non-violent community based alternatives to such violent punishments.

Norway builds the world's most humane prison

But how restorative is it? from William Lee Adams' article in Time: Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn't tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual."

Police apologise over child murders probe

from the article on BBC News: Scotland's largest police force has apologised for a series of failures in its handling of a double child murder. Strathclyde Police said that it was "extremely sorry" for the way Giselle Ross was treated after the deaths of her sons, Paul, six, and Jay, two. The children were murdered by their father Ashok Kalyanjee at a beauty spot in the Campsie Fells in May 2008.

Restorative justice: making neighbourhood resolution panels work

from the article by Keith Cooper in the Guardian: The coalition pledge to boost communities' crime fighting power is due to take a big step forward next year. By March 2012, the Ministry of Justice hopes to announce the first group of officially endorsed neighbourhood resolution panels. These will usher in a new era of "restorative-justice", allowing panels of volunteers – including offenders and victims – to decide how low level crimes should be dealt with. Proceedings will be overseen by a trained member of the public instead of a magistrate or judge; lawyers are barred. The panels conclude with a signed agreement to which all parties agree.

Restorative practices in Hungary: An ex-prisoner is reintegrated into the community

from the article by Vidia Negrea: As the representative of Community Service Foundation of Hungary, the Hungarian affiliate of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), I participated in a group session of the Hungarian Crime Prevention and Prison Mission Foundation in summer 2009 (Sycamore Tree Project — www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/introduction — or Zacchaeus Program in Hungary). There I met the governor of Balassagyarmat prison, where inmates were working in groups on issues related to their crimes and exploring ways to repair relationships they had damaged. Some inmates began accepting responsibility for what they had done and were motivated to make things right and earn forgiveness of victims and their families. Prisoners made symbolic reparation in the form of community service within the prison, but there was still a lot to do to create opportunities for offenders to make contact with victims and shed the stigma of their offense by means of direct reparation. Also, prison management believed it important to support processes, acceptable to victimized families and communities, to help prisoners regain control of their lives and prevent reoffending.

The Politicisation of Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland

Community restorative justice programmes in Northern Ireland developed in an atmosphere of conflict and distrust of formal justice institutions. Recently, their informal community base has been a point of contention as these programmes have sought governmental funding. Anna Eriksson, of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice Queen’s University of Belfast, describes this politicisation of community restorative justice in Northern Ireland.

Wright, Martin. Neighbor and Peer Mediation Help to Preserve Social Order.

First, I will describe our experience of neighbor mediation in Lambeth, in south London about how it was established and how it works, with some examples. Then you can consider whether this approach is relevant in your circumstances. Next, I will say a few words about mediation in schools. Then I will suggest some reasons why the hypothesis is a reasonable one, and I will outline the ideals on which this practice is based, ending with a vision for the future. (excerpt)