Restorative Justice

There exists a Restorative Justice Task Force as part of Family Nonviolence, Inc. in New Bedford. I have been participating in it for about a year.
What is it?
Restorative Justice(RJ) is an alternative to criminal justice. If you go online and look it up you will find web sites to further inform you of its principles and practices.

Briefly RJ is a value based approach to conflict and harm. You can think of it as a conflict resolution mechanism whose goal is to keep some accused of a crime out of the courts. It is victim and offender centered and enables them and members of their families and communities to come together in a structured environment to respond to the harm caused by a crime. It promotes responsibility, reparation, and healing for all parties.

In New Bedford we have been working with Juvenile Court Judge Bettina Borders and with the H.O.P.E. Collaborative to address alternatives to the current methods of handling juvenile crime.
The Judge would like alternatives or diversions for youth who may be able to be kept out of the criminal justice system. There is a Youth Court in New Bedford which appears to be modeled after the criminal system, and we would like additional alternatives to be developed.

While some support this, others are threatened by it. Nevertheless, it can be another approach to keeping out kids out of the criminal justice system. Where it is practiced it has a good track record of reducing recidivism among the participants. ROCA in Chelsea is multi-cultural youth development organization which works with teens using RJ techniques. Suffolk U and Northeastern U Law Schools have RJ centers. Australia and New Zeakand use it country wide. Minnesota and VT use it.

Some of the models/techniques used are: victim-offender conferences, family group conferences, peacemaking circles, and sentencing circles. It takes the court out of the middle between victim and offender.

Hope this informs.

Gloria Clark