Quakers in Criminal Justice Conference

22-24 February 2013

 Marian Liebmann

Restorative Justice: A practice whose time has come

Definition of Restorative Justice

Restorative processes bring those harmed by crime or conflict, and those responsible for the harm, into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward.

(Restorative Justice Council, UK 2012)

Principles of Restorative Justice

• Victim support and healing is a priority

• Offenders take responsibility for what they have done

• Dialogue to achieve understanding

• Attempt to put right the harm done

• Offenders look at how to avoid future offending

• The community helps to re-integrate both victim and offender

Importance of Restorative Justice

We have a punitive system:

• Prisons full to bursting

• Prisoners re-offend very quickly

• Victims’ needs are not met

Processes of Restorative Justice

• Victim-offender mediation – bringing victim & offender together

• Restorative conferencing – larger groups using ‘script’

• Family group conferencing – family private time

• Victim-offender groups – e.g. burglary victims and burglars

• Reparation – putting things right for victim or community

Benefits of Mediation/ Conferencing - Victims

• Put a face to the crime

• Ask questions of the offender

• Express their feelings

• Receive an apology/ reparation

• Educate offenders about the effects of their offences

• Sort out any conflicts

Benefits of Mediation/ Conferencing - Offenders

• Own the responsibility for their crime

• Find out the effect of their crime

• Apologise and/or offer reparation

• Reassess future behaviour

Benefits of Mediation/ Conferencing – Courts and Community

Courts:

• Learn about victims’ needs

• Make more realistic sentences

Communities:

• Accept apologies and reparation

• Help reintegrate victims and offenders

Brief History of RJ in UK

• 1964-79 Start of victim services: compensation and Victim Support.

• 1983-90s Victim-offender mediation with adults (probation), and expansion of community mediation (NGOs) - no legislation.

• 1995-now Growth of RJ with young people. Criminal justice acts 1998 & 1999 introduced some RJ.

• 2008-9 Youth Restorative Disposal (pilot in 8 police areas)

• 2001-2010 Some (muted) interest in RJ with adults. Reports, big research project 2001-7, criminal justice act 2003.

• 2010-now New interest from Coalition Government. Training grants for YOTs (Referral Panel members), probation, prisons, neighbourhood justice panels.

Fields of Restorative Justice in the UK

• Youth Offending Teams

• Police

• Schools & children’s homes

• Adults

• Prisons

Youth Offending Teams

Opportunities for Restorative JusticeCrime & Disorder Act 1998

• Final Warning; Reparation Order; Action Plan Order; Supervision Order; Detention & Training Order

Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act 1999

• Referral Order and Youth Offender Panels

Criminal Justice & Immigration Act 2008

• Youth Rehabilitation Order with ‘menu’ of options

YOTs: Different Arrangements for RJ

• RJ team within the YOT

• Victim contact workers

• Link with community mediation services (NGOs)

• Community reparation only

• Victim involvement varies from 10% to 70%

• RJ in children’s homes

Case Study (YOT)

Smashed milk crate

Police involvement in RJ

Police diversion pilot

• Youth Restorative Disposal – diversion pilot 2008-9 in 8 police areas involving RJ

• First (minor) offence

• Evaluated 2011: positive results

• Spread to 25 more police forces

• A few also include adults

• Neighbourhood Justice Panels: 15 pilot areas, now 100 schemes

RJ in Schools

History:

• 1980 Conflict resolution work in schools, leading to peer mediation schemes

• 1995 First police-based RJ in schools

• 1999-now YOTs take RJ into schools

Work being done:

• Conflict resolution lessons

• Peer mediation

• Restorative conferencing for bullying & exclusions

RJ with Adults in the Community

Criminal Justice Act 2003

• Conditional caution; Deferred sentence; Community sentence

Lack of resources meant little RJ took place except:

• Thames Valley Restorative Justice Service (probation)

New initiatives 2012

• Neighbourhood Justice Panels (volunteers) based on Somerset model

• Training for prisons and probation

• Proposed legislation for deferred-sentence RJ and as part of sentence for first-time offenders

Community mediation services – conflict between neighbours or in community

Case Study (Adult)

Aggravated burglary

RJ in Prisons – Making Amends

• Community service projects – e.g. mending bikes

• Victim awareness (e.g. Sycamore Tree) – Prison Fellowship

• Victim-offender groups – e.g. burglary victims & burglars

• Victim-offender mediation/ conferencing – direct meetings

• SORI project (Cardiff Prison & others) – victim awareness & victim-offender groups

RJ in Prisons – Relationships in Prison

• Conflict resolution skills

• Adjudications using mediation/ conferencing

• Prisoner conflicts

• Staff-prisoner conflicts

• Training prisoners as mediators

Case Study (Prison)

Robbery at petrol station

RJ in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland

• 1969 Children’s Hearings

• 1987 Victim-offender mediation for adults (3 projects, still exist)

• 2006 RJ for young people widely available

Northern Ireland

• 1998 Loyalist and Republican RJ schemes after ceasefire

• 2002 Northern Ireland Youth Conferencing Service – RJ the norm

New fields for RJ

• Domestic violence - Cardiff Prison- Daybreak Project Hants & Greenwich

• Rape cases- Denmark scheme- Jo Nodding in UK

• Social Care- Children’s homes & foster care- Elderly people’s care

Restorative Justice Council

• Membership organisation

• Quality assurance – practitioners’ & trainers’ registers

• CPD courses

• Resources library

• Publish ‘Best Practice’, quarterly ‘Resolution’, monthly bulletin

• Restorative Services map

• Stories of RJ cases

• Advocacy re RJ

RJ in UK: Summary of Current Situation

• JuvenilesEngland & Wales: Youth Restorative Disposals; Referral Orders; Reparation Orders; Youth Rehabilitation Orders; Children’s homesScotland: Children’s Hearings + RJNorthern Ireland: Youth Conferencing Service

• Adults in community England & Wales: Thames Valley Probation; Neighbourhood Justice Panels; training being rolled out to othersScotland: 3 projects

• PrisonsCommunity service projects; Victim awareness; A few mediation/ conferencing projects; training being rolled out to others

• SchoolsGrowing number of schools; moves towards Restorative Cities

Developments in process

• Deferred sentences – amendment to crime bill agreed, guidance still to be worked out.

• Current training for probation & prisons – but all non-core NOMS functions (including RJ) to be outsourced.

• Neighbourhood Justice Panels – many different models

• Community Remedy proposed – victims choose from locally-compiled list of punishments – RJ could be one of these.

Worldwide Statements

European Union Council Framework Decision (2001)

• Each Member State to implement victim-offender mediation by March 2006

UN Resolution 2002

• Encourages Member States to draw on RJ principles, disseminate them and help other States to develop programmes

RJ in Europe

• Most European countries have had RJ provision for years

• European Forum for Restorative Justice formed in 2000

Does RJ work?

• General evidence on RJ mostly very encouraging

• Victim and offender satisfaction

• Reduces post-traumatic stress symptoms for victims

• Results for recidivism mostly positive, though somewhat variable

• Important to ensure schemes studied are truly restorative

• Meta-analyses now available give more reliable data

• Confidence in RJ if follow good practice guidelines

(Sherman & Strang: RJ: The Evidence 2007)

Conclusion

Dame Helen Reeves (Victim Support)

‘Restorative justice can only be called restorative if the victim is actually involved in initiatives to help restore

them.’ (2003)

Some Questions

• Rival views of RJ?

• Re-inventing the wheel? Overlap between Neighbourhood Justice Panels and Community Mediation – and other initiatives

• Take-over by a few large training providers?

• Redundancies in YOTs and privatising Probation – how will this affect implementation?

Contact details

Dr Marian Liebmann52 St Albans RoadBristol BS6 7SHUK

Tel/fax: +44 117 942 3712E-mail:marian@liebmann.org.uk