Restorative Justice Final
What are the elements of amends and apologies?
-Acknowledgement: taking responsibility -Affect: the person feels bad about what they did -Vulnerability: the power lies in the victim's hands
What were the three committees of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission? How does each represent a restorative value?
-Committee on Human Rights Violation -Committee on Amnesty -Committee on Reparations and Rehabilitation
Example of the three restorative courts
-Peacemaking courts are used to address issues such as conflict, crime and violence. They are conducted with a peacemaker, decisionmaker, others affected, and observers. It is designed to facilitate reconciliation, consensual decisionmaking, and participation from the community. -Sentencing circles are when the people impacted by the crime come together to discuss what happened and create a sentencing plan. -Restorative justice processes, including family group conferencing and victim impact panels
Basics of how Project RESTORE was designed
-RESTORE was created according to victims potential needs -from recommendations from the prosecutor's office - excluded people with repeat offense
What were some of the results of Project RESTORE program?
-more than 90% of participants were satisfied with the results -84% would recommend the program to others
If UMD was to create a restorative option for sexual misconduct/assault cases, describe what you would consider to be 2-3 essential elements in designing such a program
-offender must take full responsibility instead of victim-blaming -must have open dialogue while still being respectful----like a talking piece -the victim gets the choice of what follows in the offense
Differences in the victim-offender conferences in the videos
-Mark Umbreit allowed the victim's family and the offender to discuss more organically and didn't ask many guiding questions while the police officer would use questions to guide the conversation along. -The police officer chooses to address the Pizza Hut employees to start the conversation instead of the family, which is a choice.
From Minow's chapter (Canvas) and our class discussion, what are some of the goals that South Africa had after apartheid? How well did South Africa meet the various goals you described above?
-Reconciliation on both sides -Repairing the harm -Telling the truth not very well at first considering there is still a lot of segregation among people there
From the podcast, what happened in Anwen and Sameer's process that was restorative?
-The needs of Anwen were met, the power of what happened was in her hands -gained understand about what happened and why it occurred -Sameer was able to repair most of the harm through learning processes and speaking instead of the traditional CJS
Similarities in the victim-offender conferences in the videos
-both used a circle keeper to manage the discussion -lots of preparatory work to figure out the needs of the victim's families
Who would you exclude from participating in the RJ process for sexual assault?
-offenders who don't take accountability -repeat offenders
Describe the core of restorative justice in 5 sentences
Restorative justice is a process in which victims can meet with their offender to address the harm that has been caused and help return autonomy to the survivor. This dialogue allows the offender to take accountability for their actions and share their experience of what happened. The conference would then discuss what would the offender need to do to repair the harm caused. Restorative justice allows for healing for both primary victims, secondary victims, and anyone who was harmed by the trauma. Victims are able to explain how the trauma has changed their lives and allows them to be able to share their story.
What is an example of "restorative" approaches in schools?
Using restorative discipline instead of immediately suspending or expelling the student would help reduce the schools to prison pipeline. This could be having the student attend a class on restorative justice and allowing them to speak about what happened. Victim-offender mediation could be used between students to solve problems before they escalate.
example of restorative policing
community-oriented policing where law enforcement works with the surrounding community in order to identify and address problems with community safety and well-being.
What are "restorative courts"?
courts that use restorative justice functions within their processes.
What is restorative policing?
form of policing that focuses on creating safer, more connected communities through restorative justice practices characterized by safety, accountability, sustainability, relationship building, and constructive engagement.
What is an example of "restorative approaches/practives in the corrections/jail/prisons?
Restorative programming → these include victim impact panels and victim-offender dialogue Restorative living → personal application of respect, care, inclusion, and accountability in the offender's everyday life Restorative discipline → a way of approaching problematic behavior by focusing less on how behavior violates rules and more on how it affects other people and relationships; knowing how to discipline oneself and not respond with anger and violence Restorative units and dorms → offenders are allowed to attend dialogues to discuss themes and feelings, they live with other people who have chosen to live restoratively Restorative prisons → creating a restorative prison culture of inclusion, accountability, voluntary consent, and collaboration
