Restorative Justice in Today\'s Criminal

Restorative Justice

In today's criminal justice system, breaking the law is seen as a crime, which must be punished through punitive arrangements, such as fines or jail time. However, the National Institute of Justice (2007) writes that this system of criminal justice has been facing many opponents as of late. The Institute (2007) argues that the current operations "works on a premise that ignores the victim and the community that is hurt most by the crime" (para. 3). The focus of the current criminal justice system is the convict, who is forced to face punishment (National Institute of Justice, 2007). Restorative justice is a type of criminal justice that seeks to change this problem by focusing on those who are damaged by the crime and helping the offending to learn from their mistakes. Principals of restorative justice include putting a focus on helping victims first and the community second, in addition to showing the offending his or her "personal responsibility" to his or her victims (National Institute of Justice, 2007). According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections (2008), restorative justice "gives those most affected by crime options for participation in a variety of restorative practices that promote healing" (pg. 1). Restorative justice is based on the belief that healing and the overall good of the community are the greatest goals.

Restorative justice has been entering into the criminal justice conversation more and more in modern times. In the 1990s, the idea of restorative justice began to catch on, at least with some state departments of corrections. Minnesota, for instance, began using restorative justice principals at the beginning of the 1990s, and they were the first state to institute a "full-time RJ planer within a Department of Corrections" (pg. 1). A probation officer restorative justice network, grants for restorative justice practices, and the use of restorative justice in the workplace are just a few of the improvements that this particular state has implemented in order to encourage the positive message of restorative justice. According to Richards (2004), however, the history of restorative justice outside of the specifically named restorative justice procedures that are littered throughout U.S. criminal justice history is difficult to determine. Although she cites work that suggests restorative justice has been around since the dawn of time, she argues that some histories are used as a means to convince others of the importance of restorative justice and, therefore, often exaggerate it to appear like a process that occurs naturally with little work (Richards, 2004). Thus, the history of restorative justice as a whole can be described as lengthy, but murky.