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• 1 2020-11-17T13:28:56+00:00 Background: Mass Incarceration and The Principles of Restorative Justice 27 plain 2020-12-07T15:09:59+00:00

  
  
  
  
  Practices and legal systems created to eliminate harm and crime from communities have existed and developed for centuries. Along with other cultures and nations, Western society has greatly strayed from many humane, traditional and community strengthening methods of crime response and reform and have instead placed priority on punitive actions. Rather than focusing on repairing the harm caused by crime, modern systems of criminal justice approach crime with the primary concern of finding a person or a group of people to place blame upon or a quantitative punishment to sentence, such as a set number of years in prison. 
  
  Relying on mass incarceration to diminish crime is relying on system that fuels the harm it promises to protect society from. Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair, a book written by advocate Danielle Sered, addresses the deep rooted faults which the systems of criminal justice and mass incarceration are built upon. Sered describes how, “On the individual level, violence is driven by shame, isolation, exposure to violence, and an inability to meet one’s economic needs -- factors that are also the core features of imprisonment. This means that the core national violence prevention strategy relies on a tool that has as its basis the central drivers of violence,” (Sered 4). Mass incarceration increases crime rates by increasing the amount of people newly released from prison who are unable to care for themselves and forced to resort to petty or violent crimes in order to survive. Mass incarceration recycles the violence and misfortune that it receives. Without concretely addressing the purposes behind committed crimes, worthy solutions cannot be made and crimes of similar nature will continue to occur.
  
  Robin Levi and Ayelet Waldman, editors of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives From Women's Prisons, acknowledge similar concerns about the system of criminal justice and mass incarceration that are discussed throughout Sered's literature and the SAGES course mentioned in the introduction. Levi and Waldman assert that women’s rights are heavily neglected in the prison system by addressing the system's complete lack of adequate healthcare and brutal shaming, discrimination, and isolation.
  
  In accordance with the beliefs of Sered, Ross London, private attorney, public defender, prosecutor, and professor of criminal justice, addresses the faults of the criminal justice system in his book Crime, Punishment, and Restorative Justice: From the Margins to the Mainstream. London recognizes that many great scholars in his field, including himself, “have managed to create a criminal justice system that transforms innumerable personal misfortunes into yet other calamities,” (London 1). Similar to author and restorative justice practitioner Howard Zehr, London believes that repairing the harm of the crime committed is an essential and central goal of restorative justice. When going through any justice system, London recognizes that repairing harm involves restoring a victim’s trust in society and in their supposed protectors. The process of restoring trust is most successful when the “circle of stakeholders” is expanded and when those harmed are able to have face-to-face dialogue with their willing offenders (London 318). By involving the families of those harmed by crime and those responsible for crime, along with outside community members, the experience of restoration with be enhanced and the trust being rebuilt will be stronger.
  
  
  
  In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice: A Bestselling Book by One of the Founders of the Movement, Zehr eliminates common misconceptions about restorative justice and distinctively states its purpose, foundational principles, and common practices. Zehr believes that justice should focus on the societal and interpersonal dimensions of crime rather than the public dimension that is concerned mainly with the obligations of the state (Zehr 19). Zehr emphasizes the promise restorative justice has to prioritize victims throughout the crime response process while also fully addressing the needs of those who caused harm.

  Restorative justice is not meant to completely take over the criminal justice system, but instead meant to introduce initiates and programs that shift the focus of crime response toward a humane and individualized system and away from mass incarceration's inhumane, impersonal, and punitive system. Restorative justice programs give both those causing harm and affected by harm an opportunity to share their side of the story and advocate for their own needs. Instead of completely isolating offenders, restorative justice allows for all members of the community to stay connected in order to involve as many stakeholders as possible in the process of repairing the harm caused by crime. Restorative justice addresses the reasonings behind crime and why a person was driven to commit the action they did. Acknowledging previous traumas and ending the cycle of victimization holds a central role in restorative justice and the reform of individuals and their communities. 
  
  Below is a Tedx Talks video of Dr. Shannon Silva, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, speaking about restorative justice and how it could be involved in our current criminal justice system.
  
  
  References:

  Levi, Robin, and Ayelet Waldman. Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons. London: Verso, 2017.
  
  London, Ross. Crime, Punishment, and Restorative Justice: From the Margins to the Mainstream. Boulder, CO: FirstForumPress, Inc, 2011.

  Sered, Danielle. Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair. New York, NY: The New Press, 2019.
  
  Zehr, Howard. The Little Book of Restorative Justice: A Bestselling Book by One of the Founders of the Movement. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2014.