Restorative Justice: Refocusing on Stakeholders

Societal Re-entry

Social re-entry is one of the most important aspects of restorative justice. According to Liam Martin, author of “Free but Still Walking the Yard: Prisonization and the Problems of Reentry,” the problems that people released from prison face in society are many and can have major negative impacts. They encounter obstacles while trying to do basic things that they need to survive and make a living in the world, such as being locked out of job opportunities, having difficulty opening bank accounts and finding accommodation. The permanent brand of “ex-con” or felon that people who go through the prison system carry is a direct result of the current criminal justice system’s sweeping labelling of people convicted of crimes as bad and permanently harmful to society. Restorative justice helps to humanize people responsible for wrongdoing through implementing multiple programs, some of which have been mentioned in this project, such as victim-offender mediation and community awareness and engagement. By enabling the community and harmed parties to interact with people while they are still in jail, it helps them to picture them as holistic humans and not just criminals.

Liam Martin says,

“In the days and weeks after release, simply getting used to the basic
routines of social interaction in new environments can be a major obstacle.
Former prisoners do not respond to these problems passively, but continue to
learn and modify their practice—and gradually reshape the habitus—as they
face the demands of the world outside.”

It is the duty of the community to help and support people released from prison in their endeavors to reenter society. This can be done by making the rest of their lives easier by removing obstacles to their wellbeing. This helps to reduce recidivism and enables them to become fully functioning and contributing members of society again, which benefits everyone.

The aim of this project is to help the stakeholders take charge of the situation and help fix what is broken by using means suggested by restorative justice. Therefore, the task of helping to make societal re-entry smooth is in the hands of the people being released from prison and the community they are being released back into. As many concerned members of the community who are dedicated to making a change can be involved.

Below is a path (Making societal re-entry easier)  to our suggested steps to follow to help educate people and ultimately implement changes that will help to make societal reentry easier for all involved. At the end of this, it is our hope that the community and the prisoners would have worked together to come up with achievable and detailed goals to work towards. They would have worked together to decide on what would themselves and each other the most and worked out how to make the necessary changes while being guided by restorative justice principles.

 Making societal re-entry easier

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