As mentioned in the Background: Mass Incarceration and The Principles of Restorative Justice section “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 rather than mass incarceration's inhumane and impersonal system.” To keep our current system but shift it in a way that supports restorative justice practices means that all those involved must have an understanding of restorative justice and proper training. This includes all prison staff, parole officers, case workers, police officers, judges, prison maintenance workers, and any other persons working with or around harmed and responsible parties.

Howard Zehr emphasizes in his chapter on restorative principles, that “justice involves victims, offenders, and community members in an effort to repair the harm, to ‘put things right.’” (Zehr, 30) Without proper training with those who are in direct contact with the stakeholders, restorative justice will never have the ability to make right. This is emphasized in the text Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons, which reveals narratives of women who were formally or currently incarcerated. In the narratives, there is an outrageous display of human rights violations against these women, for instance, formerly imprisoned Francesca Salavieri says:

 “Never before had I been in the criminal justice system. My psychiatric evaluation came back and it said I had diminished capacity, but when I went to court, I realized they were going to try it as a criminal case. Even though I had gone to rehab from the street with a diagnosis of dissociative disorder and borderline personality, the judge looked at me and said, ‘You look fine to me.’” (Levi & Waldman, 140)

The lack of humanity displayed towards Salavieri after her psychiatric evaluation emphasizes that individuals in contact with harmed or responsible parties need to be properly trained in restorative justice practices if they ever want to make right. As Zehr mentions:

“The obligation to put right is first of all the responsibility of those who have caused the harm. However, the community may have responsibilities as well- to those harmed, but perhaps also to those causing harm. For those responsible for the harm to successfully carry out their obligations, they may need support and encouragement from the wider community.” (Zehr, 39)

In other words, the people involved with harmed and responsible parties have a responsibility for the circumstances that cause or motivate crime or harm to be done. This means, in order to have taken a restorative justice approach to Salavieri’s case, the judge would have tried to understand why her psychiatric evaluation came back as diminishing in correlation to why she ended up in the criminal justice system for the first time in order for her to make right.

Beyond implementing training for those working with harmed and responsible parties, it is also important for the obverse to occur. Harmed and responsible parties should also be made aware of the positions in which others are working in order to create mutual understanding of their roles and responsibilities in order to help them, ultimately, make right. Although this has not been emphasized specifically in texts, it does illuminate a signpost of restorative justice laid out by Zehr, “Show respect to all parties- those harmed, those who harmed, their friends and loved ones, and justice colleagues.” (Zehr, 52)

Below, under Contents, are paths of training for both 1) staff who are working with harmed and responsible parties and 2) harmed and responsible parties working with staff in order to create a system for mutual understanding which will shift current criminal justice practices to emphasize a restorative justice approach.

References:

Levi, Robin, and Ayelet Waldman. Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons. London: Verso, 2017.

Zehr, Howard. The Little Book of Restorative Justice: a Bestselling Book by One of the Founders of the Movement. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2014.