[pf] Restorative Justice - an essay by Rev. Jim Consedine

[contains: "Transformative and restorative processes provide opportunities
for accountability, apology, personal and collective responsibility and
healing to occur. The current criminal justice system doesn't. We must
challenge any criminal justice process or prison system that dehumanises
people ..." ]

By - Jim Consedine [see note at bottom.  D.]

Introduction; January 2000

    Recently I had the opportunity to go on a lengthy lecture tour of
Mexico, Canada and the United States. As the tour progressed, my thinking
on restorative justice evolved as did my speech notes. I arrived home with
some of the following as my 'final' version. 
    We need to reassess our understanding of crime and ask why it is that
corporate crime and governmental crime advance virtually unhindered, while
localised street crime has become central to so many. The answer lies
somewhere in the mixed realm of our own hidden fears and our sense of
powerlessness in the face of crime. But the immense power of corporate
vested interests who gain so much from the current situation and control so
much of what we view and read is also a huge obstacle to counter. Nightly
multiple crime stories on TV 'news' and serial cop and lawyer shows present
a formidable barrage of propaganda which conditions us all.
    Corporate crime is endemic the world over. It hits us in so many ways:
from the added-on costs in our supermarkets to the pollutants in the air we
breathe, from the hidden cost of our banking and financial systems to the
costs of medicines we take for our illnesses. The tentacles of corporate
crime touch all these areas and many more. For example, through false and
misleading advertising, just one tobacco company arguably kills and injures
more people than all the street thugs put together. The New York Times
claimed in an editorial 'that 400,000 Americans die annually from tobacco'
(23 September 1999). We can assume that Third World tobacco deaths would
double that figure. This is more than one million deaths per year. Is this
not huge global crime? Are not many of these deaths preventable homicide?
Will anyone go to prison for them? Not likely.
    In Canada that same week, five companies in a world bulk vitamin cartel
pleaded guilty to rigging Canadian markets over a period of years. They
artificially inflated by up to 30% the price of bread, cereals, milk and
other products. This theft cost every Canadian an average of $10. The
companies pleaded guilty and were fined $88 million. This is probably about
one fifth of the profits accrued in that time. No one went to prison yet
they stole from several million people.
    The World Bank estimates that over one billion workers in Third World
countries live on an income of less than one dollar per day. (World Bank
Development Report, 1995). We are all complicit in this sin because we know
that such starvation wages enable us all to benefit and buy their products
for ridiculously low prices. At the same time as we put huge profits into
corporate coffers. This dirty system involves huge criminal offending
against one sixth of the world's population and their families. Does anyone
ever get charged with or go to prison for stealing from such workers? Am I
truly my brother and sister's keeper? Not really, it seems.
    Governmental crime is taken for granted. The Iraqi people continue to
be punished by the US Government and its allies, including New Zealand, for
a war that was not of their making. The sanctions, which inflict
malnutrition, disease and death on tens of thousands of children and poor
families every year, may be legal, but they are highly immoral. The NATO
bombing of Serbia, the Russian bombing of Chechen and Indonesia's slaughter
in East Timor are three further examples of massive crime by governments
within the past year alone. Will any government officials ever be charged
over such genocidal criminal behaviour? Of course not.
    Most of these cases of corporate and governmental crime are perfectly
legal, but fail every test of morality that seeks to promote justice and
protect the Common Good. Too often ever increasing profit is the sole
criteria for corporate and governmental policies. The rights of workers,
their families and the needs of the wider community for gainful employment
are ignored. As corporations focus on cheap labour markets and build in
economic tax free zones, they undermine any sense of solidarity, provide
little protection for human rights and use the poor as disposable fodder to
make even more money for an already rich elite. Such a system clearly
constitutes huge crime and exploitation against millions of workers. But
most of it is perfectly legal. Such is the gap so often between law and
morality. Ask the WTO protesters in Seattle.
    The point I am making is that crime is far bigger and more pervasive
than we normally perceive. There is huge crime committed at governmental,
corporate, as well as street level. It is only the street level crime that
the media and the wider public focus upon. It is for street level crime
that prisons are built. With exceptions, it is for street level crime that
the vast apparatus of the criminal justice system is primarily employed. It
is time we started asking why this is so. Is the corporate agenda and the
power of money so strong that even the justice system, one of the most
sacred of societal structures, now primarily a puppet in their hands? More
and more are now saying 'yes' to this understanding. They are seeing that
it is primarily the economically poor who are going to prison and it is for
the poor that new prisons are being built.

In the New Millennium

    What are some options for the future? There are six alternatives that
readily come to mind which, if expanded and properly resourced, would
reduce re-offending, help offenders take responsibility for their
behaviour, produce better more healing results for victims, offenders and
the community, make our communities healthier and safer, and be much more
affordable.

1 DIVERSION. We need to look at the price of criminalising so many. Even
when people have broken the law, why do they usually have to be prosecuted
and criminalised? What positive purpose does it serve? In Japan, two thirds
of all arrested people are diverted. They never come to court. Other
options involving apology and restitution are taken. Diversion is a sign of
maturity, of wisdom, of imagination. Whether it has to remain in the hands
of the police and be used only for first offenders is questionable. . An
outside agency might bring a more positive perspective to diversion. 

2 WELLNESS CENTRES. Following a government inquiry which reported in 1989,
the New Zealand Government established a series of habilitation or wellness
centres. The concept is based on the premise that the vast majority of
offenders need to deal with their aggression, their sexual aberration,
their drug, gambling or alcohol addictions, if they are going to make
useful crime-free futures for themselves. The concept recognises that many
have had little opportunity in the past for such development. The
recommendation from the Commission of Inquiry was that as soon as an
offender had been sentenced to a custodial term, that person be given the
option of going to prison or a wellness centre to face their problems and
deal to them during their actual sentence. It was recognised that most
inmates needed an incentive to change. Engaging in habilitative processes
during their sentences away from the harsh prison culture was regarded as
the best way forward.

Using the term 'wellness' instead of 'habilitation' has made the
presentation of this concept much easier in North America and Europe. Eyes
light up when the concept is used. Are we at a point where we should use
the word interchangeably with habilitation? 

3 VICTIM/OFFENDER FACILITATION and COMMUNITY PANELS. The former is a
well-tried process on both sides of the Atlantic and involves a facilitated
conference between the immediate victim and the offender. It has its
limitations but can be very effective in some moderate and minor cases of
offending. Community panels using a restorative approach can also be very
useful. The Timaru experience is evidence of this.

4 RESTORATIVE CONFERENCING. This is the jewel in the New Zealand crown. For
the past 10 years New Zealand has had mandatory conferencing for its
juvenile offenders. This process involves a meeting convened by a skilled
facilitator to which the victims and the offenders are invited. Both are
encouraged to bring family and friends in support. At the conference,
apology is given, explanations made as to why the offence occurred and
reparation discussed. The victims are encouraged to express how the
experience has affected them and have any questions answered. It is
important for them to be acknowledged, to be offered apology, to receive
restitution, to experience justice, to have basic fears allayed and
questions answered. Usually consensus is reached as to what to recommend to
the judge. The offender signs the contract. Judges accept 93% of such
contracts and most are fulfilled. No conviction is entered. In the 10 years
from 1989 to 1998, the numbers of young offenders appearing before the
courts has dropped from 8193 to 4210. It is amazing how contrite and shamed
most young offenders are after hearing of the effects of their actions on
their victims. Most youth prisons and detention centres have closed, though
some violent youthful offenders continue to be imprisoned.

    The secret of the New Zealand success lies in the 'carrot and stick'
approach, which forms part of restorative philosophy. The key to this is
that all participants work out a recommended conference plan to which all
must agree if at all possible. . This is the incentive, the carrot, which
encourages offenders to front up and take responsibility for what they have
done. They get the chance to participate in a reparative outcome. The
principle incentive for victims lies in the recognition and acknowledgement
of the pain they have experienced. They get to hear an apology and to get
answers to such questions as 'why me?' 'Will it happen again?' Under the
current retributive system, victims get virtually nothing.

    The key to successful conferences and change involves participation and
encounter between the parties. It is the dynamics of the group which
provide the energy for the whole process. Anything which impedes this basic
movement reduces the chances of real responsibility being taken by
offenders, which in turn inhibits the possibilities for real change and
future accountability. Within the actual conference itself and the dynamics
of it lie the greatest potential for real change and real growth. This is
why professionals other than the facilitator need to take a back seat.

    Conferences now take place in many cities and towns across New Zealand
with adult offenders and victims. A growing number of judges are open to
this process. A fifty-case pilot scheme is about to commence in West
Auckland. Adult conferencing offers the most productive and holistic way
forward for all parties and with less peer pressure and more maturity than
youth, should work even better with adults.

5 TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE PROCESSES. These include much of what is
recommended in restorative conferencing, but take into account wider
background issues. These also recognise that crime is far wider than
usually imagined and that corporate and governmental crime is endemic
across the world. For all that, it recognises 'street crime' as important
and that the transformative conference creates an opportunity to address it
and wider related issues. These might include inter-generational abuse,
violence, addiction and poverty. They may look at the resources available
or otherwise in the community to help people, the opportunities for
employment and constructive living, the need for the wider community to
take some responsibility for its health and well-being. For example, if a
town has only three bars and no sports teams, no recreation centre and no
employment opportunities, it is likely to have more alcohol related crime
than if it did have these facilities. The transformative process can be a
vehicle for community growth and development in ways that will bring out
the best qualities of many in the community. The offending can be a trigger
to convene such a gathering.

6 AMNESTY. With the celebration of a Christian Year of Jubilee in the year
2000, it is appropriate to speak of the biblical injunction that Jubilee be
celebrated by 'proclaiming liberty throughout the land.' (Leviticus 25)
While there has been a wonderful world-wide concentration on the abolition
of Third World debt, the idea of Jubilee was that people be given a fresh
start. Jubilee recognised that from time to time we need to step outside
the usual laws governing society and think laterally, so that compassion,
justice and generosity could be better practised. 

    One does not need to be Christian to understand the importance of the
concept of amnesty. In recent months Morocco, Thailand, France and Jordan
have all offered amnesty to groupings of prisoners in order to honour
either the birthday of the King or the country's national day. To celebrate
the millennium, South Korea released one million prisoners. It is a concept
well known in history, yet sadly regarded as unthinkable by many in New
Zealand.

Conclusion

    Transformative and restorative processes provide opportunities for
accountability, apology, personal and collective responsibility and healing
to occur. The current criminal justice system doesn't. We must challenge
any criminal justice process or prison system that dehumanises people or
fails to treat them with dignity and respect. Thus the common good of all
would be enhanced, better social justice delivered and safer communities
built.

Rev. Jim Consedine has for 22 years been a prison chaplain in Christchurch.
He is the national co-ordinator of the Restorative Justice Network and an
author of two books on restorative justice.

Footnotes.

1)    The Trust deed of the Nelson Restorative Justice Trust was signed
today. Its intent is to see an adult conferencing process established for
the Nelson region. This is a process that will see offenders meeting with
their victim together with their respective support people and a
facilitator and reaching a consensus about appropriate action. With the
support of the judiciary and judging by the success of the process in other
centres it will mean many offenders staying out of the prison system.
  Any enquiries contact: 
<mailto:bdyer@prout.org.nz>bdyer@prout.org.nz

2)    An International conference on Penal Abolition is to be held in
Toronto from May 10th to 13th.   Speakers include Jim Consedine, Angela
Davis, David Korten, John McMurtry, Michael Chossudovsky.  Enquiries:    
<mailto:ritten@interlog.com>ritten@interlog.com

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sent on by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
 or better: http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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