Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Restorative Justice Practices: ?s for responsible person & for affected person



Restorative Justice Practices
Have you or someone you know ever been harmed by another?
What is the process to involve participants to “repair the harm”?

 “For informal justice to be restorative justice, it has to be about restoring victims, restoring offenders, and restoring communities.” J.  Braithwaite 


Following questions developed by International Institute for RESTORATIVE PRACTICES  iirp.edu                                         

Restorative Questions I: of  responsible person: To respond to challenging behavior
What happened?
What were you thinking of at the time?
What have you thought about since?
Who has been affected by what you have done?  In what way?
What do you think you need to do to make things right?

Restorative Questions II: of affected person: To help those harmed by other’s actions
What did you think when you realized what had happened?
What impact has this incident had on you and others?
What has been the hardest thing for you?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?                                       Restorative Works.net


Restorative Justice Practice is "peace building" instead of "peacemaking,” conflict "transformation" rather than conflict "resolution."  Slogan: “Conflict is opportunity; don’t waste it.”            

Howard Zehr shares "Restorative Justice Three's":

3 assumptions underlie restorative practice:
* When people and relationships are harmed, needs are created.
* The needs created by harms lead to obligations. 
* The obligation is to heal and “put right” the harms; this is a just response.

3 principles of restorative practice reflect these assumptions.  A just response:
* acknowledges and repairs the harm caused by, and revealed by, wrongdoing (restoration);
* encourages appropriate responsibility for addressing needs and repairing the harm (accountability); 
* involves those impacted, including the community, in the resolution (engagement).

3 underlying values provide the foundation: 
* Respect
* Responsibility
* Relationship

3 questions are central to restorative practices:
*Who has been hurt? 
*What are their needs? 
*Who has the obligation to address the needs, to put right the harms, to restore relationships? 
(As opposed to:  What rules were broken? Who did it? What do they deserve?) 

3 stakeholder groups should be considered &/or involved:
*those who have been harmed and their families
*those who have caused harm and their families
*community

3 aspirations guide restorative practices: the desire to live in right relationship:
*with one another
*with the creation
*with the Creator

True peace requires us not to just make peace by ending conflicts but to build an infrastructure for peace.
Individual and Community Safety is first             

 Jon Powell - Campbell Law School                                        Jon Powell - Circle People, USA, by State - Living Justice Press
Children Full of Life - Important Documentary.. Very ... 40:03 40:03    4th grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, Japan

*Restorative Practices: W Philadelphia HS: Principal Saliyah Cruz
W Philadelphia HS was named a “persistently dangerous school” for violence/crime.  After Restorative Practices were implemented, students realized they had a voice; they had ownership of the school atmosphere.   
Restorative Welcome and Reentry Circle - YouTube  14:00 14:00    *RJ in school settings: UK site:  http://www.transformingconflict.org/