CONTENTS

Page No.

Introduction2

Contributors4

Restorative Justice – an overview6

Marian Liebmann

Restorative Justice in a Christian Context14

Annette Hinton

Restorative Justice in the Adult Criminal Justice System20

Jean Wynne

Restorative Justice in Prisons25

Roma Walker

Restorative Justice in Youth Justice28

Maria Stubbington

Restorative Justice in the Community33

Rowen Smith

Contact details of Contributors36

INTRODUCTION

Dear Friend

Welcome to Restorative Justice – What’s it all about?, a conference organised by the Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum and made possible by the generous funding of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Today has been organised to provide an opportunity for people who want to know more about restorative justice and its relevance for Christians, and we hope that you will find the day informative and inspiring.

The purpose of this introduction is tell you about CCJF, our interest in restorative justice, and our other areas of activity. Please do feel free to approach CCJF members during the day if you would like to know more about our work, or contact Sally Malin (CASC) or Peter Sedgwick (BSR) – details below.

Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum

In 1999 the Catholic Agency for Social Concern (CASC) published a report on Women in Prison. The report was supported by a number of other Christian denominations and in September 1999 CASC established the ‘Ecumenical Women in Prison Group’ (EWPG) as a forum through which the churches could together seek to progress the report’s recommendations. In particular the report called for more attention to be given to the families of women sentenced to custody, both at the time of sentence (sentence deferral as an option to allow proper provision for the care of children), and while in custody. It also looked at restorative justice issues, and called for less use of custody – thus anticipating the Wedderburn Report. In 2000 the group had two meetings with the Minister for Prisons, and a number of meetings with civil servants, and Prison Service staff. Discussion is continuing with the Government on a number of these topics.

In spring 2001 EWPG became the Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum (CCJF), and is now recognised as the official British ecumenical church body in criminal justice matters. Each church still has its own prison chaplains, who also work closely together, but CCJF is the umbrella body for policy and voluntary work.

Restorative justice

CCJF sees restorative justice as offering considerable potential for changing both sentencing practice and, more ambitiously, the way in which we as a society can help put right the harm caused by crime. We are currently seeking funding for a restorative justice worker whose remit would be to explore further ways in which Christians could learn more about, and become involved in, restorative justice.

Our other projects

Today’s conference is one of a number of events we have organised this year.

In May, we held a conference to launch the CCJF community chaplaincy project, which has been made possible by the Salvation Army’s generous funding of two officers, based in Birmingham. This project is exploring ways in which the churches can play a greater role in the resettlement of prisoners, and pilots are now starting in Gloucester, Swansea and Preston.

In July, in partnership with the Women’s Policy Group, Prison Service, we held a day seminar on the families of women prisoners. The aim was to bring together Christian bodies working in women’s prisons with governors, representatives of trust funds and chaplains. Bodies such as the Bourne Trust, Prison Fellowship and the Mothers’ Union spoke about their work in women’s prisons, and we hope to be putting specific proposals to trust funds this autumn. And we are also exploring contacts with other faiths, and beginning to build up a network with people from other faith communities with direct involvement in work with prisoners and their families.

Finally, we act as a clearing house for many different churches and voluntary agencies working in prisons to meet each other, exchange ideas and meet with bodies such as the Social Exclusion Unit and the Home Office. The work has grown rapidly in 2001, and with help from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation we hope to do even more next year.

For more information, contact Sally Malin (CCJF Secretary) at CASC on 020-7901-4875 or , or Peter Sedgwick (CCJF Chair) on 020-7898-1531 or .

CONTRIBUTORS

Marian Liebmann

Marian Liebmannhas worked in education, art therapy, victim support and probation, and has been involved in community, victim/offender and schools mediation. For eight years she worked for Mediation UK, the umbrella organisation for mediation, as director and projects adviser. She has written/edited seven books in the fields of art therapy, mediation and conflict resolution, and contributed chapters to many others. The most recent of these is Mediation in Context.

She currently works part-time as an art therapist in inner city Bristol and part-time as a mediation and Restorative Justice consultant and trainer. In this capacity she has provided training for many Youth Offending Teams and mediation services in the UK, and also organisations in Uganda and Russia.

Annette Hinton

Annette is a psychology graduate who has worked in the community for the past 20 years. She is an authorised Pastoral Assistant and Lay Reader in the Church of England and is an active member of staff at her local church.

Annette’s work in mediation and conflict resolution began with her appointment as co-ordinator of Maidstone Mediation Scheme in 1989. Annette has a wide experience of mediation in a variety of contexts;- Victim/Offender mediation, Family Group Conferencing, Community Mediation, mediation in schools, mediating between parents and teenagers , marital mediation, mediation in the workplace, , mediating between patients and G.P.s for the Health Authority.

Maidstone Mediation Scheme has partnership contracts with Kent Youth Offending Team. and Kent Probation to deliver Restorative Justice programmes.

Jean Wynne – Adult Workshop Leader

Jean has been Co-ordinator of a victim offender mediation service in Leeds for the past 14 years. During that time she has been active in promoting and developing practice and policy on a regional, national and international level through her active membership of Mediation UK and consultancy and training provision. She is a founder member of Mediation North, and also of the Mediation and Restorative Justice committee of Mediation UK. She has written several book chapters and articles contributing to research and practice development of victim offender mediation and restorative justice.

Roma Walker – Prisons Workshop Leader

Roma Walker is Deputy Director of the Inside Out Trust, a penal voluntary sector organisation. She has been involved with the Trust since 1995 shortly after it was established. Having gained a MSc in Criminal Justice Studies at Leicester University she is now undertaking research for a PhD on the role and influence of penal reform organisations. She is on the Management Committee of CLINKS, an umbrella organisation that supports voluntary sector agencies working in prisons. Along with Shane Bryans, formerly Governor of HMYOI Aylesbury now seconded to the Home Office, she is co-editing a book (to be published shortly by Waterside Press) on the Prison Service and the Voluntary Sector. She has contributed to various journals and is a trustee of a grant making trust. She has further links with the criminal justice system having been a JP since 1995. Roma has just returned from Kenya as a volunteer for the Christian organisation 'Wheels for the World', distributing wheelchairs that had been renovated in prisons by the Inside Out Trust. This included the 1000th chair from Parkhurst.

Maria Stubbington – Youth Workshop Leader

Maria is a Psychology and Criminology graduate. She has been working with young people for three years. Maria worked as a unqualified residential social worker in children’s homes throughout Southampton and Portsmouth. At the same time in 1999 Maria was also a trained volunteer mediator with the Mediation and Reparation Service in Southampton, working with Southampton and New Forest Youth Offending Team. Maria then became a part time project worker and part time administrator with this service moving on to become a Full-time Reparation Officer a few months ago.

Rowen Smith – Community Workshop Leader

After qualifying as a teacher, Rowen worked for a number of years for Social Services as Deputy Manager of a Family Centre. He has been working for Mediation Oxfordshire (formerly Oxford Community Mediation) for three years. His role has been to manage its Outreach Project to three estates in Oxford. He is now beginning to research the whole area of working in schools and is keen to develop this. In the field of mediation, Rowen has a particular interest in working with people for whom mediation is completely new and at odds with their previous experience of dealing with conflict.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE - AN OVERVIEW

Marian Liebmann

Introduction

This is such a new and exciting field that we need to be clear about some of the basic concepts. So I will start with some definitions and then outline the benefits for different groups in more detail. Then I will give a brief overview of new legislation in the UK encouraging the use of restorative approaches.

What is Restorative Justice?

Here is the definition put together by the Restorative Justice Consortium, a national charity whose members are national organisations interested in promoting Restorative Justice:

Restorative Justice seeks to balance the concerns of the victim and the community with the need to reintegrate the offender into society. It seeks to assist the recovery of the victim and enable all parties with a stake in the justice process to participate fruitfully in it.

Principles of Restorative Justice

These are the hallmarks of a restorative approach:

  • Victim support and healing is a priority
  • Offenders take responsibility for what they have done
  • There is dialogue to achieve understanding
  • There is an attempt to put right the harm done
  • Offenders look at how to avoid future offending
  • The community helps to reintegrate both victim and offender

Now we will look more closely at some of the processes which are identified with Restorative Justice. The most well-known is victim/offender mediation. It can often lead to reparation.

Victim/Offender Mediation

This is the process in which an impartial third party helps the victim(s) and offender(s) to communicate, either directly or indirectly.

The mediation process can lead to greater understanding for both parties and sometimes to tangible reparation.

Reparation

This the action taken by the offender(s) to put right the harm done, whether directly to the victim or indirectly to the community.

Victim/Offender Conferencing

This is similar in principle to victim/offender mediation but involves families of victims and offenders, and other relevant members of the community.

Victim/Offender Groups

These are groups in which victims of crime and offenders meet, usually for a set number of sessions, where the victims have suffered similar crimes (but not the actual crimes) to those perpetrated by the offenders.

Next we will look at the benefits of mediation for victims, for offenders and for courts and communities.

Benefits of Mediation - for Victims

Victims have the opportunity to

  • learn about the offender and put a face to the crime
  • ask questions of the offender
  • express their feelings and needs after the crime
  • receive an apology and/or appropriate reparation
  • educate offenders about the effects of their offences
  • sort out any existing conflict
  • be part of the criminal justice process
  • put the crime behind them

Benefits of Mediation - for Offenders

Offenders have the opportunity to

  • own the responsibility for their crime
  • find out the effect of their crime
  • apologise and/or offer appropriate reparation
  • reassess their future behaviour in the light of this knowledge

Benefits of Mediation - for Courts and Community

Courts have the opportunity to

  • learn about victims’ needs
  • make more realistic sentences

Communities have the opportunity to

  • accept apologies and reparation from offenders
  • help reintegrate victims and offenders

Mediation in the Criminal Justice System

Mediation can take place in the criminal justice system at all stages (provided the offender acknowledges responsibility):

  • Diversion to community or school mediation
  • Diversion at arrest by police
  • Between conviction and sentencing
  • Post-sentence, in the community or in prison

New legislation in the UK provides some specific opportunities for restorative approaches to be used.

Crime and Disorder Act 1998

This act set up Youth Offending Teams in each area of England and Wales, bringing together police, social workers, probation officers, health and education workers. It also provides a role for victim awareness work, mediation, reparation and conferencing in the following provisions:

  • Final Warning
  • Reparation Order
  • Action Plan Order
  • Supervision Order

We will look at each of these in more detail.

Final Warning

This is usually given for a second minor offence, following a reprimand for a first minor offence. After a final warning, the young person must be referred to the local Youth Offending Team for a rehabilitation programme to prevent re-offending. This can include victim awareness work, mediation or reparation.

Reparation Order

This requires young offenders to make reparation to the victim or to the community. It can involve up to 24 hours work and must be completed within three months. It does not include monetary compensation. Victim awareness work, mediation and reparation work can all count towards the hours of a Reparation Order. Victims need time to consider whether they would like direct reparation, and it is important that they are not under any pressure to take part. If they do not want to take part, community reparation will be more appropriate, and many organisations, including churches, can be involved.

Action Plan Orders

This Order requires a young offender to follow an action plan for three months, which can include a variety of activities designed to prevent further offending. These activities are specified in the Order and can include victim awareness, mediation or reparation.

Supervision Orders

A Supervision Order provides supervision of a young offender for a period of time (often one or two years). These Orders have existed for many years, but the Crime and Disorder Act makes provision for them to include mediation and reparation where appropriate.

Local initiatives

It is left up to local Youth Offending Teams to find their own way of implementing these provisions. In some YOTs, all staff are involved in the work, in others a specialist Restorative Justice worker takes on this responsibility. In many areas YOTs work together with a local mediation service which already has trained volunteer mediators. Concerned members of the community can train as mediators, or become involved in providing placements for young people to put something back into society.

Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999

This provides a new sentence for 10-17 year olds pleading guilty and convicted for the first time.

Referral Orders

The Referral Order involves referral of the young person to a Youth Offender Panel, which meets in an informal setting away from the court. The people involved in this meeting are the young person, their family, the victims if they wish (but there is no pressure to attend), a member of the Youth Offending Team (which is responsible for preparations for the meeting) and two panel members drawn from the local community (and provided with training for this work), one of whom chairs the panel meeting. Other relevant people may also attend, such as a teacher from the young person’s school.

The meeting considers the circumstances leading to the offending behaviour and the effect of the crime on the victim. The panel then agrees a contract with the young person, including reparation to the victim or to the wider community, and a programme of activity designed primarily to prevent further offending. The aim of the referral order is for the young person to accept responsibility for their offending behaviour and to consider - along with those with a positive influence over the young person - how to deal with the causes. The offence becomes ‘spent’ as soon as the order has been completed.

Pilot schemes have been running since July 2000 and all other areas (England and Wales) will be expected to implement Referral Orders from April 2002.

These orders provide a real opportunity for concerned people from the community to be involved in the criminal justice system, in an initiative aimed at putting things right for all concerned.

Conclusion

There has been a real burgeoning of Restorative Justice activity over the last two years. The new Youth Offending Teams are enthusiastic about their role in preventing young people from offending and in helping to repair the harm to victims and the community. Community mediation services are busy re-training to take on victim/offender work. Community organisations are providing worthwhile placements for young people to undertake reparation to the community.