About - Restorative Justice

The Community Justice Centre is introducing an innovative way of dealing with crime, known as restorative justice.

This approach is used widely in other parts of the world to resolve conflict and repair harm. It aims to help offenders explain their actions, acknowledge the harm they have done to their victim and the community, and give them an opportunity to make amends. At the same time, it offers victims the chance to participate more fully in the justice process and have their voice heard, so that the offender understands the impact of their actions.

The Community Justice Centre is beginning to use a method called conferencing to bring about restorative justice. This brings together victims and others with offenders, through an impartial mediator, to discuss what happened and how it can be made right. There are 18 trained facilitators among the centre team and its partner agencies, and the centre began to hold restorative justice conferences for the first time in June and July 2006.

Restorative justice can only work if both the offender and victim are willing to take part and Judge Fletcher will make an assessment of each case as part of the sentencing process, as to whether it is a suitable option.

The centre team is also considering the use of conferencing as a method of mediation, for instance between neighbours or community members in disagreement with one another.