Pros And Cons Of Restorative Justice In South Africa

Restorative Justice, according to Google, is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. It does not have a place in our society for several reasons. It is ineffective because it doesn’t punish people, doesn’t change them, and makes the situation even worse in most cases.

Its most commonly known definition was provided by Marshall in 1996, that describes restorative justice as a process where both parties; victims and offenders, work together to restore, resolve and deal with the after effects of the offence and future ramifications (as cited in Van Camp & Wemmers, 2013). The concept of restorative justice originally derived from various indigenous and pre-industrial western justice practices, however, in the 1970's it begun to appear in modern times and was then developed as a reference to describe victim-offender programs that were developed in North America (Strang, 2001). Restorative Justice approaches spread across the world in the 1990's, where many countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, began introducing these approaches as alternatives in their criminal justice systems (Braithwaite, 1999). The concept of restorative justice usually involves victim and offender direct participation and is conducted in the form of conferences or mediation. This is where both parties; the victims and offenders, come together fact-to-face in one location, alongside a facilitator, police and support people, and work out together the consequences of the offenders actions and the

Prisons not only rehabilitate, but they also deter people from going to prison. The fear of going to prison is a great deterrence for a perspective criminal. Hard life styles along with loss of freedom tend to push the criminal away from the chance of being incarcerated. Numbers show that there are fewer rapes, and fewer murders, each year, all an obvious product of prison deterrence. After all, if a person has a friend who just got out of jail, and hears all of the war stories, that person would surely not want to go to prison and end up like his friend. By making life in prison hard, the prison is doing a great job in getting the word out. Prison is no joke! They are doing their job in deterring criminals from wanting to enter the gates of hell.

What is restorative justice? Restorative justice is when youths that were affected by an incident choose to repair the damage that they committed, restore trust, and find a place in the community in which they can fit into society. Not only that, but one of their main focus is to build respectful relationships that can be noticed by everyone (Murthy, 2016, para. 2). The restorative justice approach shares three goals. These three goals are known as accountability, competency, and public safety. Accountability is responsible for making amends and reestablishes the losses to victims and communities. The purpose of accountability is not to obey a curfew, attending counseling, having interaction with a probation officer, or evade the usage of drugs. The full meaning of restorative justice is simply to take full responsibility for the actions that were committed (del Carmen & Trulson, 2006, p. 446). The purpose of competency is basically doing something that’s going to value another person. Not doing an illegal crime doesn’t count as a standard for competency. Getting offenders involved in different activities would value the community. Activities that value the community are work, community service, dispute resolution, and community problem solving. All of these activities help rebuild the offender, victim, and of course the community (del Carmen & Trulson. 2006, p. 446). The last one which is public safety helps offenders get more involved within the community through

Until as recently as the 1970s, the focus of criminal justice professionals revolved around rehabilitation of offenders (Cullen & Jonson, 2012, p. 27). Dating back to when the first American penitentiary was constructed in 1820, the idea was that by creating a system that mimicked the concept of a well-developed, law-abiding community within the prison atmosphere,

According to the prisons inspectorate, the ‘health’ of a prison should be measured according to safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement (HMCIP, 2013). Choose one of these factors, and using academic research to support your argument, discuss to what extent this represents a critical element of imprisonment in contemporary society.

Restorative justice is based on the principle that criminal behavior injures not only the victim but also the community and the offender, and any effort to resolve these problems caused by criminal behavior should involve all of these parties. Common restorative justice initiatives are victim-offender mediation, circle sentencing, community holistic healing programs, and family group conferences. A key to all these responses to criminal behavior is to address not only the offender, but all parties involved including the victim and their families, offender's family, community citizens, and even the police officers themselves.

Inmates are released with few if any resources and usually end up returning to the institution after failing to reestablish productive lives in the community. This alarming reality is both a fiscal and social problem: state budget deficits bring enormous prison expenditures to light as social injustices in the system persist. Reforming the system to end the cycle of incarceration will have positive effects on the bottom line while reducing crime and thereby increasing public safety. Clearly, the deterrence effects of harsh prison sentences have not been effective. It may be time to once again embrace and expand the rehabilitative capacity of the criminal justice system.

Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that emphasizes the rehabilitation of offenders through mending ties with the victims and the community. A better explanation of restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that include everyone involved. This can lead to transformation of people, relationships and communities.

The definition of rehabilitation according to professor Mona Lynch, is “any discourse or practices that speak transforming or normalizing the criminal into a socially defined non-deviant citizen, including psychological programs, drug treatment programs, educational and work-training programs, work and housing placement assistance, and halfway houses.” This definition of rehabilitation is unique because it focuses on outcomes, encompasses an array of inmate services, and is more multidimensional than any of the preceding works. I believe that prisoners should be treated with exactly the same degree of respect and kindness as we would hope they would show to others after they return to society. People learn by example. The Timelist program showed that offenders hearing from ex-offenders who are on the outside and are doing well is very powerful. These rehabilitation programs; The Timelist, Edovo, and the GreenHouse Program all provide evidence to support the Prison Rehabilitation Act of 1965, which devoted full attention exclusively to the crime problem in the U.S. and the high numbers of population in our prisons, by providing more flexible rehabilitation programs. It would be beneficial to every man, women, and child in America, if we were to continue providing resources for existing rehabilitation

Restorative justice is a very complex process in the justice system. It is a positive program that helps in the aid of victims of crimes. The process for restorative justice is broken down into steps which map out how the process should take place. According to Johnstone, “Restorative justice is the theory that justice aids the victim and emphasizes the repair of harm caused by unjust or harmful behavior.” In my opinion the restorative justice process is a great accomplishment to the justice system. Restorative justice does not always work as intended but the theory of which it is intended for is enough to be improved upon.

A key aspect of restorative justice lies in the offender apologizing for the crime and members

Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. This criminal justice system that restores promotes accountability between parties involved and builds the community through the provision of assistance and respects to victims and anyone involved in the community because crime disrupts lives.

The United States of America, long ago, founded a disciplinary system that was to keep law abiding citizens safe. Those who broke the law were to be adequately punished and reformed, so that when criminals were done serving time, they would be ready to become contributing members of society. Mandatory minimum sentences, high prison return rates, and overworked and underfunded public defenders are just some of the issues that plague the Criminal Justice System. It is astounding that an alternative has not been sought.Restorative justice, or Circle justice is a discipline system that involves mediation, honest speaking, and healing. It gets all parties to share their experiences thoughts and feelings to address what happened in the inciting

However, it quickly became a way of making the offender pay for every little thing possible, all in the name of “correcting the wrong”. There are certainly flaws within this policy, as there are in all areas of the criminal justice system. On the bright side, the underlying reasoning for the restorative justice program seem to be right, and there are many things within this model that could be seen as beneficial for both the victim and the offender. Many areas within this model allow for closure, and allow for forgiveness. It also allows for more possibility than the retributive model. This is not always the case in models that focus on more harsh punishment for the