What´s Restorative Justice Ineffective?

“One out of every 31 Americans (7 Million) are in prison, jail, or some other form of correctional supervision. A high incarceration rate in the United States has led to the prison-industrial complex, which has provided jobs and profits to legions of companies and people. The field of corrections is big business.”1 I believe that this fact is the best way in which to start my paper. The main idea of corrections, as the name suggests, is to correct the behavior that has caused an offender to stray from the straight and narrow. However, as our prison population grows and recidivism rates increase we are not only seeing our prison system fail, but we are seeing a new and emerging industry take hold in this country. Increasing prison populations and the number of re-offenders is showing a relatively obvious failure of the current system. In my time as a criminal justice major I have taken a variety of classes on criminal justice, one of the most interesting for me (aside from this class) was restorative justice. In my restorative justice class I was introduced to the idea that the criminal justice system was taking the conflict away from the victim and the community and was focusing too much on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation. I understand that some people feel that restorative justice is too lenient, that by allowing offenders to bypass jail restorative justice gives them a pass and allows them to basically get away with an offense, however restorative

Restorative justice is a way to view crime in a positive way, viewing it as a way to help those who offend and those who are affected. By punishing an offender immediately no matter the crime committed they are stigmatized instantly by society, their peers, family and possibly even themselves. The negative stigmatization slowly but surely removes them from society as they are seen as people who do not belong and people who break the rules. Restorative justice helps because they are not stigmatized and punished immediately and by not doing so, and instead helping and guiding them, on what will happen, how to re enter society and having the people who were affected by their actions express their experience and feelings the offender will see the error of his or her ways.

Restorative justice is becoming more popular as the guideposts to effective corrections policy, both sides prisons and within the wider community. The philosophy is based on the traditional practices of indigenous cultures around the world. Criminal behaviour is primarily caused by the alienation of certain members from society at large. Everyone is an equal member of society and has a contribution to make the greater good. When a person becomes alienated or disconnected from that society , everyone in that society is responsible to bring that person back into a harmonious relationship with him/her “self” as well as the rest of the community.

When hearing about restorative justice, one can have various ideas or assumptions of what this means based in either personal experiences or preconceived ideas. Allen, Latessa, and Ponder define restorative justice as a theory of justice

I agree with you post in its entirety. However, I believe the down side to restorative justice would mean momentous caseloads for probation officers (burnout), offenders who can’t obtain adequate employment because they have prior conviction’s will be unable to pay restitution to their victims. Further, Restorative Justice in my opinion only works for misdemeanors o felonies that don’t include murder or sex abuse. I believe as criminal justice professionals we must concern and conform ourselves to the issues of the world in order to repair, reconcile differences and reassure change is possible. To illustrate, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world

Since ancient times, restorative and retributive practices were used. Retributive justice is oriented toward punishing the offender for breaking laws and rules. Prevention of future crimes or rehabilitation is not considered when punishing the offender. In restorative justice, the focus is mainly on the victim. Harm is amended and the offender is rehabilitated. Both of these practices are used today around the world.

While this idea seems great, it is not exactly going to be effective enough for those who commit capital offenses such as mass murder. I have always believed that instead of just throwing prisoners in jail and leaving them there, they should develop rehabilitation programs for every single inmate that they participate on a weekly basis. By the time they have served their prison sentence, or at least 1/3rd then they will have had a great deal of time to be taught to not recommit crimes and how to reenter society. This will reduce the recidivism rates, greatly. I don’t believe that we should take away sentencing for crimes, but rather including rehabilitation with the sentencing. That would be my reply to a conservative that would call for restorative justice.

- Supporters of rehabilitation would argue that socio/economic conditions cause crime not people so the punishment does not help the problem and crime will continue. It is better to get to the root of the problem than castigating someone who was forced to offend due to their situation e.g. fining a poorer man for stealing money to feed his family would make him poorer probably driving him to continue stealing instead of fighting the real problem in this example, the lack of support for people in need, which would reduce the amount of stealing that occurs because said man would not be forced to steal.

The Traditional Justice system has a much better control on the crime rates and offenders across the world. Retributive Justice should

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word restorative as having the ability to restore (i.e. repair, renovate or reinstate) health, strength or a feeling of well-being. Also, it defines the word justice as the administration of the law or authority in maintaining just behaviour or treatment. Thus, in lay man’s terms restorative justice would mean having the ability to reinstate a feeling of well-being by the administration of the law.

The main benefit of this system is having prison as a last resort, and having both parties settle the dispute without the traditional criminal justice system(Dalton 05/12/16). However, the drawbacks of the Restorative Justice theory are actually implementing the system because if the population is too big the implementation of probation might not be accepted by the community; plus, it's hard to implement this theory of correction in large societies with large groups of offenders(Dalton 05/12/16). For instance, evidence of this theory of correction has been seen with the case of Lenard when he became a victim of being severely hit in the head, and knocked off his bike by a group of teenagers when he was hanging out on the rich side of town(Bogira 64). Lenard showed the stages of rehabilitation to community, and victim because he received a new house in a nice neighborhood while Caruso received a medium security sentencing for 8 years which ended up turning into 3.5 years because the prison was overcrowded. All harms were rectified and injured parties were restored(Kurbin 274) which was shown by the picture with Lenard and Caruso both smiling together after the incident given the impression that all was forgiven(Bogira 340). Additionally, it is stated that, “the two guys came together and began to heal”(Bogira 340) meaning that the Restorative Justice theory was in full effect for this case in regards to rehabilitation to community and victim as well as restoration of the individual(the convict) into the community after he provided restitution in the form of prison

“Restorative justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future” (Munchie, 2004).

Hey Ralph, get job on the discussion! You did a great job explaining what restorative justice is and who it affects. I agree that restorative justice should be within the school system since, like you said, can teach students a better and more profound lesson and not just suspending them because they have to. You also bring up a good point about restorative justice used with other sanctions, if they do not feel satisfied after using restorative justice maybe they should use other sanctions so the victim can be satisfied with the result. I too agree that restorative justice can do a lot of good to all of the people involved with the situation at hand. With prison bound offenders, I believe it's the crime the offender committed, but also if

Restorative Justice (RJ) is a program that if implemented correctly, could not only revolutionize our justice system but perhaps transform our society as a whole, by greatly reducing crime. This is a bold statement; but if people can be taught about the harm the smallest crimes can have on our society, as well as the grave potential it could lead to other more harmful crimes. When added in the home training, as well as our school system, as young as preschool, there is no doubt this would greatly reduce crime, because society would have been talked earlier on about the impacts of crime. Yes, there will be those who would only see this as a program to be soft of criminals, however when they see the true goal of this program, responsibility,

Restorative justice, when implemented appropriately, can have a deep and emotional effect on all involving participants. This type of rehabilitation can allow the victims to receive answers about the crime and address the harms that have befallen them, they can also gain closure in those cases that result in the bereavement of a loved one or loss of personal security (i.e. Burglary, robbery, rape). What is more, victims also find out if the offender is truly remorseful, and take responsibility for the pain and suffering they have inflicted. I believe that this type of justice is a better way of handling criminal situations simply because it allows the victim of having some kind of confrontation with the offender for healing purposes. This type