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Background

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Restorative justice is a large field that brings together criminology, social work, law and ethics. Here are some ways to approach a story:

Restorative justice has been studied in places where it’s been implemented. Check with criminologists who are familiar with the research. What do they say about what needs to be proved or disproved?

The concept has been adopted in some parts of the criminal justice system. The likeliest established applications are juvenile justice and victim assistance. These are good entry points for a local story that can link what is already being done with new developments in the field. What have local programs learned and accomplished? What are the successes and failures?

Some of the newer applications of restorative justice include:

• School discipline
• Defense-initiated victim outreach, in which lawyers for a criminal defendant seek to work with a crime victim within religious institutions
• Family violence
• Re-entry of ex-convicts into their communities after imprisonment

Are any of these efforts under way in your area? What role do religious leaders and congregations play?

Restorative justice experts point to “transitional justice” as one growing area. Transitional justice seeks to provide accountability and stable civic life in countries with histories of atrocities or abuse by authorities. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the best-known contemporary example of a country’s reckoning with crimes of its past. The U.S. has had one experience with this process. The Greensboro, N.C., Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated a 1979 killing of demonstrators. The commission made a controversial report in 2006 after two years of inquiry. In March 2007, the Greensboro City Council refused by a 5-4 vote to consider the report’s recommendations.

The National Conference on Restorative Justice will take place June 24-27, 2007, at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. It will bring together practitioners of restorative justice. Faith leaders are involved; one track of programming deals with faith groups and restorative justice.

National sources

• Gordon Bazemore teaches criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University, where he directs the Community Justice Institute. He has published extensively, and his research includes evaluating restorative justice programs at state and federal levels. He leads the Balanced and Restorative Justice Project, a federally funded juvenile justice program. Contact 954-762-5663, bazemor@fau.edu.
• Ron Claassen is director of the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University and a Mennonite minister. In 2002, he spoke at the first restorative justice conference held in Israel. Contact 559-453-3420, rlclaass@fresno.edu.
• Elaine Enns has been a trainer and consultant on restorative justice for almost two decades. She is part of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Oak View, Calif. Contact 323-449-5170, elaineenns@bcm-net.org.
• Thomas J. Porter is executive director of the JUSTPEACE Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation, a United Methodist center for conflict resolution. Established in 2000, JUSTPEACE trains people in conflict transformation and restorative justice. Contact 202-488-5647, tporter@JUSTPEACEumc.org.
• Kay Pranis has worked in the field of restorative justice for almost two decades. She was the restorative justice planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections for nine years. Pranis calls the spread of restorative justice a “quiet revolution.” Contact 651-698-9181, kaypranis@msn.com.
• Lawrence Sherman is a criminologist who directs the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. His work is internationally recognized. He co-led a decade-long study of restorative justice in multiple settings. Contact 215-898-9216, lws@sas.upenn.edu.
• Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is director for the Mennonite Central Committee Office on Crime and Justice and co-author of The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools. Contact her at the committee office in Akron, Pa., 717-859-1151, lsa@mcc.org.
• Mark Umbreit is founding director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota school of social work. He is also on the faculty of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the university. Umbreit is familiar with evaluations of restorative justice. Contact 612-625-7726, mumbreit@tc.umn.edu.
• Daniel Van Ness directs the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation of Prison Fellowship International, a Christian prison ministry. The mission of the center, based in Washington, D.C., is to promote restorative justice worldwide. The center maintains Restorative Justice Online, a comprehensive Web site that includes a searchable library. Contact 703-481-0000.
• Ted Wachtel is founder and president of the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, Pa., which offers graduate degrees and training in applying restorative principles in schools, criminal justice, child welfare and workplaces. Read “In Pursuit of Paradigm: A Theory of Restorative Justice,” a paper delivered by Wachtel and researcher Paul McCold at an international criminology conference in 2003. Contact 610-807-9221.
• Howard Zehr is one of the founders of the restorative justice movement. He teaches at Eastern Mennonite University, where he co-directs the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He speaks and consults extensively on the subject. Among his many publications on the subject is the best-selling The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Contact 540-432-4492, zehrh@emu.edu.
• The international Victim Offender Mediation Association in St. Paul, Minn., promotes restorative justice. The 250-member association has members from all states. Contact program coordinator Doreene Langason, 612-874-0570.

International sources

• Tom Cavanagh is an American working at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, on restorative justice in education. The practices of New Zealand’s Maori people have shaped the development of restorative justice. Contact cavanagh@waikato.ac.nz.
• Michael L. Hadley is editor of The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, which explores restorative justice in a variety of world religious traditions. He is an emeritus professor of Germanic studies at University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and associate fellow at the university’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society. Contact 250-472-4453, mlhadley@telus.net.
• Christopher D. Marshall wrote Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime and Punishment. An expert in biblical ethics and peace theology, he teaches religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Contact chris.marshall@vuw.ac.nz.
• Heather Strang is director of the Centre for Restorative Justice at Australian National University. She has done research in Australia and Great Britain on the effectiveness of restorative justice. Contact Heather.Strang@anu.edu.au.
• The European Forum for Restorative Justice includes information by country.

Background

• The Conflict Resolution Information Source is a searchable database of articles that includes “core knowledge” essays on key ideas in the area of peacemaking and conflict resolution. Read about restorative justice on its Web site. The database is a project of the Conflict Research Consortium at the University of Colorado. Heidi Burgess is co-director. Contact 303-492-1635.
• Restorative Justice Online is a comprehensive Web site that is a service of the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation of Prison Fellowship International, a prison ministry. The site includes:
• A searchable library of more than 7,500 articles
• Links to Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed and Southern Baptist denominational resources
• Links to programs around the world, organized by region and country
• Restorative Justice Project.org is run by the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno State University. It offers services and resources to apply restorative justice principles, including in the area of school discipline

• Read “Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice,” a Nov. 15, 2000, statement by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

• Restorative justice is the law in Vermont. Vermont may put misdemeanor and nonviolent felony offenders on reparative probation if they agree to participate in a restorative justice program operated by a community board. Read a Feb. 1, 2007, Rutland (Vt.) Herald article about a federally funded study of Vermont’s system showing that offenders who went through reparative probation were less likely to commit another crime. Contact David Peebles at the state Department of Corrections, 802-241-2261, dpeebles@doc.state.vt.us.
• The Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast in Belfast, Maine, has worked with victims and offenders to seek apologies for victims and to help criminals turn their lives around. The project’s chairman is the Rev. T. Richard Snyder, former academic dean of New York Theological Seminary and author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Punishment. Contact 207-338-2742.
• Robert Heskett is executive director of Family Nonviolence in Fairhaven, Mass. He is heading a project to use restorative justice as an alternative to criminal justice in dealing with family violence. The project will involve area congregations. Contact 508-996-1100.

IN THE EAST

• The New York State Community Justice Forum in Rensselaer, N.Y., provides training and assistance in community and restorative justice. The difference: Community justice works to prevent crime and promote community, while restorative justice works for reparation after a crime has been committed. Contact Janelle Cleary, 518-473-3652.
• Sue Klassen is president of the Finger Lakes Restorative Justice Center in Rochester, N.Y. Contact 585-473-0970.
• The Pennsylvania Prison Society has been working for more than 200 years on behalf of people in jail and their families. It has a restorative justice program. Barb Toews is manager of inmate family services at the society and author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison, published in 2006. Contact 215-564-4775 ext. 120.
• The Balanced and Restorative Justice Drop-In Center for Juveniles opened Feb. 12, 2007, in Washington, D.C. It is designed for teens facing trial or revocation of probation. Contact Leah Gurowitz, director of legislative, intergovernmental and public affairs at District of Columbia Courts, 202-879-1700.
• Alfred Blumstein is a criminologist at the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Winner of the 2007 Stockholm Prize in criminology, he is an expert on prison populations, juvenile violence and crime deterrence. Contact ab0q@andrew.cmu.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST

• Marty Price is a lawyer and mediator who has worked in restorative justice for two decades. He speaks and trains internationally on the subject. Price is currently teaching restorative justice in Argentina on a Fulbright grant. Contact him through the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program Information and Resource Center in Asheville, N.C., 828-253-3355, martyprice@vorp.com.
• Pamela Blume Leonard is executive director of the Georgia Council for Restorative Justice. Contact 404-651-3563.
• Sarah Anthony is a lawyer and deputy director of Fair Trial Initiative in Durham, N.C., which promotes better defense in death-penalty cases to ensure fairness. She helped develop Defense-Initiated Victim Outreach in North Carolina. Contact 919-680-2986.

IN THE SOUTH

• Michael Braswell teaches peacemaking, ethics and social justice at East Tennessee State University. His work has examined religious traditions as a source of learning peaceful behavior. His most recent publication is Transformative Corrections (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming), co-edited with Dave Pollizzi. Contact 423-439-5963, braswell@xtn.net.
• Jayne Crisp is a victim advocate and crisis response trainer with experience in faith-based work. She has trained community leaders after school shootings in Littleton, Colo., and Jonesboro, Ark. She has worked for Prison Fellowship Ministries. Contact jcrisp@aol.com.
• Louisiana’s Catholic bishops spoke in favor of restorative justice policies in a 2002 pastoral statement “Let Justice and Mercy Meet.” The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections uses some restorative justice ideas and practices in its services, among them victim-offender dialogue. Contact the Crime Victims Services Bureau in Baton Rouge, 225-342-1056.

IN THE MIDWEST

• Nina Balsam chairs the Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition. The group was an organizer of an October 2006 conference that included several religious co-sponsors. These agencies are involved. Contact Balsam through the Center for Women in Transition, in St. Louis, 314-771-5207, nina@cwitstl.org.
• Arthur Paul Boers wrote Justice that Heals: A Biblical Vision for Victims and Offenders. A pastor for 16 years, he now teaches theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. Contact 574-296-6265, apboers@ambs.edu.
• Janine P. Geske, retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, developed a restorative justice program at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Contact 414-288-7877, janine.geske@marquette.edu.
• The Chicago Public Schools adopted restorative justice as part of its student code of conduct this year. Contact Christine Agaiby, restorative justice specialist at Alternatives, a youth agency that is working with the schools, 773-506-7474 ext. 217. Peter Newman is a restorative justice expert familiar with projects in Cook County, 312-603-1957.
• The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Area Center for Ecumenism offers education about restorative justice. Contact program coordinator Jan Gockerman, 616-774-2042 ext. 116.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

• Bridges to Life is a faith-based restorative justice program based in Houston. It was started by John Sage after his sister was murdered. It works in 21 Texas prisons and one in Louisiana. Contact 713-463-7200.
• Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, has surveyed restorative justice in Texas. He says that contrary to popular perception, Texas can be considered a pioneer in restorative justice. Contact Levin, 512-472-2700.
• The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the University of Texas at San Antonio Office of Community and Restorative Justice have discussed developing a consortium of restorative justice leaders for discussion and research. Contact Tomi Lee Grover, restorative justice specialist for the convention. Contact 214-887-5428, tomigrover@bgct.org.
• Salt Lake City’s restorative justice program has earned attention. Mayor Rocky Anderson mentioned it in his 2007 state of the city address. Contact the mayor’s office, 801-535-7739.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

• Duane Ruth-Heffelbower practiced law before he became a Mennonite pastor. He is director of graduate academic programs for the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University and administrator of Victim Offender Reconciliation Program of the Central Valley. Contact 559-453-3421, duanerh@fresno.edu.
• The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real in the Monterey, Calif., area has a Restorative Justice Commission. The Rev. Connie White is executive director of the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program of Monterey County. Contact restorejustice@edecr.org.
• RestoreJustice.com is an outreach program of the California Catholic Conference funded by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops that includes a network of diocesan-level coordinators of restorative justice/detention ministries. Contact Debbie McDermott at the Catholic Conference in Sacramento, 916-443-4851.