LIVING FOR CHANGE

Restoring Justice

By Marcia Lee

Michigan Citizen, Feb. 10-16, 2008

For a “movement” to become truly established, we need to work together to build relationships. An essential part of this ‘relationship building’ is acknowledging the sorrow that every person carries under her/his skin. Everyone of us has had experiences that brought us pain, hurt and sorrow. By accepting our own sorrow, we are able to empathize with the sorrow that others carry and thereby receive others with dignity and see the perfect imperfectness within each of us. Then we can begin to heal.

Instead, our current political and cultural system encourages us to ‘solve’ our sorrows by negative actions, self-depreciation and through social structures that inflict punishment on the perpetrator. This is the basis of our criminal justice system. If a person commits a crime (as defined by the laws of a country), then that person is punishable by the state. The harm to the victim(s), the community, and the perpetrator(s) themselves is not taken into consideration. If a person robs a gas station and is caught by the criminal justice system, that person will go through court proceedings that end in punishment by the state through a jail sentence. However, sentencing a person to jail does not address the impact that the action had on the elderly bystander who is now afraid to go outside and needs more support from family members to buy basic necessities. It does not address why the person chose to rob the gas station in the first place.

That is why we need a process of Restorative Justice not only within the criminal justice system but also in our daily lives. Restorative Justice has been used in indigenous communities and as a societal norm much longer than the few centuries in which the Puritan concept of penitentiary has been applied. In Restorative Justice the people who are harmed by an action as well as those who caused the harm are given positions of responsibility in the restoration process.

There are many different ways to restore justice, but a foundational piece of the philosophy asks each person to share his or her own stories and experiences instead of placing blame on a particular person or persons for what happened. It involves being vulnerable and honest about how a particular crime or action has an impact on each person’s life and not on lecturing other people about what they should or should not do in their lives.

This is often very difficult because we have been conditioned to believe that the best way to get a point across or to share our knowledge is through telling other people what we know instead of sharing how and why we came to our understanding. We are taught to look at and fix the result of a problem instead of examining and deconstructing the root causes.

In Peacemaking Circles we often begin by asking “How have you personally, or your family and loved ones, been impacted by violence or crime?” Try asking that question of someone who you feel has done something criminal or violent to you. (with the understanding that violence and crime is not only physical). Try sharing with that person the impact that the crime and violence have had on you.

Through this deeper understanding of the ways in which each person’s actions affect others and ourselves, we begin to address the similarities in the struggles of each person, so that we can truly build a movement that is founded on the dignity and value within each person and within our community. By continually redefining our understanding of our relationships with each other and ourselves, and by learning from our own histories and that of our people, we are already restoring justice in the small circles of our own world.

What if we approached every person with the intent of sharing our stories and hearing theirs, instead of judging them by their actions or by the label that society has given them? Imagine what could happen if every person felt empowered to do the same? A new concept? No, , it is the teaching of all of the major religions. “To love your neighbor as yourself.” We have just forgotten who we are.

Who are you and what story do you have to share?

Marcia Lee, who was a beekeeper at the Capuchin Earthworks Garden in Detroit, is now studying Restorative Justice.

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