RETHINKING PRISONS AND JUSTICE

By Grace Lee Boggs

Michigan Citizen, June 17-23, 2007

Prisons, like Jobs, are only a few hundred years old. For most of human history anti-social behavior was viewed as an offense against the community. So the community developed a process for the offender to make restitution and be restored to the community. This process is commonly known as Restorative Justice.

In the 18th century, with the emergence of the nation-state, anti-social behavior began to be viewed as an offense not against the community but against the state which therefore had the right and responsibility to punish offenders. This led to the modern system of Punitive/Retributive Justice in which offenders are incarcerated in prisons built and maintained by governments.

Punitive/Retributive Justice worked fairly well as long as there were relatively few offenders. But in the last 25 years the prison population has mushroomed because so many people, and especially young people, are no longer needed in the economy.

So communities are devastated as sons, brothers, husbands, lovers, mothers, sisters, wives are incarcerated for non-violent, usually drug, offenses.

The recidivism rate is also high because incarceration often makes hardened criminals of young offenders and ex-prisoners find it hard to re-integrate into the community.

So warehousing prisoners has become big business, and governments, no longer able to afford the escalating costs of prisons, are beginning to devise release programs.

That is why the time is overdue for us to rethink prisons and Punitive Justice and begin making a paradigm shift to Restorative Justice.

“Three principles form the foundation for restorative justice:

• • Justice requires that we work to restore those who have been injured.
• • Those most directly involved and affected by crime should have the opportunity to participate fully in the response if they wish.
• • Government's role is to preserve a just public order, and the community's is to build and maintain a just peace. Restorative programmes are characterized by four key values:
• • Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and community members who want to do so to meet to discuss the crime and its aftermath.
• • Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair the harm they have caused.
• • Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society.
• • Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in its resolution.”
• www.restorativejustice.org/intro

Restorative Justice builds and strengthens communities by

• • placing the responsibility for reducing crime on members of the community rather than on outside or topdown institutions.
• • providing a way for victims to describe the pain and suffering that the offense has caused and for offenders to acknowledge guilt and make restitution.
• • allowing other members of the community to describe how the offense has affected them and also how or whether they or other members of the community might have shared some responsibility.
• • enabling the community to practice criticism and self-criticism.
• • leading to some form of community service which improves the community while also helping young people to become more socially
• responsible through doing something positive.

Restorative Justice programs began to emerge in the United States in the 1970s. Currently there are a few hundred of these programs. Just imagine how many families would remain intact, how many young people would be empowered to live healthy, socially responsible lives and how many communities would be strengthened if there were thousands or tens of thousands of such programs!

Restorative Justice is also widely practiced in New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Some African and Native American communities also settle disputes in traditional ways which involve elders or village chiefs rather than officers of the law as mediators.

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