Copyright © 2002 Center for Action and Contemplation -All Rights Reserved.
"Whoever did this will be brought to justice!" Hardly a day goes by that we don't see that angry promise in the newspaper or hear it on the evening news-whether it is voiced by the president in response to a terrorist act, the local sheriff at the scene of a crime, or a distraught victim or family member. Before you read any further, pause a moment and ask yourself: what does it mean to be brought to justice? When you hear the demand for justice, what images come to your mind?
If your first responses include images of police, jail and courtrooms, and your concepts primarily have to do with punishment; you are among the vast majority of Americans. Crime and punishment seem to go together like horse and buggy. For most of us, justice means going through the legal processes of accusation, arrest, establishing guilt and imposing punishment, most often in the form imprisonment (even execution).
If, however, your responses to the meaning of justice have to do with accepting responsibility, repenting, making restitution and reestablishing well-being, you are on the path of restorative justice-the path that began when God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden with the promise their estrangement was temporary and that the journey would ultimately bring them back into God's healing embrace. This is the promise Christians believe was fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ-healing and restoration through God's radical and amazing grace.
The justice of God, upon which Christian faith and hope are dependent, is restorative justice. None of us has ever prayed, "Lord, give me what I deserve for my sins! Punish me to the full extent of the law!" But, when it comes to how we think about and do justice in regards to others, many of us who call upon God for mercy and compassion for ourselves experience no qualms at demanding "an eye for any eye" for "those who trespass against us." "Love one another as I have loved you," is the directive of the one who redeemed us from our sins-not because of our merit but because the justice of the cross is restorative.
Restorative justice flows naturally from fundamental Christian principles and values: repentance, forgiveness, restitution and rehabilitation. It is also the dynamic that animates Native American systems of justice, as well as that of other indigenous peoples. It has become the norm for the juvenile justice system in New Zealand and, in the United States; Minnesota is a leader in integrating restorative justice approaches into its justice systems. For the most part, though, both the American justice systems and the American mindset are based upon systems of justice that are retributive and punitive.
The faint voices of the restorers and healers around the world are drowned out by the cries for justice, revenge and retaliation. This is true not only in the obvious places such as Israel, Palestine, and Northern Ireland, but also in U.S. national policies toward the "axis of evil," and even in our individual hearts as we wrestle with the hurts experienced everyday within our families and friendships. So, let us look more closely at what is meant by "retributive justice" and "restorative justice," how each works in practice, and how we can promote restorative justice in our hearts, homes and homeland. The path from Eden to restorative justice is both a human challenge and a personal spiritual quest.
Retributive Justice is premised upon returning hurt for hurt. Retributive systems of justice equate the crime committed to a violation of law and an offense against the State. The legal processes of retributive justice create an "us" verses "them" contest in which "the People" (represented by police, prosecutors and judges) seek to prove guilt, then to punish it. For the most part, victims and offenders become observers, as lawyers manipulate the truth and consequences as part of an elaborate game. At the end, justice is declared done if the procedural rules have been followed, guilt has been assigned and punishment meted out. Most often, victims go home unhealed. Offenders are warehoused for a term of years, most often returning to society more dysfunctional than when they entered prison.
Restorative Justice focuses upon healing hurts and restoring peace in hearts and communities. It starts with the presumption that victims and offenders are part of one family from which no one can be permanently excluded, and that what we do, good or evil, affects us all. Restorative systems approach crime as a violation of persons by persons. The legal processes of restorative models actively involve victims, offenders, their families and friends (and, perhaps, pastors, employers or other community members) in the goal of healing the injuries and restoring well-being for all involved. In restorative justice, police, lawyers, judges and others work with the victims and offenders toward a resolution that all accept as just. Restorative justice requires the offender to accept responsibility for the harm done and to make restitution. Besides healing and restitution for the victims, the conclusion may also mandate what the offender needs to heal and rehabilitate, such as drug treatment, counseling or vocational training. Punishment, when it is part of the sentence, is not punitive but purposeful toward the ultimate restoration of the offender.
Not every victim nor every offender is capable of pursuing restorative justice. For those who are, however, doing so provides the best potential for a win-win-win result, in which victim, offender and the community find healing of the past and restored hope for the future. Hurts keep hurting-whether they are the victim's, the offender's or the community's-until they are made redemptive-exchanged for healing and, if possible, reconciliation. Retributive justice stays focused on what happened in the past. What good might be possible in the future is irrelevant. The restorative way begins with the harm done in the past, but measures justice done by the good that results in the future.
"I don't want your brother to die and I will do everything in my power to prevent it," were the compassionate words Bud Welch offered Timothy McVeigh's sister, Jennifer, while they cried together and he held her face in his hands. Welch's daughter, Julie, was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. He went through a long period of rage, craving revenge, before he allowed himself to feel the healing of forgiveness and was able to reach out "as family" to Jennifer, as innocent as Julie and injured to her depths, too. Even now, Bud Welch tours the country speaking against the death penalty.
International attention focused on Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998, after Aaron J. McKinney and an accomplice lured Matthew Shephard from a bar, drove out of town, tied him to a fence, savagely beat him and left him to die because he was a homosexual. In the courtroom, as the jury was preparing to decide whether to impose the death penalty, many wept as Matthew's father, Dennis, spoke lovingly of his son as a person who could only see the good in others, and who had been "my hero, now gone forever." Then, turning to Matthew's killer, he stunned the courtroom with: "Mr. McKinney, I give you life in memory of the one who no longer lives." The Shephards had requested the prosecutor not to seek the death penalty, and life in prison without possibility of parole was imposed instead.
Freeing ourselves from locked-in mindsets is not easy. Changing the ways we see, think and do things takes time. But the awe-inspiring witness of Bud Welch and Dennis and Judy Shephard prove that it is possible. There are not only spiritual and humane considerations, but also many practical, fiscal and political reasons to pursue restorative approaches to justice. With 2,000,000 Americans incarcerated, or on parole or probation, and with a 67% recidivism rate after incarceration, even those who run the misnamed "corrections" systems acknowledge building more prisons is not the answer. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" demeans victim, offender and society, and perpetuates the cycle of violence and harm it fruitlessly seeks to eradicate.
Japan utilizes parallel restorative and retributive systems. Depending upon the nature of the crime, the offender's willingness to acknowledge guilt, express remorse and make compensation, and the victim's willingness to receive compensation and to pardon, the determination is made whether to pursue a restorative or retributive process. When the victim and offender can agree to a just resolution, punishment is usually lenient. Incarceration is the exception, rather than the norm, and long-term imprisonment is used only for the most unusual cases. Japan has a very low crime rate.
Since 1989, New Zealand's juvenile justice system has totally built upon the restorative principles followed by the native Maoris. All juvenile facilities have been closed, except a few for youth who commit horrendous crimes, but, even in them, the emphasis is on education, therapy and skill development. For those who do not accept responsibility for the crimes, a parallel traditional system is in place.
Minnesota's Carver County Sheriff's Department and Woodbury City Police Department set up Family Group Conferencing before or after sentencing in juvenile court (or as an alternative to it). The process brings together victims, offenders, the families of both and other community resource persons to talk about how the crime has affected their lives, and to decide how the harm done might be repaired.
New York, Arizona, Missouri and California are among the states moving from incarceration for minor first and second offense drug crimes to treatment of the addiction that leads to robbery and theft. The goal is to rehabilitate and restore addicts, not to punish addiction.
"Volunteers in Parole" matches attorneys and judges as mentors for parolees who have been discerned as most determined to change their lives. The program is co-sponsored by the State Bar of California, county bar associations and the State Department of Corrections. Its goal is to break the cycle of recidivism and to restore parolees as contributing members of society.
The path and promise that began in the Garden, the story of God's relationship with humanity, is rightly called "salvation history." In the biblical stories of wandering and restoration, punishment for sin has as its purpose not revenge, but redemption. Restoration is the goal. And, when an individual or the nation repents and turns again to God, it is the father of the prodigal son who races out to embrace and heal. These stories are not just those of our faith ancestors, but they are yours and mine, as well. They are not stories of abandonment but stories of hope. To do restorative justice does not mean that those who break the law and harm the peace of the community should not be held accountable, nor does it mean there should not be punishment, including prison for the small numbers who truly threaten the safety of the community. It does mean, however, that we refuse to equate punishment with justice, and justice with prison.
Precisely because we are Christians who have been redeemed by the restorative justice of God in spite of our many sins and failings, we are obligated to practice restorative justice in our homes and personal relationships, and to speak the truth to legislators and neighbors that even those who harm us remain one of us. The redemptive journey that began at the closed gates of Eden does not end for any of us until the gates of the Kingdom-opened wide by radical and amazing grace.
A. Companion is a former Roman Catholic priest who has experienced firsthand the retributive system of justice as a defendant, convict and parolee, as well as the restorative power of God's amazing mercy and grace ministered through others. A. Companion is in the process of establishing Restoration House, a transitional community for parolees in the Sacramento area. During his time in prison, he wrote two books: Peace and Justice Shall Embrace: Toward Restorative Justice and Wounded Wounders: Stories of Men in Prison. The books may be ordered online at iUniverse.com, toll free 1-877-823-9235, or through your bookstore. Royalties from his books support Restoration House.
-A. Companion
October - December 2002: Restorative Justice
Copyright © 2002 Center for Action and Contemplation -All Rights Reserved.