Restorative Justice Begins with Understanding

Guest Post by Shawn England #214964 

In order to make Restorative Justice a successful enterprise it is necessary to understand the nature of those members of society who have broken the law. A significant number of offenders come from the lowest economic strata of society. Poverty on a large scale breeds a mindset, a feeling of futility, that leads to the idea that crime is the only way out of that brutal, purposeless world. These offenders often have no socialization during their formative years; no mother or father providing the foundational behaviors that are necessary for a person to be successful in society. This leads to a dis-integration of the offender with the community. 

For many years the correctional institutions touted "rehabilitation" as the primary purpose of their existence. This was admirable and for a long time an effective strategy in the struggle against the criminal impulse present within a small segment of society. By providing education and programs designed to re-orient the offenders, recidivism was kept low and the prison populations were kept manageable. That worked when the average offender was a member of society who actively chose to step outside the bounds of acceptable behavior; it is less effective when the offenders begin life outside of those bounds.

Today the correctional system is overworked by the influx of young people who are disconnected from any comprehension of what it means to be obligated to conform to any societal contract. For many of this new generation of criminals the motivation that lays behind their offense is a lack of empathy engendered by a life on the ragged edge of society. For many there is no sense of community or connection to another. There is no foundation of behavior to impede their actions, so they see no reason to refrain from "doing what they want."

What this boils down to is that the old model of rehabilitation will not work because there was no habilitation to begin with. It has become necessary to socialize--or habilitate--these men in order to prepare them for re-integration into a society they have never felt a part of. If there are segments of society that are never taught to trust police officers as children, how can they be punished for not trusting them as adults? If a person is never taught that it is not okay to steal--and in some cases taught that stealing is just "gettin' down"--how can those people ever expect to truly integrate into society? The basic skills of interpersonal communication, critical thinking, and conflict resolution are often foreign concepts to these new "criminals."

In a society that is predominantly white middle class suburbanites, suddenly learning that there are segments of your society that don't feel connected can be difficult. It is likely that the majority of the population wishes to see all people succeed and flourish; however, accepting a responsible role in that flourishing can be daunting. It calls for a commitment to helping those invisible people who live far below the poverty line, in places most don't like to believe exist in the United States of America. I was born and raised there, so trust me, they do. They are ugly, violent places where a safe place to sleep is not guaranteed and a meal is truly a blessing. 

Restorative Justice practices can provide the habilitation that these people need and help them succeed upon their release from prison. By instituting programs like Chance for Life, Thinking for a Change, Bridges, and others, the Department of Corrections has begun the first steps to a system that enables the offender to succeed upon their re-entry. This success is accomplished by providing the social skills and habilitation that so many of the offenders lack when they are first incarcerated. More needs to be done, ideally the Department should institute mandatory classes in morality and ethical behavior that will constitute a major portion of the offender's time. These classes should begin when the offender enters prison and continue until the offender is released. Only by instilling morals and ethical behaviors can a person truly be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society.

Can I Get a Little Respect Here?

When dealing with corrections there are many opinions on how prisoners should be treated. But the majority of opinions fall into two categories: Those who see prisoners as people of value who made bad choices but still have the capacity for positive change, and those who see prisoners as worthless specimens of humanity that should be kept away from society at all costs. This latter category believes that prisoners are either incapable of positive change or they do not deserve the opportunity to change.

These positions are sometimes framed as those who believe criminals are sent to prisoner AS punishment and those who believe criminals are sent to prison FOR punishment. Where one stands on these ideologies has a big impact on their day-to-day treatment of prisoners and on their philosophy of how prisoners are rehabilitated.

Just the other day I had an officer yell at me and lecture me for several minutes simply because I respectfully asked a clarifying question. Two days later I saw another officer cuss out a friend of mine, calling him a "whining f'n b___" simply because the officer was wrong for telling this prisoner he couldn't wear a shirt that the prison had issued him.

These are simple examples of the dehumanizing treatment those who see no value in prisoners use on a day-to-day basis.

Others, like the Warden of this prison, see value in each person. Warden Burton is trying to show the State of Michigan that treating prisoners as people who can bring value to their communities will lower re-offense rates and violence within prison. He recognizes that prisoners who are treated as valuable begin to see themselves that way. But not everyone agrees with his philosophy. 

Psychiatrist James Gilligan ran experimental therapeutic communities within Massachusetts' prisons in the 1980s. He didn't do anything more radical than treat each prisoner with respect and allow them a safe place to express their fears and hopes. He saw tremendous results including the transformation of a serial killer who killed people even in prison into a compassionate and peaceful person. In the early 1990s Gilligan even started an educational program led by Harvard lecturers. But when a new governor (William Weld) was elected, Gilligan's therapeutic communities were shut down. Governor Weld saw prisoners as worthless human specimens, not as humans with potential.

Some people would argue that the criminals in prison didn't treat their victims with dignity, so why should the State treat them with dignity. It's a fair point, but one that ignores mountains of research data showing that giving broken people (like prisoners) hope for their future results in lower re-offense rates. It ignores the question of why people commit crime in the first place.

I'm hopeful that this time innovators like Warden Burton won't be replaced and the evidence that respect works won't be ignored. Those in society who expect prisoners to return to their communities to be safe deserve better.

* (The story of James Gilligan comes from "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson, pages 251-253)

Is Jesus on M.T.V.?

"I'm in love with a woman I met online. She's everything I ever wanted! She understands me perfectly. The only problem is, I don't know if she is who she claims to be. I need your help!" This is an example of the types of emails that T.V. hosts Nev and Max might receive for their M.T.V. show "Catfish." Trusting people meet people online, fall in love, and as the show often reveals, later find out the person they fell in love with isn't who he or she claimed to be. While watching a recent episode of Catfish on T.V. it dawned on me that the show operates very much how victim-offender mediations occur using restorative justice practices. Victim-offender mediations (VOMs) are mediated by third-parties who help make sense of the dialogue, keep the conversations on track, and help to guide the discussions toward productive ends. This is precisely what Nev and Max do on their show. After conducting their investigations, Nev and Max facilitate a face-to-face meeting between the catfisher and the unwary victim. At this meeting the victim is able to ask questions of the catfisher ("Why?", "Why me?", etc.) and express anger, loss, hurt, bewilderment, and any other feelings experienced through the revelation of the scam. This mediated meeting between parties affords the offender a prime opportunity to own their deceptive behavior, own the consequences of the behavior (mostly experienced by the victim), and own the obligations created by the deception. These obligations vary with each case, but the majority involve a commitment to stop catfishing, take down fake online profiles, get help for emotional issues, and sometimes help to clean up the victim's damaged reputation. With restorative justice's religious roots, I found it ironic that the only modern example of well-known restorative justice practices is found in pop culture on, of all places, M.T.V., the same network responsible for Teen Mom, Mary + Jane, and Wild 'n Out. I am seeing encouraging signs that restorative justice practices are gaining wider acceptability, at least in educational circles. This leads me to hope that a significant shift in criminal justice and corrections philosophy in the United States will happen soon. It is yet unclear who will lead this much needed change, but it's not too late for churches and those who identify as religious to reclaim leadership in a movement that was perfectly illustrated in the life of Jesus, the greatest example of a mediator who restored broken people and broken relationships. If the church won't lead the way, people will just have to see the character of Christ illustrated in unlikely places, like on M.T.V.