WASHINGTON — Experience in the District of Columbia and Colorado indicates that restorative justice could play a key role in reducing crime, recidivism and the use of jail as a solution, according to panelists during an Oct. 29 session on restorative justice and the legal system sponsored by the Catholic Mobilizing Network.
Youths in Washington’s juvenile justice system had “worse outcomes” than those who averted the system, according to Seema Gajwani of the attorney general’s office. “They are less likely to be gainfully employed, to be married, to avoid substance abuse issues,” she said.
D.C. has been able to cut in half the number of judges needed to preside at juvenile criminal cases, from four to two, because of the drop in caseload, according to Gajwani.
Colorado State Sen. Pete Lee said he had made it his mission to incorporate restorative justice principles throughout the state’s justice system. He counted 37 different provisions in state law for restorative justice. A $10 fee on every criminal case legal filing in the state funds the state’s restorative justice initiative to the tune of $1 million a year, he said.
In Colorado, restorative justice is available for all juvenile and adult offenses, and in schools and jails. Lee said the legislation includes confidentiality provisions that information revealed in or before a restorative justice session is not used against the offending party. There is a 19-member coordinating council made up of representatives of different stakeholder groups in the state, Lee said.
“We’ve replaced resource officers in schools with restorative justice mediators,” he added. “Scores of schools all around Colorado are utilizing restorative justice to keep kids in school.” Colorado has a recidivism rate under 9 percent, and on a scale of 1 to 5, those who have used restorative justice sessions have given them an average rating of 4.9.
Lee said bipartisanship has been important to advancing restorative justice. “We’ve had split legislatures with Republicans and Democrats running different houses at different times,” he noted, adding that different groups within the state respond favorably to different appeals on restorative justice.
“To the conservatives, we talk about the saving of tax dollars. To the progressives, we talk about the fairness of it,” he said. “To the evangelicals, we talk about redemption. To moral conservatives, we emphasize individual responsibility. To law and order, we talk about reduced recidivism and restitution.
“To libertarians; we have a plethora of them; we have a system of people solving their disagreements among themselves,” he continued. “To victim advocates, we talk about respect and the beginning of healing.”
Echoing statistics cited earlier in the presentation that showed the number of people in U.S. prisons skyrocketing from 250,000 in 1972 to 2 million in 2000, he said the United States contains “5 percent of the world’s population, but a quarter of its prisoners.”
Stay Connected With Us