Restorative Justice in the Criminal Justice System: Theory, Policy, and Practice

2. Chapter 10:Restorative JusticeTheory, Policy and Practice Brian Stout and Hannah Goodman Chong

3. Summary • Principled approach is important in measuring criminal justice against restorative principles • Not all victims’ services meet restorative justice principles • Restorative justice will play quite a minor role in the work of NOMS • Restorative justice is much less significant in youth justice in England and Wales than in Northern Ireland

4. What is Restorative Justice? • Crime is a violation of a person by another person • Prime concern should be responding to victims needs and making offenders aware of harm caused • Reparation and further measures should be decided consensually • Victim and offenders should be reintegrated into the community

5. Is Criminal Justice Restorative? • Principle of repair • Principle of stakeholder participation • Principle of transformation in community and government roles and relationships

6. Restorative Work with Victims: within the Criminal Justice System • Take-up of Victim Impact Statements has been patchy • Victim’s Charter and Victim’s Code • Victim Contact scheme operated by the Probation Service

7. Restorative Work with Victims: Outside the Criminal Justice System • Most victims agencies take a supportive approach • Specialist agencies provide mediation • Work with victims does demonstrate principles of repair and stakeholder participation

8. Could Victims Services be more Restorative? • It is not always appropriate to take a restorative approach in working with victims • Restorative approaches in cases of domestic abuse need to account for power differences

9. NOMS and Restorative Justice • Background and development of National Offender Management Service (NOMS) • Role of Restorative Justice in NOMS • How will we judge if NOMS is restorative?

10. Carter Report • Prisons and probation should be reorganised as NOMS • Regional Offender Managers (ROMs) would work across prison and probation and fund the delivery of contracts • Focus on end-to-end management • Clear separation between supervising offenders and providing interventions

11. Reducing Crime - Changing Lives • Government accepted Carter recommendations • Created NOMS and ten ROMS • Facilitated sentencing framework created by Criminal Justice Act 2003 • Prison population would be checked

12. End-to-End Management It is proposed that there should be a single person responsible for each offender from the point where he enters the criminal justice system to the time when he leaves it, regardless of whether he is serving his sentence in prison, in the community, or both.

13. Contestability The government intends to encourage the private and voluntary sector to compete to manage more prisons, and to compete to manage offenders in the community. The intention is to encourage partnerships between public sector, private sector and voluntary bodies, which harness respective strengths.

14. Reaction to the Proposals • 750 responses to proposals, only 10 in favour • Strongest opposition comes from National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) • Probation Boards Association (PBA) is concerned about the introduction of the market to probation • Prison Reform Trust (PRT) argues that substantial core of probation work should remain public

15. Reaction to the Proposals Martin Narey: “I have never been in any doubt that having a single offender manager to determine what we do with offenders in and out of custody is the key to making improvements in our crime reduction work” But NOMS cannot be a success unless prison numbers are at a manageable level

16. Developments in 2006/7 • Reports into serious further offences have undermined confidence in probation • Legislation contained in the Queen’s Speech in November 2006 • Offender Management Bill is currently going through the committee stage

17. Restorative Justice and NOMS • Government restorative justice strategy “Together we can reduce reoffending and increase public confidence…” • Response to consultation • NOMS Offender Management Model

18. Restorative Justice: the Government’s Strategy Workstrand five: “Restorative interventions will have an equivalent place in [NOMS] with the more familiar interventions associated with offender rehabilitation, punishment and public protection”

19. Restorative Justice: the Government’s Strategy Workstrand five: “Where Restorative projects are available, offender managers will be expected to assess offender’s suitability for them and broker their involvement as appropriate”

20. “Together We Can…” • NOMS consultation document outlined ways that communities could be involved in criminal justice system • Contains section on restorative justice • Restorative justice can address hurt caused to victims and help offenders come to terms with their actions • Victim awareness, reparation, possibly face-to-face meetings

21. “Together We Can…” • Document is at times vague and lukewarm • International research evidence is described as ‘mixed’ • What research? • What does ‘working towards’ direct restorative approaches mean?

22. “Together We Can…” “NOMS proposes that best practice is shared and we contribute to protecting victims by: Assessing the risk of harm posed to individuals and communities and managing that risk in partnership with other agencies”

23. “Together We Can…” Victim’s work: “does not readily fit into targets and set timescales”

24. Response to Consultation • Victim’s needs should be central • Restorative practitioners need practical support • Further research is required • Restorative justice is not a panacea and needs to be considered realistically

25. Offender Management Model • Meeting the needs of victims through restorative approaches is an objective of offender management • Offender Managers encouraged to pursue a restorative outcome

26. Offender Management Model “There is some encouraging, if inconclusive, evidence about the rehabilitative effect of restorative measures, but the labour costs can be high. Pending more conclusive research, this encouragement stops short of an expectation that Offender Managers should seek to achieve a restorative outcome in all cases.” Grapes 2006:34

27. Offender Management Model • Offender Managers are encouraged to pursue an ‘indirectly restorative approach’, such as unpaid work or voluntary work in custody • Victims will be worked with by someone other than Offender Manager • The only direct role Offender Manager will have with victims is to pass on information about the offender

28. How Will We Judge if NOMS is Restorative? Bazemore and Schiff: • Principle of repair • Stakeholder participation • Transformation of government roles and relationships

29. How Will We Judge if NOMS is Restorative? NOMS own definitions: • Indirect reparation • Managing risk • Victims worked with by someone else

30. How Will We Judge if NOMS is Restorative? Does restorative justice have an equivalent place in NOMS to more familiar interventions?

31. Restorative Justice in Youth Justice in England and Wales • Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced restorative measures such as a Final Warning containing a restorative element • Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 introduced Referral Orders • High take-up of panels from offenders, but less from victims

32. Restorative Justice in Youth Justice in England and Wales • Code of Practice for Victims of Crime 2005 requires Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) to contact victims • YOTs carry out a range of restorative measures • Concerns that use of restorative justice might lead to net-widening and overly punitive sentencing

33. Restorative Justice in Northern Irish Youth Justice • Youth Conferencing Service introduced in 2003 • Restorative justice in Northern Ireland has been the subject of some controversy • Remains the most prominent example of Restorative justice being used in the UK

34. Conclusion - is this as Good as it Gets? • Restorative justice has been a significant influence, particularly on youth justice • Restorative justice advocates have ambitions beyond its use as ‘just another sentence’ • Ambition is that it should play a role in discussions about nature of society

35. Key Arguments • Use of restorative justice rhetoric is not always accompanied by application of its key principles • NOMS has not so far led to greater use of restorative justice • Restorative justice advocates should hold on to their high ambitions