A year ago today I joined the RJC. It’s a cliché to say that time has flown by but it’s true nonetheless. It’s been a whirlwind year with scarcely a moment to catch breath. Looking back, there are lots of things I’m proud of, like our great new film Moving on, interesting events that we’ve hosted, and the steady growth in the number of organisations applying for the RSQM. I’ve also been fortunate enough to find out more about the great work that our members do and to hear first hand the compelling stories of people who have benefited from restorative justice. Whenever I’m buried in budgets or stuck in a windowless boardroom, it’s those stories that remind me why I do what I do.
The RJC and Why me? have co-produced Recovering from crime – restorative justice in action, a new film providing an insight into what a real restorative justice conference looks like.
The RJC and Why me? have co-produced Recovering from crime – restorative justice in action, a new film providing an insight into what a real restorative justice conference looks like.
If your child got into a fight with a friend or kicked down a door, would you call the police? I wouldn’t. I’d be angry, of course. And worried. But I wouldn’t be calling 999. For children living in care homes, though, this is too often the outcome of an incident that in a family home would be dealt with informally. As a result, looked after children and young people, an already vulnerable and marginalised group, are dragged into the criminal justice system.
Yesterday, a young woman called Ione Wells took the courageous step of waiving her anonymity to publish an open letter to the man who sexually assaulted her. The letter powerfully and eloquently expresses her outrage at the attack and confronts the anonymous offender with questions about the effect of his actions.
The Restorative Justice Council commissioned researchers at the Hallam Centre for Community Justice at Sheffield Hallam University to undertake a national restorative justice mapping project which aimed to provide a snapshot of restorative justice provision across England and Wales. A restorative justice mapping exercise has never before taken place on a national scale and this is therefore the first time we have been able to provide a picture of provision across the country.
Are you interested in supporting victims of crime and their families? Could you facilitate at Restorative Youth Caution meetings between young offenders and their victims at police stations across Kent. The Restorative Justice Service is a provision delivered jointly by Salus and Restorative Solutions. This service brings together Kent County Council’s Integrated Youth Services, Kent Police and Kent Probation to provide improved services to victims of crime in Kent and Medway.
It’s only a few weeks until the general election and, as always at general election time, there are opportunities now and in the next couple of months to promote new ideas that could reshape the policy environment. This will be harder to achieve once the daily grind of government sets in for whichever party or parties are successful in May.
The exhibition, Never throw out anyone, opens today at City Hall, London. It shows the restorative community reparation work done by young people who have offended and been supported by youth offending services across London and the Surrey Youth Support Service.
The latest evaluation of the youth conferencing restorative justice process in Northern Ireland has confirmed what previous studies have shown: that restorative justice is an effective way to deal with youth offending.
