Punitive Justice vs. Restorative Justice

As you may or may not know, I was a sociology major in college and Criminology was one of the memorable courses I took as such. But that was a long time ago, and since then there has been an important change in emphasis (in some circles) from punitive justice to restorative justice. 

My Time in Jail/Prison

The first time I was ever in a prison was when my Criminology class at William Jewell College made a field trip to the United States Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. At that time, it was the largest maximum-security prison in the United States.

Even before that unforgettable experience, though, I was concerned about prisoners in local jails. While still in college, I became pastor of a small mission church, and soon I began taking high school kids from church to the Henry County (Mo.) jail to conduct monthly “jail services.”

Several years after going to Japan, I visited people I knew, or knew of, a few times in detention centers (jails), and then multiple times I went to several different detention centers and penitentiaries to visit one man charged and then convicted of murder.

Since retirement, I have visited one young man held, at separate times, in the Clay County Jail & Detention Center here in Liberty, Mo.

In all these cases, the prisoners were incarcerated as a form of punishment. They were the target of what is often called punitive justice. That is, they were being punished for breaking the law and committing crimes against society.

From the time I took the Criminology course to the present I have always thought that the primary purpose of incarceration ought to be rehabilitation, not punishment. Accordingly, I have long been an advocate of indeterminate sentences.

It has only been in recent years, however, that I began hearing/learning about an alternative to the traditional practice of “penal justice.” This innovative approach is called “restorative justice.”

Meet Howard Zehr

More than any other living person, the new and growing emphasis on restorative justice is due to the teaching and writing of Howard Zehr.

Zehr (b. 1944) is currently the Distinguished Professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He is also the co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice.

Zehr has often been called the father—or the grandfather—of the restorative justice (RJ) movement. His first book introducing RJ was Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice (1990).

Now, The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr’s book first published in 2002 with the revised and updated edition issued in 2015, is more widely known. The current Amazon.com website for the latter indicates that over 150,000 copies have been sold.

Zehr has been a lifelong Mennonite, and his work in developing the concept/practice of restorative justice is in keeping with central tenets of that form of the Christian faith.

The Goal of Restorative Justice

An editorial review of Zehr’s 2015 book states:

Restorative Justice, with its emphasis on identifying the justice needs of everyone involved in a crime, is a worldwide movement of growing influence that is helping victims and communities heal, while holding criminals accountable for their actions.

All the people I have visited in jails and prisons were incarcerated primarily for punitive purposes. They were there to see that “justice was done,” but that was only punitive justice. There was nothing being done, it seems, that would help victims and communities heal.

RJ, though, is designed to promote three interlinking goals: offender responsibility, victim reparation, and community reconciliation.

In my research for this article, I watched “How to Love Your Enemy: A Restorative Justice Story” (2020), a YouTube video of what has been done in Longmont, Colorado, a city of nearly 100,000 about thirty miles NNW of Denver. Their Community Restorative Justice program dates back to 1994.

Their website now states: “Longmont Community Justice Partnership provides restorative justice services to the Longmont community and offers training in restorative practices throughout Colorado and the United States.”

This is the type of program that needs to be encouraged and supported across the country.