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 “
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.
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