Hesperian Health Guides
Restorative justice to repair harm
HealthWiki > Promoting Community Mental Health > Chapter 5: Violence and anger > Restorative justice to repair harm
Restorative Justice Partnership in Yolo County, California, has what it calls its âsecret sauceâ that creates connections through open and honest dialogue among offenders, community participants, and victims who choose to participate. To be eligible, the accused person must agree to take responsibility for their conduct. The accused person gives an account of the events that led up to the crime, allowing them to share the story from their perspective and provide context. Panelists then ask questions to understand the circumstances around the crime and work with the person to identify the harms that they, the community, and the victim or victims experienced as a result of the crime. At the end, all decide together the steps that are necessary to make things as right as possible, and to discuss how to avoid repeating the behavior in the future.
Activity
Yarn ball web of relationships
The Yolo County Restorative Justice Partnership uses this training activity with volunteers to demonstrate and get people talking about how violence harms community connectedness.
Everyone stands in a large circle and tosses a ball of multicolored yarn to one another. Each person catching the yarn ball says a few words about how they identify as a community member. Then, holding the string in one hand, they throw the yarn ball to a person across from them who does the same.
Once everyone has shared, held onto the string, and tossed it to someone else, a spider web of yarn results. (Toss the yarn ball to everyone twice if the group is small.) The web represents the connections among community members.
Then the facilitator cuts the yarn in one or two places to represent how crime breaks relationships between community members, weakening the entire webâthe community as a whole. Tying 2 broken strands back together reverses the damage. By focusing on repairing the harms caused by violence and crime, restorative justice aims to strengthen the community at large.
Violence harms everyone it touches
People who are or have been victims of violence need support. So do people who have been violent toward others. Often, someone using violence has suffered violence and trauma themselves. Their experience may have shown them that violence works to control others or is a way to gain power in their life. Efforts toward restorative justice help people on all sides of a violent episode address their needs and strengthen the community. Though many places do not have restorative justice structures in place yet, you can learn from the experiences of existing programs and adapt their approaches to your context.
Understanding that those causing harm and violence may also have been victims, and that traditional forms of punishment donât tend to lower levels of violence, can open the door to approaches that interrupt the cycle of violence. Helpful approaches to situations where violence has occurred include:
Be self-aware and reserve judgment. Ideas about how to behave and the meaning of speech and actions vary from culture to culture, family to family, and person to person. What one person sees as angry or threatening may not match your experience. Open, respectful, non-judgmental questions can help uncover when differing cultural understandings are making a situation worse.
Be compassionate and aware. You may know or hear about a community member who has been violent with others or whose edgy, angry, or irritable behavior makes you worry they might become violent. Many of us are understandably uncomfortable interacting with potentially violent people, but it is important not to isolate them or leave them alone with their angry, irritable feelings. If you can involve them in community or other constructive activities where they can talk about their feelings and anger, and feel connected and understood, this will decrease the likelihood of violence. On the other hand, feeling judged, shunned, and distrusted can make violence more likely.
De-escalating situations that threaten to become violent is often a hard-won skill, developed through experience. By practicing to maintain a calm, confident, and sympathetic presence through your choice of words, tone of voice, and body language, you can learn to diffuse difficult situations. See ideas about how to prepare yourself and how to act in the moment. Always remember to prioritize your own safety along with the safety of others.
Prison-based counselor trainingâoffenders become mentors
Peer support among those who are or have been incarcerated is a good example of the unique advantage of talking to someone who âgets itâ as compared to counselors who havenât lived a situation directly. Understanding the deep connections between addiction, trauma, violence, and incarceration led Options Recovery Services to develop Californiaâs first in-custody counselor training program. The Occupational Mentor Certification Program (OMCP) trains incarcerated people to understand the health aspects of addiction and work as alcohol and drug counselors. The extensive training requires participants to confront, tell the truth about, and deeply engage with their own struggles with addiction, past trauma, the violence they experienced, and the violence they inflicted on others. Upon graduating from OMCP, the Mentors work as group facilitators and provide guidance and support to other incarcerated people. Piloted in 2006, the program now runs trainings in 7 California prisons and OMCP counselors work in every prison in the state.
With their work experience and Alcohol and Drug Counselor certification, OMCP graduates often find employment with substance abuse and violence prevention programs when they are released from prison, applying their skills to carry on this work in the community.