Miscellaneous

What Does Stand for?

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Real justice, or restorative justice?

We think RJ stands for both.

A review of Sunny Schwartz and David Boodell's Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption and One Woman's Fight to Restore Justice to All shocks and educates with its stark facts and figures. To wit:

• Blacks are 6 times more likely to be imprisoned on drug charges, though they are no more likely than whites to use drugs


• 16% of adults in prison suffer from mental illness (note: we've seen higher numbers elsewhere; it should not be surprising that one institution has trouble gauging the possible population of another)


• Nearly 75% of released inmates return to prison within 3 years


• A 1988 study of New York crime found that 40% were related to drug *trade* (rather than use)

The good news is that the authors offer tested, workable, bipartisan solutions. The answers are rooted in restorative justice. What sounds like a touchy-feely do-gooder idea is really more of a method of grabbing the bull by the horns. RJ emphasizes personal responsibility, and brings victims into a triad (society, offender, offended) into the mix in a way traditional systems do not. RJ boldly and effectively gets to the roots of violence. If it were simple, everyone would already be doing it.

RJ may well stand for radical justice. Let's try it and find out.

See America's Prisons: Is There Hope? Helen Epstein, New York Review of Books (June 11, 2009).

For more about RJ, see the National Institute of Justice's overview; Prison Fellowship International's Restorative Justice clearinghouse; and the Minnesota Department of Corrections Restorative Justice Department.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 24, 2009 (boomark / email).