A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Restorative Justice

by Paul S. Fiddes

Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opens on a scene of broken relationships and injustice. Hermia’s father is insisting that she marry a man she does not love—Demetrius—and the Duke of Athens has passed the sentence that if she refuses she must either die or spend the remainder of her life as a nun. Demetrius himself, wanting to marry Hermia, has broken his vows of love to Helena, to whom he was formerly betrothed. The countryside around has declined into disorder, floods and infertility because of a row between the Fairy King and Queen who each want possession of a young Indian boy servant, which whom they both appear to have an unhealthy obsession. Hermia determines to run away with her true love, Lysander, Demetrius pursues them, and Helena pursues Demetrius, with the result that Shakespeare gets all four of them into a wood at night, in which the warring fairy company is also encamped.

How can relations be restored and justice done? On the surface it seems that it will be by way of a piece of instant magic. Oberon, King of the Fairies, instructs his malicious servant Puck to anoint the eyes of his Queen, Titania, as well as the Athenian lovers, with juice from a magic flower. This has the property to make them fervently love whatever they first lay eyes on when they awake. So he plans to bring his erring wife to obedience, since he hopes that the first thing she sees and loves when she awakes will be something hideous, and she will later be overcome with shame. In fact she sees a simple workman, Bottom the Weaver, who has been endowed with an ass’s head by Puck. The lovers, Oberon thinks, will see their proper partners on awakening and be reconciled to each other. So one person tries to restore relations by exercising power over the others, but it is not to be. The plan goes badly wrong. Both Demetrius and Lysander end up chasing Helena, who finds their sudden attentions unnatural, and reconciliation only comes about because the utter confusion caused gives time and opportunity for all the participants to reflect on their situations and listen to the feelings of the others.

Restoration thus does not come by a manipulation of emotions, but by the mysterious growth of love and forgiveness between the persons involved. As Demetrius confesses, “I wot not by what power/ (But by some power it is) My love to Hermia /Melted as the snow”. He now recognizes the unhealthy nature of his obsession, “like in sickness”, and finds he has come back to health in vowing to be “evermore true” to Helena, whom he now realizes he has loved all the time.  Through the night’s upheavals all the characters have together found a way forward, and life can begin again with a double marriage between Hermia and Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, and renewed marital love between Oberon and Titania. It is only to be hoped that Oberon has learned from the experience. The civil law has to accommodate its view of justice to this re-making of relations, and Duke Theseus remits his judgement and approves the marriages, which he combines with his own marriage to his former opponent in war, Hippolyta.

The play is full of images about the eyes and seeing, and it is clear that for most of the time the participants are failing to see each other properly, or have been prevented from doing so by circumstances. When Hermia complains to the Duke,”I would my father looked but with my eyes,” he replies sternly “Rather your eyes must with his judgement look.” Demetrius, when in his state of unreality, “dotes on Hermia’s eyes.” Helena laments the split caused in her former friendship with Hermia by Demetrius’  behavior, again using images of eyes; she complains that while “my ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,” this is no longer the case. Laying the magic juice on sleeping eyes cannot instantly cure this eye-problem: it will only be resolved when people have learned to look at others as they really are, with genuine love. This will take time, some open speaking and some painful experiences.

Shakespeare weaves into this play a quotation from the New Testament scriptures that underlines what is going on. On awakening after his wonderful night with the Fairy Queen, Bottom absurdly misquotes the Apostle Paul who had once written that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” While Paul is talking here about love for God, we know that Paul thinks this can never be separated from love for our fellow human beings. In Bottom’s confused version of the text, he confesses that he has had a supremely mysterious experience in which “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was.” By muddling up the physical senses like this, Bottom only deepens the sense of mystery about what has happened to him, which is finally the mystery of love. All the characters, we feel, have gone through a similar transformation. Surely we may say that in any event of restorative justice, something mysterious is going to happen between the persons involved which cannot be rationally arranged or completely planned beforehand, but which will open up healing and hope for the future.

 

Revd Professor Paul S. Fiddes' recent book, More Things in Heaven and Earth. Shakespeare, Theology, and the Interplay of Texts, is published by the University of Virginia Press.

If you live in or near Oxford and would like to join us for a charity performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wild Goose Theatre Company are allowing us to sell tickets to their dress rehearsal in aid of The Mint House: https://www.minthouseoxford.co.uk/events/shakespeare

‘Shifting the dial’ on the offer – and take-up – of restorative justice

by Rosie Chadwick

Produced by the Victims’ Commissioner, the Victims Statistics 2020 include this striking graphic.

Victims statistics, year ending March 2019: victims services, restorative justice, and information, advice and support (Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, 2020)

Some of the sample sizes are small, and you could argue about the wording of the questions, but the overarching messages seem clear: there’s lots more we could and should be doing to make a reality of victims’ right to receive information on RJ; and there is demand for this from victims.

It will be great to hear more from our conference contributors next week on what can be done to ‘shift the dial.’  

Restorative Teaching (RJ World Conference 2022)

by Rosie Chadwick

Fabulous session from author and restorative practitioner Leaf Seligman at this week’s RJ World e-conference. Leaf was talking about restorative teaching. Here’s a little of what she shared, illustrated with stories from a writing course she teaches:

restorative teaching restorative practice rj world econference leaf seligman

Start with yourself – i.e. the importance of inner work and self-care: ‘you can’t offer students what you don’t have as a resource for yourself.’

See your students as co-learners: ‘They’re my teacher as much as I am theirs.’

Remember the 4 verbs:

  • Notice – be aware of what’s going on for you and for others

  • Wonder – be curious rather than rushing to judgement

  • Acknowledge – acknowledge where you make mistakes and acknowledge what’s true for others

  • Appreciate – both in the sense of showing gratitude but also in the sense of understanding more deeply.

Give co-learners agency – ask learners ‘What do you need to learn? What will be satisfying to you as learners?

Challenge hierarchies of learning: ‘the written word is not always someone’s first language.’

Don’t be afraid of discomfort, whether that’s from making yourself vulnerable or from conversations that you might be tempted to shut down: ‘Discomfort is not the same as danger.’ What’s more, ‘teaching restoratively requires us to be willing to sit in the complicated messy space of being human together.’

It’s OK to take incremental steps. Read the room. Invite humility.

Above all: ‘If relationships are at the centre of our pedagogy then we know we’re on the right track.’

You can find the whole thing here:

Writing "The Meeting Room" - A Stage Play About Restorative Justice

by Rebecca Abrams

When The Mint House generously offered to host a performance reading of my play The Meeting Room, I said yes without a moment’s hesitation. A few weeks later, on a gorgeous June afternoon in 2019, it was performed in front of an invited audience of about fifty people, with unscheduled musical accompaniment from a busker outside on his electric guitar.   

Inspiration for the play came from several sources. As a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, I’ve always been interested in family dynamics and family conflict. The themes of justice and forgiveness have also long fascinated me. And I’d been wanting for some time to write a modern version of the Greek tragedy, Electra, which so powerfully addresses all of these issues.

The idea of writing about the restorative justice process specifically took shape in response to conversations over several years with a close friend about her experiences as a restorative justice facilitator. Her work seemed so vital to me - and so difficult!  

How do you loosen the iron grip of anger, pain and grievance? How do you get people to the point where they are willing to sit in a room and talk to the very person who’s hurt them so deeply? 

text How do you loosen the iron grip of anger, pain and grievance? How do you get people to the point where they are willing to sit in a room and talk to the very person who’s hurt them so deeply?

 To research The Meeting Room I read about the restorative justice process, and attended a fascinating event at The Mint House with facilitators, victims and ex-offenders. I also visited HMP High Down for the final session of a Sycamore Programme, where I was able to talk to offenders about their experiences. All of these fed into the play in its final form.

The play’s action takes place over nine months, from a first request for an restorative justice meeting to the meeting itself.  It centres on a mother and her adult son and daughter. The son has been serving a twelve year prison sentence for killing his father when he was a teenager.

Now due for release, the son wants his mother’s forgiveness. She is torn between a desire to reconcile and a deep fear of reconciliation. The daughter, meanwhile, for reasons of her own, is adamant that there can be no forgiveness for her brother’s actions. 

All three characters are locked into conflicting versions of the events that have so powerfully shaped their lives. Some of those events are indisputable, but others sit in the shadows, unacknowledged and terrifying.

During one of our conversations my restorative justice faciliator friend said something that lodged in my mind. ‘The important work has all happened before the victims and perpetrators actually meet,’ she told me, ‘in the weeks and months leading up to an restorative justice meeting.’  

text the important work has all happened before the victims and perpetrators actually meet, in the weeks and months leading up to a restorative justice meeting

Loosening the knots that bind us to a certain way of thinking or feeling, she explained, is a slow and delicate process. One that happens not simply between people, but within them. In physical and temporal spaces, but also in invisible psychological spaces.   

In The Meeting Room I wanted to enact all those different kinds of space. To show not only the characters’ physical encounters, but also the internal meetings that take place, in their minds and hearts, consciously and unconsciously. I wanted to explore those shifting spaces between and within them, the spaces where they can, hopefully, begin to encounter other ways of thinking and feeling about the past.

text In The Meeting Room I wanted to enact all those different kinds of space. To show not only the characters’ physical encounters, but also the internal meetings that take place, in their minds and hearts, consciously and unconsciously. I wanted to

 Conflict is at the heart of every compelling story, and every tragic one. The collision of different needs and different ways of seeing the same situation. The RJ process, when it succeeds, does something truly remarkable and infinitely precious. It helps people to move beyond the conflict deadlock.

It enables them to consider events from other perspectives, to meet those they’ve hurt and been hurt by, and also to meet themselves, and encounter different versions of themselves. 

Above all, that is what I have tried to explore in this play. Because shutting out the possibility of meeting ourselves and others, with all our mistakes and flaws, our shame and guilt, ultimately makes prisoners of us all.

text Conflict is at the heart of every compelling story, and every tragic one. The collision of different needs and different ways of seeing the same situation. The restorative justice process, when it succeeds, does something truly remarkable and in
 

Rebecca Abrams is an author, literary critic, tutor in creative writing, and journalist based in Oxford.

We are exploring this topic further in our upcoming event: Using the arts to engage with restorative justice

Embedding restorative practice – reflecting on the pieces in the jigsaw and on what we can do together

by Rosie Chadwick

Another year draws to a close, prompting reflection on the journey we’ve travelled and what lies ahead. Looking back, I’m grateful to the many ‘co-travellers’ – event speakers and participants, trainers and trainees, partner organisations and others – with whom it’s been a privilege to work through the year and from whom we’ve taken inspiration, learning and encouragement. As they say at the Oscars - you know who you are: Thank You!! 

Looking forward, I’m conscious of the many different elements involved in embedding restorative practice in and across settings and communities. Here are, for me, some key pieces in the jigsaw. It would be great to hear from others what pieces you would add, any you think don’t belong and what your experience has been of fitting them together!

elements of embedding restorative practice jigsaw pieces - with mint house logo

However, I’m also encouraged by the promise of what we can do collectively. On behalf of the Mint House we look forward to a year of creative collaboration with the shared aim of making restorative justice/practice ‘the way we do things round here.’

Applied Theatre and Drama and Restorative Justice

by Miranda Warner

In 2019, in partnership with NGO ‘Restore’ in Pollsmoor Prison, Cape Town, I facilitated a course which utilised an applied theatre toolkit to engage with restorative justice. The course was attended by men who were soon to be released, and focussed on emotional literacy, anger, empathy, forgiveness, and reintegration.

Restorative justice takes the emotional impact of crime on all parties seriously and sees this encounter with the other and their emotional reality as the locus of healing and restoration. My hope was this this emotional, experiential core of restorative justice might interact fruitfully with the practice of applied theatre; as we used drama activities to explore emotions and to embody and investigate the perspective of ‘characters’ other than ourselves.

In our first week we looked at expanding our emotional vocabulary, and we identified the emotions that we were most familiar with, and those which we felt uncomfortable with or unable to share.  These themes were explored using drama improvisation activities.  The second week focussed on anger and used forum theatre techniques to explore the different ways we can express anger without it leading to violence.  The third week centred around the theme of empathy, utilising freeze frames to imagine ourselves as  victims of crime.  The fourth week explored forgiveness using role play through puppetry.  Restorative conversations were acted by puppets and the place and power of apology was explored.  The final week centred on the participants’ hopes for life outside prison and the obstacles that might stand in the way of those goals; creating and enacting ‘life obstacle courses’ through which the participants could ‘rehearse’ challenges they anticipated facing on release, building confidence as they did so.

Reflections on the programme from participants saw a high value being placed on the practical, action-based approach, on skills and strategies gained for life on release, and for processing emotions differently.  One participant spoke of how his ‘eyes had been opened’ and another said he wanted to return to ‘apologise to each and every person in my street’.  A further participant shared the realisation that ‘my actions have an impact on others without [me] even knowing’.  Almost all of them spoke of ‘brotherhood’ and community they had found in the group, one writing that in this group he had ‘worked with people “together” which I didn’t’ think was possible’.  As an illustration of the potential efficacy of this type of work in restorative practice I shall outline two particularly significant moments from the course in which a meaningful interaction with restorative justice can be clearly identified.

In our third week we staged a still image (like a 3D photograph or a tableau) of a family who returned home from a celebration to discover that their house had been broken into.  The actors froze in position reacting to the realisation of what had happened.  Each participant was asked to remain in character and describe what they were thinking and feeling.  They did this with considerable depth, sometimes breaking into substantial monologues.  One character reported that he felt violated by someone having entered his home, another described themselves as terrified and devastated, and a detailed narrative developed concerning the break-in’s impact on one son.  In addition, one of the participants watching the scene filled in the house breaker’s story, explaining that he ‘wanted his next fix’ which led to a conversation about the impact of drug addiction upon a community.  There was extensive conversation amongst participants about how putting themselves in the metaphorical shoes of those on the receiving end of crime shifted their perceptions.  Participants expressed the emotional weight of this expanded perspective and many shared stories of their own experiences at the receiving end of crime. 

In our fourth week we co-created a scenario in which a man came home to find his friend in bed with his wife.  This man stabbed his friend and later went to prison, whilst the ‘friend’ recuperated.  I suggested that two participants could volunteer to enact and explore what might happen when these men met years later if one or both parties were willing to apologise.  No-one was willing to step into either of these roles as I was told categorically that ‘men don’t apologise’. The next session we returned to this story we had co-created but this time using the medium of puppetry.  Each participant made his own paper puppet and then, in pairs, they carried out a conversation between these puppets.  This approach meant that no-one had to act an apology, nor perform one for an audience.  Each pair was willing to take part in this version of the activity, and to report their experiences, and a wide variety of different conversations and outcomes were reflected on in the group. 

The following week a participant told me that over the weekend his prison gang had required him to assault another member of our group, which he had done.  Afterwards, feeling remorse, and reflecting on the conversations we’d had that week, he went to the other participant, apologised, and sought his forgiveness, which was given.  They left the session that day with one posing the  question; ‘we’re brothers, right?’ and the other giving the response ‘yes, you’ll always be my brother’.  This seems to suggest that exploring a fictional restorative conversation from a safe distance created the opportunity to imagine and risk undertaking such a conversation in a non-fictional setting.

The participants’ willingness to engage fully with the course, and the community we forged as they did so, not only had an impact on them, but also challenged, educated, and inspired me in restorative practice. I am richer for the relationships I forged with these courageous and open-hearted men.

Miranda Warner has an MA in Applied Theatre; Drama and the Criminal Justice System and is Restorative Justice Facilitator for Restorative Justice Nelson in New Zealand.

We are exploring this topic further in our upcoming event: Using the arts to engage with restorative justice

What contribution can restorative practices make to the climate crisis?

By Pete Wallis

Ben Almassi, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Governors State University in Chicago and author of 'Reparative Environmental Justice in a World of Wounds’ led a fascinating discussion on this question at The Mint House on Wednesday 13 October 2021. With COP26 fast approaching his talk couldn’t have been more timely.

The need for urgent action by those in power raises questions about the role, if any, of a restorative approach in addressing the crisis that threatens all our futures. Restorative practice involves the slow process of building relationships and the delicate task of finding ways for repair when harm has been caused. It feels unhelpful to label things that are already happening in the global response to climate change ‘restorative’ for the sake of it, and yet Ben acknowledged that there are few tangible examples of restorative approaches being explicitly deployed in the context of environmental damage. As one of the audience said, we want a quick fix. She went on to say that actually it is quick fixes in the past that got us into this mess. If we are to find a way forward, even if no one has done it before, this has to be done together. That means working on relationships.

Ben helpfully mapped out the variety of relationships that could form a focus for reparative environmental justice, including interspecies as well as human relationships, and intergenerational relationships that embrace our predecessors as well as future generations. Lots of the familiar restorative themes emerged from his presentation, for example accountability, interconnection, consequences, needs, collaboration and healing. It got me thinking about whether I am already employing restorative practice in my own response to the climate crisis, and I came up with a couple of personal examples.

For the past five or six years I have been a member of an activist group called Fossil Free Oxfordshire that is trying to encourage the Oxfordshire Pension Fund Committee to divest from fossil fuels. I feel that my restorative background is relevant on several levels; looking out for the relationships within the activist group to avoid burnout and conflict; building positive relationships with the Pension Fund Committee and pension officers to try to work with them towards a common goal of decarbonising the fund; looking closely at the engagement that the committee is committed to with fossil fuel companies to ensure that there are clear metrics and targets in line with the Paris Accord (holding them to account); and encouraging staff who are in the pension scheme to think about where their money is invested. Restorative approaches help in developing and maintaining all of these relationships. Get it wrong with one of the key players and a door could be closed, whilst remaining open to different perspectives feels more fruitful than battering people to do what I think is needed.

My other example is more personal. It is a letter that I intend to write to my granddaughter (who is approaching 11 months old). The joy I feel as a new grandparent is tempered by my anguish and despair at the damage that my generation has wrought on our perfect planet, and fear for the world that she will inhabit as she grows towards adulthood. It may be more about my need for forgiveness for my part in the excesses of the rich West than anything that will help her, but letters of apology nonetheless have a noble tradition in restorative circles.  

We need hope, and if no one has done it before, now is the time to find better ways to work together in healing our world, which as Ben said, has to be through relationships.

A recording of the event ‘What contribution can restorative practices make to the climate crisis?’ can be found here: https://www.minthouseoxford.co.uk/events/2021/10/13/what-contribution-can-restorative-practices-make-to-the-climate-crisis

Forgiveness and Restorative Justice: Perspectives from Christian Theology

By Myra Blyth

ForgivenessandRJBook2.jpg

Forgiveness and Restorative Justice: Perspectives from Christian Theology by Myra N. Blyth, Matthew J. Mills, and Michael H. Taylor.

This book recently released offers perspectives from theology on the meaning and place (if any) of forgiveness in restorative justice. The three authors share a passion for restorative justice and found a powerful impetus for their constructive dialogue in a common core of influential works, including those of restorative justice advocates, Howard Zehr and John Braithwaite; theologians, including Timothy Gorringe and Christopher Marshall; and sceptics, like Annalise Acorn.

Myra Blyth offers two chapters which explore the intersection between ritual, forgiveness and the conference dynamic. In chapter 2 she draws on ritual theory and proposes ways to enhance the potential of the conference script as a “ritual of restoration”.  In chapter 6 Blyth offers an analysis of the conferencing experience based on empirical research with victims, offenders and facilitators carried out during 2019-2020 and contends that the practices of restorative justice will be enriched by adopting a more fluid understanding of forgiveness as defined by participants, and by conceiving forgiveness as a process/journey-oriented practice, i.e. a dynamic and integral component necessary for a process to be ‘fully’ restorative.

In chapter 4, Taylor asks whether forgiveness is a Christian idea, as feared by some who would deny its place within the principles and practices of restorative justice. In fact, he argues, forgiveness is incredibly difficult to define and there is no distinctively Christian concept, even though Christian faith may motivate its adherents to be forgiving. In chapter 7 he looks beyond the conferencing process and towards the social context to ask whether restorative justice carries any responsibility for establishing a more just society; that is, transforming the social reality which gives rise to many of the problems which the conferencing process is meant to address.

Mills offers three reflections on restorative justice principles in the light of historical theology. He draws upon a range of theological sources, especially from the medieval and Catholic traditions, as well as modern philosophy (both ‘continental’ and ‘analytic’);

In chapter 3 he critiques the western intellectual tradition around retribution and the marginalisation of victims. His concern is to give stakeholders “reasons” to engage in a restorative justice conference arguing against a binary view of right and wrong, and for the mutual recognition of wrongdoing (human sinfulness) in both victims and offenders so that mutual acknowledgement of a common humanity can be the starting point for criminal justice processes. In chapter 8, Mills offers a speculative thought experiment concerning the afterlife as a context for restorative justice. Considering both a victim’s right to withhold forgiveness and the limitations of restorative justice for addressing acts of wrongdoing which are regarded as ‘unforgivable’, he considers the possible dynamics of a future (as conceived in the Christian tradition) in which all things are reordered and revisioned.

Whilst the authors come from very different vantage points their essays share core concerns around common themes that are crucial to restorative justice theory and practice. The following extract from the introduction outlines these common themes:

Not only is there a processional aesthetic to the ordering of these contributions – before, during, and after the conference – but a number of themes also run like threads throughout the book. All three of us refer to ‘metanarratives’ or all-embracing stories. Metanarratives give expression to the meaning of life; for Christians, the creative and redemptive drama of which we are a part, and to which we contribute for good or ill, is what life is all about. The metanarrative provides a context and rationale for various teachings or doctrines as they ‘fill out’ the details of the story. For example, doctrines of atonement, some more punitive than others, which try to explain how our redemption was brought about, only make sense within the bigger picture which explains why the redemptive act of the crucifixion was necessary in the first place.

A second common theme is ‘community’, which is important for restorative justice as a whole. It is communities, not just individuals, that need to be ‘restored’ when the moral rules, and with them mutual trust, have been broken; trauma is social. It is communities that are bound together by shared values, reinforce them, and build solidarity. It is com- munities, not just victims, that should have a say as to how wrongs can be righted and may be best placed to do so. It is communities that have a vital, supportive role to play along the road to the restoration of offenders. And it is communities that may or, as many fear, may not be adequate to the task; more of a utopian ideal than a reality.

Thirdly, we all regard ‘moral seriousness’ as essential to the task of restorative justice. The reality of offending, the harm done, the responsibility of the offender, and the need for reparation, must be fully acknowledged and confronted – by way of shaming, for example – and reflected in all attempts to deal with offending in a restorative way. Social policies, for instance, must be realistic and take into account what might be called the darker side of human nature, or what the Christian tradition refers to as ‘sin’, lying at the heart of its metanarrative about redemption and its rituals of baptism, confession, and eucharist. Besides being a costly endeavour, restorative justice involves confrontation with evil, clear-eyed judgement, and an inflexible love.

Writing from a Christian point of view, most of our arguments in favour of restorative justice are made on Christian terms. We state the case, not ‘aggressively’ but convinced that ours is ground upon which others might come to stand as well. We also claim that religious traditions are worth engaging in dialogue, since they offer weighty insights, tried and tested by long experience, into topics highly relevant to restorative justice which may well enrich the wider discussion. Yet, even when one has difficulties with the metanarrative and doctrine of Christianity, perhaps in the life, ministry and martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, inspiration and justification may still be found. This could help those partners in criminal justice pro- cesses – police, prison services, probation officers, social workers, criminologists, lawyers, and the public – to understand where Christians may be coming from.

Dr Myra Blyth and Prof Michael Taylor are Trustees of The Mint House.

Making the financial case for restorative practice: some ‘big ticket’ items

by Rosie Chadwick

It’s tempting for advocates of restorative practice to think that the benefits speak for themselves, but if we want to make the case to doubters we need to appeal not just to the heart but also to the head and more especially the wallet.

Evidence is frustratingly scarce. When it comes to gathering more of it, we might usefully concentrate on some ‘big ticket’ items where savings can potentially be substantial.  Here are my suggested top 3 candidates. Are there others we should add and/or is there evidence you know of that can be widely shared? If so, please let us know!

Copy of Financial case for RP - blog v2.png

1.        School exclusions.

There’s good evidence that restorative practice helps bring down school exclusions. Government data on the cost of school exclusions is quite old but a 2017 study by the IPPR think tank estimated the cost of exclusion at around £370,000 per young person based on a range of factors including the costs of alternative provision, lost taxation from lower future earnings, associated benefits payments, higher likelihood of entry into the criminal justice system, increased likelihood of long-term mental health problems and so on.[1] Total cost for every year’s cohort of permanently excluded young people were put at £2.1 billion, and that’s without adding in exclusions not captured in the official data. Even a modest reduction in exclusions of, say, 1% equates to a saving of £20 million.

2.       Looked-after children

A 2019 study by the Institute for Government found that 47% of local authority spending on children’s care (£7.9 billion in total) went on services for looked after children, with costs and demand both rising steeply in recent years.[2] An evaluation of the Leeds Partners in Practice, published in 2020,[3] found that introducing ‘restorative early support interventions’ generated savings of over £400,000 a month, largely due to a drop in the number of looked after children.  If replicated elsewhere, this may help to ease the acute pressures being felt by children’s services.

3.       Savings in health: the benefits of a ‘restorative just culture.’

Over to health, and research published in 2019 found economic as well as many other benefits when one NHS Trust - Mersey Care – put a ‘restorative just culture’ at the heart of its response to incidents, patient harm and complaints against staff.[4]  The researchers estimate the economic benefits of introducing a restorative justice culture at about £2.5 million, equating to about 1% of the Trust’s total costs and 2% of its labour costs, and with savings arising from less staff sickness absence, fewer suspensions with pay and less spending on legal costs and terminations in employment. With an NHS workforce of 1.2 million and hospital staff sickness rates of around 4% pre-pandemic, tangible benefits like this surely merit all of our attention.


References

[1] Making The Difference: Breaking the link between school exclusion and social exclusion | IPPR

[2] Children's social care | The Institute for Government

[3] Leeds Partners in Practice: Reimagining child welfare services (publishing.service.gov.uk)

[4] (PDF) Restorative Just Culture: a Study of the Practical and Economic Effects of Implementing Restorative Justice in an NHS Trust (researchgate.net)

Communications challenges for restorative practice organisations (Part 3)

by Joy Bettles

(In parts one and two of this blog series on communications challenges for RP organisations we discussed the challenges. This blog continues with some solutions.)

So, how can we communicate restorative practice effectively?

Keep it simple and relevant

  • Try to explain restorative practice in simple terms

  • Highlight its relevance to everyday life

Focus on values

  • Focus on the values behind restorative practice

  • Use data and research where these will draw in specific audiences, but don’t rely on it for a general audience

Invest in new forms of media

  • Invest resources into communicating restorative practice

  • Focus efforts on newer forms of media such as social media to draw in a wider audience. Consider social media integral to the communications strategy rather than an optional bonus.

Share stories

  • Share stories which encourage people to connect with the concepts on an emotional level

  • Where possible, use photos and video to draw in an audience and illustrate real life situations

Highlight a range of settings

  • Communicate the ways in which people from a variety of backgrounds can use restorative approaches in a range of settings

  • Share ideas of how restorative approaches can be used in everyday life such as workplaces and families.

Become welcoming to diverse groups

  • Put effort into making our organisations a welcoming place for under-represented groups by asking hard questions and taking practical steps to involve people who are different to us

  • Signal openness to diversity by using diverse stories and imagery (although take care to not portray an inaccurate image of the organisation in an effort to appear diverse)

Train and resource community workers

  • Train and resource people who work in the community in various roles in order to encourage restorative approaches among the people they work with (the report Building Social Support for Restorative Justice suggested “the concept of ‘multipliers’, people or groups who are open-minded and interested in the ideas of restorative justice (doctors, therapists, priests, teachers, trainers, etc.)”[i] who could promote restorative practice in their community.)

 

We are continuing to think about these issues and the best ways to tackle them, so please contact us if you have any thoughts to share.

(Read Part 1 - Read Part 2)

References:

[i] Brunilda Pali and Christa Pelikan (2011), Building Social Support for Restorative Justice, European Forum for Restorative Justice, p.191.

Communications challenges for restorative practice organisations (Part 2)

by Joy Bettles

(In part one of the blog series on communications challenges for RP organisations we discussed some of the practical considerations in explaining RP to the public. This blog continues with some thoughts on deeper issues)

Data, values, and experience

The evidence base for restorative practice is evolving and robust quantitative evidence is still needed in some areas.  This can be a challenge, particularly when aiming to connect with facts-based audiences. On the other hand, values should not be overlooked.

“The emphasis on values… has often been neglected in RJ communication efforts. We tend to focus on facts rather than on values. Facts are important, but if the dominant frame through which the public sees RJ is that “RJ is too lenient on crime therefore not good for security,” even our most compelling facts will fail to convince people.”[i]

Restorative practice organisations need to focus on communicating why restorative practice and restorative justice is important, not just quote research.

Personal experience is also very powerful in opening people’s eyes to the potential benefits of restorative practice:

“It is often public emotions that define public debates and political initiatives in the field of justice, not public information. Concrete experiences are the most promising path to winning people’s hearts and minds….”[ii]

However, this is challenging as it is not possible practically to enable every person in society to experience restorative justice conferences or restorative circles. Instead, we can aim to encourage individuals to educate themselves and put restorative approaches into practice in their daily lives (and we can enable this through training opportunities).

Connecting with new and diverse audiences

As previously mentioned, connecting with people who are not already familiar with restorative approaches is challenging but necessary if engagement in restorative approaches is to grow.

Restorative practice organisations can be largely mono-cultural, in terms of racial, socioeconomic, or academic background. Ensuring greater diversity is a bigger issue to consider and work through but is essential to making restorative practice accessible and attractive to a wider audience.

If people find it difficult to see how they ‘fit’ within restorative approaches being offered, they will not be interested in engaging with it. Communications messaging needs to consider this carefully but also not paint a picture which is inaccurate: rather, organisations need to work to make themselves a truly welcoming environment for a diverse range of individuals.

On a more practical level, diversifying the type of media used to promote the organization can help to reach new audiences. Using social media (particularly newer apps or sites which are currently popular) can be one way to reach a younger and less academic or practitioner-based audience.

However, social media isn’t a magic key. Social media relies on social interaction and sharing, so it can be a challenge to get organic growth and impact if an organisation’s supporters/practitioners don't use social media themselves as the reach of social media will be limited.

 

(Continued in Part 3 - Read Part 1)

 

References:

[i] Brunilda Pali (2011), Media Toolkit for Restorative Justice Organisations, European Forum for Restorative Justice, p. 25.

[ii] Brunilda Pali and Christa Pelikan (2011), Building Social Support for Restorative Justice, European Forum for Restorative Justice, p. 183.

Restorative justice in cases of sexual violence: some reflections

by Rosie Chadwick

Great talk by Estelle Zinsstag last week, for which many thanks – and to the largest ever audience at a Mint House event, involving people from around the world and showing the high interest in the topic.

My main takeaways? Restorative justice in cases of sexual violence is a serious undertaking. It requires highly skilled and specialist facilitation, robust assessment of the safety of the process and victims’ needs must of course be front and centre.  

But... some concerns raised about RJ in cases of sexual violence apply equally to court proceedings. More customary criminal justice processes are patently not working for victims as things stand – as low prosecution rates bring home.  Research suggests that many victims would welcome the option of a restorative response. Plus it’s already happening on every continent, in many cases ‘under the radar.’

Governments therefore need galvanising to make this option more widely available, backing this up with long-term funding, rigorous practice and ethical standards and careful evaluation.

Communications challenges for restorative practice organisations (Part 1)

by Joy Bettles

(This three-part blog series will cover some of the reasons we think communicating restorative practice is so difficult, followed by some thoughts on how we can communicate more effectively. We are really interested to hear from others on this topic so please let us know your thoughts and ideas)

One of the big challenges for restorative practice organisations is “How do we stop preaching to the converted?” and reach out to wider audiences in order to more effectively promote and embed restorative approaches in society.

Challenges of explaining RP

Explaining what restorative practice means can be challenging. The term ‘restorative practice’ is vague:  What does ‘restorative’ mean? What does ‘practice’ mean? Some organisations use terms such as ‘restorative approaches’ or ‘relational practice’ which are slightly easier to understand but are still not obvious.

The term ‘restorative justice’ may be better recognised and understood, however, the connection to criminal justice can lead people to have a very narrow view of what restorative practice can mean for themselves and their communities.

Restorative justice and restorative practice are hard to explain in a sentence or two[i]. This doesn’t lend itself well to current media preferences, particularly social media (think of the rise of short form video such as TikTok, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels which use videos of 15-30 seconds or less).

Conveying relevance

Another challenge to restorative practice organisations in communicating with the public is conveying the relevance of restorative practice to everyday life. Restorative practice is not something that is immediately easy to understand (compared to very recognisable causes such as child poverty or cancer research).

Some people misunderstand that restorative practice is limited to restorative justice in criminal justice settings and therefore see it as not relevant to them if they have not been a victim or perpetrator of crime.

In order to support restorative practice, people need to see how restorative approaches can be helpful  in their own relationships.

People also need to recognise the benefits of restorative justice to society and decide that this is something they want to participate in. (The report Building Social Support For Restorative Justice[ii] explores the political and philosophical issues surrounding this in depth).

Lack of resources

Restorative practice organisations are often low on resources. Financial resources in these organisations often go towards funding practitioners or supporting volunteers, rather than communications.

Stories and imagery

Stories and imagery connect with the public as the emotive nature of stories and images makes people more likely to engage with the messages they convey.

“Images that communicate [our message] are crucial. Images and symbols can be critical to conveying a story, therefore we should find images that convey RJ values.”[iii]

Imagery (in both photo and video form) is also essential for content on social media platforms, as social media for many years has been evolving to rely on photo and video content rather than text-based content.

However, restorative practice is personal and can relate to very private and sometimes difficult experiences in our lives. As a result, it is challenging to obtain personal stories and imagery. Even if people are happy to share their stories, it’s often not appropriate or possible for a photographer to be present in these moments.

Restorative practice organisations often end up relying on stock photos and abstract images which don’t have the same impact as photos or videos of people in real life situations. The lack of real-life imagery can make it difficult for people to visualise what restorative approaches look like in practice.

(Continued in Part 2 and Part 3)

 

References:

[i] Brunilda Pali (2011), Media Toolkit for Restorative Justice Organisations, European Forum for Restorative Justice, p. 15.

[ii] Brunilda Pali and Christa Pelikan (2011), Building Social Support for Restorative Justice, European Forum for Restorative Justice.

[iii] Brunilda Pali (2011), Media Toolkit for Restorative Justice Organisations, European Forum for Restorative Justice, p. 25.

Restorative justice and racial justice

by Rosie Chadwick

As news headlines reverberate with reactions to the recent report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and the trial of Derek Chauvin, charged with the murder of George Floyd, it seems timely – indeed overdue – to reflect on the need for restorative and racial justice to go hand in hand and to acknowledge the important contribution of Fania E. Davis to thinking and practice in this area. 

In her short but powerful The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice, Fania Davis reminds us that ‘healing interpersonal harm requires a commitment to transforming the context in which the injury occurs: the socio-historical conditions and institutions that are structured precisely to perpetuate harm.’ Not doing this, Dr Davis argues, is like being a gardener who is devoted to the well-being of individual plants but ignores the health of the soil. What’s more, ‘restorative justice risks losing relevance if we, as practitioners, do not become more skillful at identifying, navigating, and transforming racial harm.’

Dr Davis offers many practical suggestions for integrating restorative and racial justice. In schools these include:

  • combining quality restorative justice training, coaching and mentoring with rigorous and continuing equity training, helping adults in schools to confront their own bias and become ‘high implementers of both restorative justice and racial justice.’

  • collaborating with community organisations to enrich cultural understandings and press for public policy change.

  • partnering with Universities to interrogate the data on racial disparities in school discipline and to design, test and refine interventions to narrow the divides.

In the criminal justice arena, Dr Davis calls for restorative justice programmes that are expressly designed to ‘interrupt overincarceration of youth of color’ and for victim services geared to reaching and supporting youth of color – those ‘statistically at greatest risk of being criminally harmed, yet who are least likely to receive victim services.’

And when it comes to addressing US police violence against African Americans, Dr Davis calls for a homegrown and ‘radically democratic’ US Truth Process, unveiling ‘truths that have been historically silenced.’

Challenging restorative justice practitioners to be both healers and activists for justice, Fania Davis invites us to imagine ‘how a consciousness about the healing of systemic harm committed against historically marginalized groups might animate and pervade all our restorative work.’ She also urges us to think creatively about the multiple ways ‘every restorative justice process we facilitate or participate in might involve truth-telling and promote healing of historical harm.’

It’s a call we all need to heed and act on.

Emerging from lockdown – a restorative approach to restoring relationships and rebuilding community

by Pete Wallis

Pete Wallis reflects on our recent Mint House event 'Emerging from lockdown – a restorative approach to restoring relationships and rebuilding community’. We gathered on Zoom to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 lockdown over the past year and share our personal experiences.

We are all living through a unique time. COVID-19 has affected everyone, but everyone differently – we’re in the same storm, and in different boats. 

For many the pandemic has been an anxious and traumatic experience, bringing outbreaks of loneliness, hardship and grief. Life altering times, leaving us exhausted. Often the biggest impact has been on relationships. Some have been intensified as we live within our little bubbles, some have been stretched thin, some lost altogether. Endings have been difficult – colleagues slipping away without a farewell do, funerals restricted to the closest relatives, conducted outside or on zoom, sometimes abandoned altogether. I think of the impact on our 5-year-old neighbour across the road who regressed to babyhood during lockdown, and of my 92-year-old mother separated from family and friends. I reflect on the new language we have become accustomed to; self-isolate, social distance, you are muted, you’re frozen…

For some there have been unexpected blessings as well as losses. In restorative justice, people often speak of gifts arising from the trauma of a crime. People realise how resilient they can be in adversity, notice the strengthening of family, reflect on what is of greatest importance to them in their life. They survived. In lockdown many of us found joy; in the reawakening of nature, zooming with friends and family across continents, getting to know our closest neighbours. Some families with young adults thrown back together have grown closer. In my work in youth justice, some young people have felt safer, protected for the time being from the pressures of peers to offend and from those seeking to exploit them. 

Restorative practice has story telling at its heart. Life is made up of the tales we tell each other, an expression of our need to make sense of the world and our drive to find meaning, particularly in hard times. Stories help us support one another, to build and maintain, and to repair our relationships when they are broken. We come together to heal our old stories by their telling, and to make new ones. 

Coming together to share our reflections on COVID-19 provided an opportunity to reflect on our individual journeys through this storm, to share stories of where we have been, and chart our courses towards hope and healing. Like our ancestors sitting round a fire, or the healing circles that provide the inspiration for restorative justice, we put aside time to talk, to repair the storm damage to our spiders’ web of relationships, carefully darning the holes in the social fabric of our lives.

Healing old stories and making new ones is slow, building new relationships remotely is hard. Weaving the interpersonal web has to be done strand by strand. In reading this you have joined the Mint House network, and we look forward to joining together with you at future events! 

Restorative practice in higher education – the poor relation?

By Rosie Chadwick

We’ve all read the news reports, or maybe seen the issues at first hand: ‘student mental health and anxiety a significant issue’…’calls for urgent action on racial harassment in higher education’ …’free speech under threat from ‘no platforming’ … ‘more to do to tackle sexual violence and online harassment on campus’…’students pressured to sign non-disclosure agreements’… ‘students’ rent strike threat.’

While clearly not a cure-all, there’s much to suggest that restorative practice can be part of the response in all these areas, whether through building community and strengthening relationships – creating a safe space for people to tell their stories - or by helping repair harm when things go wrong.  

Often, Universities are communities in miniature where people who have been harmed and people who have caused harm can’t just walk away but need to continue to live in close proximity.  Studies also suggest that involvement in restorative processes can be a source of rich developmental learning for students, and that restorative pedagogy enhances student learning and development, for example enabling students to take responsibility for their own learning, listen deeply and acknowledge different perspectives.

Given all this it’s puzzling that restorative practice isn’t more developed in our universities. Interest – and implementation – is seemingly on the rise in the US and elsewhere [as the reading list we’ve put together indicates]. In [another sign] of this the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice published a Policy Statement on Community and Restorative Justice in Higher Education in 2019, with a promise of implementation and management guidelines to follow.[1] The Association’s Director adds that ‘We are now seeing that interest on college campuses begin to grow for student conduct/student affairs and broader interpersonal and group conflicts on campus.  So, stay tuned -- keep watching.’ 

UK examples that we know of include Portsmouth University’s ‘Sort it out!’ conflict resolution service, run by Portsmouth Mediation Service in collaboration with the Student Union and Portsmouth Law School; and the piloting by Nicola Preston of a relational model of teaching and learning at the University of Northampton, about which she’s written for the Restorative Justice Council’s Resolution Magazine.[2] Here at the Mint House we’ve also dipped our toe in the water with exploratory conversations and small-scale training, but small-scale sums it up.

We’re keen to realise the potential of restorative practice in higher education settings, and welcome others’ thoughts on barriers and practical ways forward. Some great work has been done on restoring our schools. Restoring our colleges and Universities is surely another high priority.

 
References

[1] 2019-NACRJ-Higher-Ed-Policy.pdf

[2] Universities and Colleges – Portsmouth Mediation Service; RJC-Resolution-65-Autumn-19.pdf (restorativejustice.org.uk)

Using Restorative Practices for Environmental Disputes: sharing insights from New Zealand

By Rosie Chadwick

A silver lining of COVID has been the chance to link online with people round the world working restoratively. This week’s destination was New Zealand for a webinar hosted by Mediators Beyond Borders International looking at Using Restorative Practices for Environmental Disputes.

For the last 10 years, cases brought to the country’s specialist Environment Court have been able to access restorative meetings – though with no guarantee that judges will respect the outcomes when it comes to sentencing.

Presenters Penny Prescott and Wayne Marriott shared learning from a recent case where a sub-contractor had extracted gravel from a river illegally, causing fish to die. Participants in the restorative meeting included the main contractor, three Government agencies responsible for different aspects of the environment (each of whom came with prepared ‘scopes of work’ that could be part of contractor reparations) and the local indigenous people, or ‘people of the land.’

The gulf in perceptions of the parties at the meeting came through strongly in Penny and Wayne’s account. The contractor came keen to reassure that the damage could be fixed. For the people of the land the issue was not just with this incident but why such incidents kept happening and the ignorance it showed of the river course and its role in their food gathering.

The facilitators hoped that the harm caused and options for repair could be looked at in a single meeting. The people of the land were clear that redress shouldn’t be discussed in some remote meeting room but should take place on site, where people could see the damage that had happened and be helped to understand its significance.

The contractor was keen to reach agreement on redress before the case went to court for sentencing. The people of the land had a different time horizon and were eager that redress should not be rushed.

Another striking feature from the case study was the effort that went in to addressing the power imbalance between meeting participants. In this case, steps included paying the people of the land for their time, avoiding a situation where they were the only people in the room not being paid for taking part.

‘Do corporations do anything different as a result?’ asked a person on the call. The answer was that by and large they do, often because they think it will affect sentencing, but that lasting change depends on the voices of the people attending the restorative meeting being involved in decisions at every level in an equitable way. 

 

Restorative practice in education: what does research tell us?

By Rosie Chadwick

There’s been a flurry of recent studies of restorative practice in education, including two systematic reviews and a policy brief summarising what’s known about implementation and outcomes in US schools.

Strong themes from the findings are that restorative practice in schools can mean many things: we need to get much better at precisely defining and describing the approaches being used.  Implementation needs to be well-supported. We also need more robust and longer-term evaluations that look both at outcomes and at how faithfully practice was implemented.

The policy brief[1] describes five models of ‘mis-implementation’ that can cause restorative initiatives to falter or limit their potential. The five models are:

  1. mandated top-down mis-implementation, running counter to the emphasis on fair process, voice and collaborative decision that are the hallmarks of restorative practice.

  2. narrow mis-implementation that see restorative practice as just about changing student behaviour rather than something that needs to involve the whole community.

  3. colour blind and power blind mis-implementation that focuses on individuals while ignoring the systemic and structural inequalities that affect student wellbeing.

  4. ‘train and hope’ mis-implementation involving initial staff training but little or no on-going training and support.

  5. under-resourcing, short-term mis-implementation that fails to recognise the time, commitment and resources needed to implement restorative practice fully.

For the authors (Anne Gregory and Katherine R Evans) avoiding these pitfalls means:

  • ensuring restorative practice is principle-based and aligned with core restorative values.

  • taking a comprehensive approach embracing staff as well as student behaviours, policies and procedures, teaching methods, curricular decisions and schoolwide decision-making.

  • emphasizing equity, including by explicitly identifying opportunity gaps and challenging disparities in discipline.

  • developing contextually sensitive implementation plans that reflect the strengths and needs of the setting and evolve as circumstances change.

  • approaching roll-out strategically combining top-down and bottom-up approaches and building a strong base of champions and leaders while also respecting the critiques and questions of colleagues who are not convinced.

  • creating long-term implementation plans focused on sustainability and professional support, incorporating ongoing professional development (coaching, peer mentoring, learning communities etc).

There’s much here to reflect on and aspire to.

[1] The Starts and Stumbles of Restorative Justice in Education: Where Do We Go from Here? | National Education Policy Center (colorado.edu)

Making Prison a Restorative Experience - Can It Be Done?

By Rosie Chadwick

Serving prisoner Nathan* shared his thoughts on this subject at a Mint House network event.

Hearing Nathan talk, you'd have to say the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Nathan vividly described the moments before he came face to face with the mother of a young man (the brother of his ex-girlfriend) shot dead in an act of gang violence that led to his 18 year sentence for being at the scene while someone with him fired the gun.

"I've faced a lot of things in my life," Nathan recalled, " but in that moment I was the most scared I've ever been. She told me all the hurt, all the turmoil she'd gone through, and all she wanted to know from me was why. She said 'I want you to do something meaningful with your life and make sure two lives aren't wasted.' That moment, that day in that room, changed a lot of things in my life. I left thinking I didn't have any right to hold a grudge in my life."

Nathan talks movingly about being hugged in a way he never had been by his own mother, and about the chain reaction since: his realisation that he needed to take responsibility for the example he was setting; his acknowledgement of what had gone on, including while he was inside; his journey of therapy and education; and his messages to other young prisoners saying 'this is a waste of your life.' His ambitions now are to work with young people, steering them away from gang violence. "As a child I wanted to help people. I've been restored to thinking I can help people and do it in the right way."

While a restorative meeting was clearly a turning point for Nathan, the same can't be said of everyone. Nathan's conclusion? "Prison can be restorative if you engage with it in the way you need to for your own personal development, but there are many barriers in the way...So many people get missed in there."

Timing came across as key. Prisoners need to be receptive. Victims need to feel that a meeting would be helpful. Both these things need to coincide. But when they do, lives can be transformed.

* Not his real name.