(HOST) This is International Restorative Justice Week, and this year’s theme is "Communities Responding to Human Needs." Commentator Deborah Luskin sees a connection between local food and local justice.
(LUSKIN) I’m both a local-foods enthusiast and a volunteer at my local community justice center, and I think practicing restorative justice is a lot like making a commitment to eat local foods: it takes more effort, but it’s better for the consumer and better for our communities.
Let me explain: Restorative Justice engages all the people who are affected by a crime: the victims, the offenders and the community at large. Restorative Justice takes place within the community in which the offense has taken place. Instead of punishment, offenders have an opportunity to repair the harm they have done. Restorative justice also provides victims of crime a chance to tell their stories, to explain how they have been harmed, and to say how they would like to see the harm repaired.
This opportunity takes place at a meeting of a restorative justice panel, comprised of trained citizen volunteers. Currently, there are about a dozen justice centers in Vermont, where these reparative boards meet. Rather than send non-violent offenders to prison, courts order them to participate in restorative justice as a condition of their parole. Offenders meet with a panel four times over the course of three months, during which time they tell their story, identify all the people they’ve harmed, and brainstorm ways to repair the harm. Offenders I’ve worked with have completed a variety of meaningful tasks in this process, and in every instance, the tasks have reestablished the offenders’ relationship to the community at large.
Just as buying local food can improve the relationships between the producer and the consumer, so practicing restorative justice can improve the relationships among members of a community. In fact, Restorative Justice believes that criminal behavior is a breakdown of relationships, where people break the law because they don’t feel any connection or responsibility to the community in which they live.
Just as eating local food is the exception, so Restorative Justice is the exception in our criminal justice system, which is based on retribution. Offenders are punished by removing them from their community and sending them to prison. In prison, inmates make new relationships, isolated from the outside world. But like buying tomatoes in Vermont in January, there are significant hidden costs to filling our jails with non-violent offenders.
While I try to eat mostly local food, there are still some items I buy at the supermarket. And there are still instances when it’s best to send someone to jail.
But just as we use less fossil fuel and eat more nutritious food when we eat locally, we also have better outcomes – less re-offense and less taxpayer expense – when citizens volunteer to practice community-based restorative justice.