Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training
Restorative Justice Foundations
Module 1

Introductions
Name
Where you are from/organization
Why you are here

BARJ

Agenda
Day One
1: Restorative Justice Foundations
2: Balanced and Restorative Approach
Day Two
3: Developing Cultural Awareness
4: Role of Victims

BARJ

Agenda
Day Two
5: Offenders
6: Community Engagement
Day Three
7: Sample Practices
8: Taking Vision to Where We Live and Work
9: Action Planning. Closing Remarks and
Evaluation
BARJ

Objectives
Review agenda for this training event.
Build a set of group values from personal
values.
Relate group values to restorative justice
framework.
Define restorative justice in your own words.

BARJ

Restorative Justice
Is not a program.
Is a mission or philosophical framework.
Is a different way of responding to crime in
communities and criminal justice systems.

BARJ

Questions Currently Asked

Who committed the crime?
What laws were broken?
How will we punish the offender?
Restorative Justice views the crime through a
different lens.

BARJ

Crime is a wound

Justice should be healing

BARJ

Van Ness Principles

1. If crime is more than lawbreaking, then:
Justice requires that we work to heal victims,
communities, and offenders who have been
injured by crime.

BARJ

Van Ness Principles

2. If crime is more than lawbreaking, then:
Victims, communities and offenders should
have opportunities for active involvement in
the justice process as early and as fully as
possible.

BARJ

Van Ness Principles

3. If crime is more than lawbreaking, then:
We must re-think the relative roles and
responsibilities of the government and the
community. Government is responsible for
preserving a just order and the community for
establishing a just peace.

BARJ

Howard Zehrs Questions

What is the harm?
What needs to be done to repair the harm?
Who is responsible for this repair?

BARJ

Howard Zehrs Questions

What is the harm?
(Assessment)
What needs to be done to repair the harm?
(Case Plan)
Who is responsible for this repair?
(Roles and Responsibilities)
BARJ

Barry Stuart
Crime should never be the sole or even primary
business of the state, if real differences are
sought in the well-being of individuals, families,
and communities. The structure, procedures, and
evidentiary rules of the formal criminal justice
process coupled with most justice officials lack of
knowledge and connection to (the parties)
affected by crime preclude the state from acting
alone to achieve transformative change.
BARJ

Additional Resources
At the end of each module
For reference or later use

BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training

Balanced and Restorative Approach

Module 2

Objectives
Describe how restorative justice balances the
three basic community expectations: community
safety, accountability and competency
development;
Explain how balanced and restorative justice
practices increase community safety;
Describe how restorative accountability differs
from the traditional concept of accountability in
juvenile justice; and
Describe restorative justice competency
development.
BARJ

What is the Balanced

Approach?
Restorative justice = value framework or
vision.
The balanced approach = concrete
application of restorative justice principles to
practice.
The balanced approach mission = a blueprint
for putting restorative justice vision into
practice in juvenile justice systems.

BARJ

The Balanced Approach

Community
Safety

Accountability
BARJ

Competency
Development

The Balanced Approach

Mission
Stakeholders
Victims
Juvenile
offenders
Community

BARJ

Goals

Values

Accountability

Offense occurs,
obligation incurs

Competency
development

Offenders exit
more capable

Community
safety

JJ must protect
public from JJ
youth

Stakeholders Exercise
Read the court report and your scenario.
Answer the Part I questions.
Meet with others to review Part I questions
and answer Part II.
Keep in mind the perspective of the person
whose information you read.

BARJ

Restorative Accountability
Exercise
Individually read the scenario.
Individually answer the questions.
Discuss the answers with the whole class.

BARJ

Accountability
Taking direct responsibility
Taking action to make amends
Allowing communities and victims to actively
determine sanctions
Encouraging the offender to feel an obligation
to the victims
Permitting the victims and the community to
set community standards for behavior and
consequences
Not using punishment
Not being responsible to abstract institution
BARJ

Competency

Is a skill that is valued by others

Is more than an absence of bad behavior
Is functioning in a meaningful, positive way
Leaves youth stronger in character, more
connected to community, remorseful, and
empathic
Is recognizing ones potential
Makes caring individuals
Comes from opportunities to lead, belong,
mentor, contribute, form relationships, make
choices, develop transferable skills
BARJ

Public Safety Increases When

Offenders monitored & develop internal controls
Community prevents crime, resolves conflict and
reduces fear
Community justice is problem-oriented
Offender time under supervision is structured
Non-parent adults help monitor offenders
Partnerships develop for community police
JJ professionals are resources to schools, groups
Locked facilities only for youth unsuccessful at
being accountable to victims & communities
There is a continuum of alternative sanctions
BARJ

Restorative Case Plan Activity

Read scenario.
With small group, develop 2 appropriate
supervision plan tasks for each goal
(accountability, competency development,
public safety).
Be prepared to share your task with the
group.

BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training

Developing Cultural Awareness

Module 3

Objectives
Define culture;
Acknowledge the widely diverse cultures in your
communities;
Explain how a lack of cultural competence
contributes to minority overrepresentation;
Reinforce how universally shared values cross
cultural boundaries; and
Demonstrate how the universal values of
restorative justice can help to develop cultural
competence.
BARJ

Culture

BARJ

What is it?
How is it expressed?
How many cultures are in your community?
What cultures do you identify with?

Our Cultures

BARJ

One Countys Minority

Overrepresentation Issues
Of youth in the category, the % that are black
County(ages 11-17) 33%
Referred for Judicial Handling 58%
Committed to Programs
Placed in Detention
Transferred to Adult Court
BARJ

65%
69%
79%

Contributing Factors
From all four areas:

BARJ

Justice System
Socioeconomic Conditions
The Family
Educational System

Potential for Improvement

By increasing your own ability to work
effectively with people who are different from
you (cultural competence);
By increasing cultural competence of the
people with whom you work; and
By increasing minority access and
involvement at all levels

BARJ

Activity 3.3
Work in a medium-sized group to discuss:
What practices in the current system may
impact disproportionately on youth in
communities of color, resulting in this
overrepresentation?
In what ways might practices based upon
restorative justice values change that?

BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training

The Role of Victims in

Restorative Justice
Module 4

Objectives
Describe rights & responsibilities of victims of
crime;
Understand the physical, emotional psychological
and financial impact of crime on victims;
Understand immediate, short-term and long-term
effects of crime on victims;
Understand potential needs of victims; and
Describe a variety of ways to meet needs of
victims.

BARJ

Victims Needs Activity

Read the scenario.
Answer the questions:
Describe your feelings about what has
happened to you.
How do you think others will react to you?
What do you want or need from law
enforcement and the justice system?
How might this, change your behavior?
BARJ

Needs/Wants of Victims
To have people recognize how much trauma
they have been through; to express that and
to have it expressed to them;
To find out what kind of person could have
done such a thing and why it was done to
them;
To hear that the offender is sincerely sorry or
that someone is sorry on his or her behalf.

BARJ

Needs/Wants of Victims
To be heard;
To have their needs met;
To participate in own healing;
To participate in justice process;
To receive assistance, compensation,
information, services;
To receive reparation from offender.

BARJ

Needs/Wants of Victims
To give input at all points in the system;
To help decide how the offender repairs the
harm;
To speak directly with the offender, if victim
desires, to let them know how the crime
affected their life, and to learn more about the
offender and crime.

BARJ

Responsibilities of Victims
To participate in the justice process, at some
point;
To report violations to the proper authorities;
To support legal change to improve how
justice is done in the future;
To participate in community crime prevention
activities;
To participate in administration of justice as a
witness, juror, and volunteer.
BARJ

Physical

BARJ

Trauma to body
Bruises
Broken bones
Cuts
Black eyes
Tremors/shaking
Fatigue
Ulcer

Stomach
pains/aches
Loss of life
Pregnancy
Sexually transmitted
diseases

Emotional

BARJ

Fear
Anger
Hopelessness
Helplessness
Insecurity
Sadness
Guilt

Shame
Embarrassment
Confusion
Depression
Suicidal feelings
Vulnerability
Powerlessness

Psychological
Paranoia of others
or of being alone
Social isolation
Intimidation by
others
Crying outbursts
Inability to sleep

BARJ

Inability to feel clean

and need to bathe or
wash many times
Depression
Wanting to die
Nightmares
Difficulty having
normal sexual
relationship

Financial

Personal out-of pocket expenses

Loss of wages/inability to work/job loss
Insurance deductibles
Law enforcement costs
Prosecution/trial costs
Costs of jails, camps, institutions, prisons,
and community programs
Medical costs
Funeral costs
BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training
Offenders
Module 5

Objectives
Describe an approach to reintegration of
juveniles based on relationships;
Explain the changing role of offender from
villain/victim to resource to their families and
communities; and
Build skills and connections based upon that
changing role.

BARJ

Restorative Offender
Outcomes
Intervention goals directed at meeting the
needs of the victim and community.
Demonstrate competency.
Document offender accountability.
Show an increase in public safety.

BARJ

Victim Lens

BARJ

Dysfunctional
Mentally ill
Abused
Damaged, diseased
Ignored, neglected
Victim of systems
Learning disabled
Sick, incapable, weak
Cultural issues seen
as illness

Vulnerable, inevitably
victimized over and
over again
Will inevitably fall back
into old patterns
Dependent needing
to heal needing
intensive therapy
Broken, but repairable
Lost, without direction

Villain Lens

Evil, bad seed

Predatory
Without conscience
Highly intelligent
Selfish, arrogant,
manipulator
Untrustworthy,
unreachable
Therapy/treatment is
a waste of time
Resistant and defiant
BARJ

Dangerous
Not interested in
changing
Conduct disordered
also paranoid, etc.
Needs to be controlled
and contained
Fundamentally
different
Cultural dynamics
misinterpreted

Resource Lens
Focus is on pro-social skills.
With assistance, youth and their families can
become resources in and to their communities.
Differential balance and interplay of all three
lenses predicts the best outcome.
Villain & victim lenses carry their own truths,
but are inadequate to produce youth who leave
the system with more pro-social skills than
when they came to it.
BARJ

Values and Assumptions

Offenders have something of value to contribute.
Offenders who take responsibility for their
behavior earn our assistance and recognition.
Offenders are capable of making up for their
delinquent acts in most cases.
Offenders have an obligation to their direct
victims and community.
Offenders need to become more competent
individual members of the community.
BARJ

New Roles for Offenders

Take responsibility for delinquent acts
Meet with victims and victimized community
Participate in designing a plan to repair harm
and to develop competencies
Service provider, not just service recipient
Citizen

BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training

COMMUNITY
Module 6

Objectives
Identify the personal relationship of the
participants to the community in which they work
and live;
Describe the relationship between a community
and crime;
Identify the primary roles of the community in
restorative justice;
Identify the elements of the community- based
restorative project; and
Determine the stage of relationship of a
community partnership.
BARJ

Community
A group of people with a shared interest

BARJ

Community of Place
Crime generally affects those living in the
surrounding geographic area.
In those communities most impacted by
crime, many residents do not have a lot of
mobility.
The process of raising children is heavily
influenced by the place in which they are
raised.
For most people, the sense of safety is
related to place.
BARJ

Cycle of
Fear

Crime
More crime

Weakened
community
fabric

Generalized
distrust
BARJ

Fear

Isolation

Results of State Involvement

Professionalized conflict resolution
-Conflicts belong to the state
-Lawyer representation
-Victims isolated
-Offender and system focused

Disempowered citizens
-Isolated and depersonalized
-Decreased understanding of impact on others
-Making some conflicts invisible
BARJ

Mutual responsibility . . .
between individual and community
is the loom on which the fabric of community is
woven

BARJ

What the Community Needs:

The community needs and expects:
Crime to be sanctioned.
Juvenile offenders to be rehabilitated and
reintegrated.
The community to be protected.
The balanced approach mission provides
goals and objectives and priorities for practice
aimed at meeting these needs and
expectations.

BARJ

Cycle of
Hope

Crime
Prevention

Stronger
community
fabric

Process
which
builds
community

More
connections
Sense of
hope
BARJ

Community Roles

BARJ

Policy development
Supporting victims
Determining the terms of accountability
Implementing the terms of accountability
Staying in relationship with offenders who are
in custody

Stages of Relationships of
Partnerships
1. Justice system operates separately from the
community
2. Justice system provides information to the
community about its relationships
3. Justice system provides information to the
community and asks for information
4. Justice system asks for guidance in doing its
work, recognizes need for help, and places
more activities in the community
5. Justice system follows community leadership
BARJ

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training

Sample Practices
Module 7

Objectives
Describe a wide variety of programmatic
applications of restorative justice principles,
including:
Community Service
Reparative Boards
Victim Impact Classes/Panels
Victim Offender Mediated Dialogue
Restitution
Circle Sentencing
Family, Group, or Community Conferencing
Letters of Apology
BARJ

Sample Practices
Circle Sentencing
Community Service Work
Family Group Conferencing
Community Reparation Boards
Victim Impact Classes/Panels
Victim/Offender Mediated Dialogue

BARJ

RJ Practices at a Glance
Victim Impact
Panels/Classes

Restitution
Circle
Sentencing

Victim/Offender
Mediation

CONFERENCING
MODELS

Family Group
Conferencing

BARJ

Letters of
Apology

Reparation
Boards
Community
Service

Balanced and Restorative

Justice Training
Taking the Vision to Places Where
We Live and Work
Module 8

Objectives
Determine how restorative justice values can be
applied to other contexts;
Describe ways to operationalize these values in
other contexts;
Understand the need to manage change in an
organization.
Identify skills and strategies needed to help a
group move in more restorative directions; and
Explain how internal personal work supports
external change.
BARJ

Activity 8.1
Brainstorm a list of settings where people
interact with each other .where person-toperson relationships are important.
Review Restorative Justice values from
Module 1 and relate them to the settings
above.

BARJ

Activity 8.2
What would a restorative _________ look
like?
What restorative practices or processes could
be an effective part of how this group
functions?
What would be the first steps to take to help
move a __________ toward a more
restorative way of work?
Who would be involved?
BARJ

Organizational Culture
Set of basic assumptions which members
of a group invent to solve the basic
problems of:
1) physical survival in the external
environment (adaptation); and
2) social survival in the internal environment
(internal integration).
Schien
BARJ

Culture allows employees,

students, members to

BARJ

Feel comfortable;
Establish meaningful relationships;
Understand what it takes to be successful;
Enjoy competence.

Components of
Organizational Culture
Artifacts
Values
Basic Assumptions

BARJ

Personal Introspection
As important as the organizational culture is,
internal culture is even more vital.
Taking time to listen to ones own mind and
heart are very important.

BARJ

Change as an Evolution
It is not the strongest of the species that
survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones
most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin

BARJ

Janssens Four Room Apartment

BARJ

CONTENTMENT

RENEWAL

DENIAL

CONFUSION

Readiness for Change Audit

Which stage is your organization ?
Contentment
Renewal
Denial
Confusion

BARJ

Assumptions Underlying Change

Change is a process, not an event
Change is by individuals first
Change is a highly personal experience
Change entails multilevel development and
growth
BARJ

Assumptions Underlying Change

Change must be presented in concrete and
practical terms.
Change facilitators should approach
individuals systematically.
The real meaning of any change is the
human component.

BARJ

Balanced and Restorative Justice

Training

First Steps in
Strategic Action Planning
Module 9

Section Nine Purpose

The purpose of this section is to assist
participants to develop the first steps of a
plan of action.

BARJ

Objectives
Assess your local jurisdictions
progress/readiness to move toward a
restorative framework or model.
Identify a priority goal for your local
jurisdiction/organization and determine first
actions toward achieving this goal.
Select appropriate participants for the action
planning process and describe the potential
benefits/losses to each of the participants.
BARJ

Objectives
Determine the impact of stakeholders on
proposed changes in your jurisdiction and the
extent to which these stakeholders will aid or
impede the process.
Implement first step actions within an agreed
upon time frame, and continue action plan
process with key stakeholders in your
jurisdiction.
BARJ

Strategic Planning Overview

System Analysis
First Steps Action Planning
Stakeholder Identification and Analysis

BARJ

Action Planning Areas

First Directions - Initial Goals/Action Steps
Who Are the Stakeholders
Potential Benefit or Loss to Stakeholders
How Will Each of the Stakeholders Be
Involved in Planning
Communication Mechanisms
Complementary Collaboration
BARJ