Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a good idea in my opinion. Basically, it is based on the idea that when a "crime" had been committed in effect a relationship has been broken. Therefore, rather than "punish" the perpetrator, there is an attempt to reconcile the broken relationships.

This came up before the conference in resolution G2, which was presented by the Australians.

According to the statements made at during the discussion of this item this has been tried successfully in some places in the United States, and results in fewer criminals simply being released from jail and returning to a life of crime.

(An example is in the movie Free Willy where a boy defaces a display, and is sentenced to clean the display. The ultimate result in this case is the youth gets a feeling of being needed, of self-worth, which he has not had before. It is not an easy road, or entirely without setbacks, but he does arrive.)

This calls for the church to push Restorative Justice. This was amended slightly because the saints from Africa pointed out that the word "indigenous peoples" offends some Africans because it brings to mind the colonial past of Africa. The word "indigenous" was replaced by "local."

The entire matter was referred to the Peace and Justice Committee to explore the implications of this. It will likely come up next conference just from this conference's actions.