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Corrections and Restorative Justice

NCJ Number
165413
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 21 Issue: 12 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 4-5,8
Author(s)
T J Quinn
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The increasing costs of corrections and public perceptions that it is doing only a fair or poor job has resulted in an increasing impetus for the concept of restorative justice.
Abstract
Restorative justice represents a return to the justice practiced in England before the Norman conquest. Proponents argue that the offender's obligation to repay should be an integral part of justice and that it extends beyond the individual victim to the broader community that has been disrupted. Restorative justice has emerged through family group conferences in New Zealand and through restitution and community-based victim-offender reconciliation programs in the United States. Perhaps the strongest data supporting the restorative justice philosophy is its effect on victims. The restorative justice model recognizes that most offenders return to the community and balances and humanizes the justice process. The Minnesota Department of Corrections has a restorative justice planner to work with interested communities. Soon any system of justice that does not include restorative elements will be rightly regarded as incomplete and insufficient. Reference notes