The author begins by examining the prevailing explanations of why countries adopt severely punitive penal policies. Two main explanations are offered for punitive penal policies: (1) rising crime rates result in rising imprisonment rates, and (2) a combination of social, economic, cultural, and psychological factors have led to excessively punitive penal policies in an attempt to assure law-abiding citizens and to stigmatize offending citizens. The author goes on to illustrate how each of these explanations for punitive penal policy is incorrect by presenting the crime and punishment stories of five countries (Finland, the United States, Germany, France, and England) over a 30-year period. Penal policy developments in three countries – the United States, England, and Canada – are then examined to identify the characteristics that have led to developments in penal policy. Alternatives to imprisonment in different countries are examined as precursors to the country’s likelihood of embracing and widely using restorative justice practices as a substitute for traditional adversarial criminal justice processes. The author challenges decisionmakers to envision they have a choice in designing and implementing penal policies. His main argument is that it is possible to have different penal reactions to similar crimes. A review of the research literature on penal policy and community penalties leads the author to identify conditions that both enhance and constrain the initiation and institutionalization of RJ initiatives. Main enhancing conditions include a tradition of informal dispute resolution, non-moralistic cultural traditions concerning punishment, and a relatively dispersed political authority within the government. Among the constraining conditions are politicized crime policies, partisan selection of officials, and an authoritarian government with a centralized authority. The constraining conditions suggest the obstacles to the institutionalization of restorative justice initiatives will be difficult to overcome. Note, references