Crime Prevention Unit

Reviewing Arrangements for the Delivery of Restorative Justice Services

Introduction

In February 2008 the Ministry of Justice started a review of current arrangements for the delivery of restorative justice services at District Courts.

This information sheet outlines the Ministry's approach to the review. It is part of our consultation with providers and other interested groups involved with the delivery of restorative justice services.

Overview

The Ministry of Justice currently contracts with 29 community-based provider groups to facilitate approximately 1,420 completed restorative justice conferences per year across 30 District Courts.

Historically, restorative justice providers have been contracted under two different sets of funding and referral arrangements. Over time this has resulted in differences in the way services are delivered. As part of the review the Ministry proposes to develop and implement contracting changes which would provide for the same referral, funding, quality assurance, and case management arrangements across all providers and all courts.

As a first step, which we are now beginning, we will collect information on how restorative justice cases in District Courts (including where part of Police Diversion) are currently referred and coordinated. This information will feed into later stages of the review, including developing and implementing national referral standards.

The collection of information on current referral practice will take place in April / May 2008. The Ministry expects to have draft referral standards for consultation by August 2008, and to begin to implement changes by November 2008.

Background

Ministry-funded restorative justice services are currently available at 30 District Courts. Table 1 provides a profile of District Courts where services are available, and the estimated number of restorative justice conferences to be completed through contracts with the Ministry in the 2007/08 financial year.

Two sets of contracting arrangements are in place:

• The Crime Prevention Unit contracts with 20 providers for the delivery of approximately 1,245 completed restorative justice conferences per year across 27 courts. Services were first established in the mid 1990s. Provider contracts are managed by Crime Prevention Unit staff located in the Ministry's National Office.

• District Courts business unit contracts with 9 providers for the delivery of approximately 175 completed restorative justice conferences per year across four courts - the Auckland, Waitakere, Hamilton and Dunedin District Courts. This service began operation in 2001 as part of the pilot of court-referred restorative justice conferences, and continues as an established service across the four courts. Provider contracts are managed by the District Courts business unit.

Differences in operation between services provided under the separate contracting arrangements include:

• limited alignment of provider contracts and performance management

• different payment structures

• differences in the types of case and seriousness of offences dealt with

• differences in the way cases are referred.

Referrals at the four pilot courts (Auckland, Waitakere, Hamilton and Dunedin) are coordinated by District Courts staff specifically employed for this purpose. Referrals at the remaining courts are coordinated by providers. Police prosecutors and defence lawyers may also be involved in the referral process at these courts.

The Crime Prevention Unit holds responsibility for ongoing policy and development work, including encouraging and facilitating the growth of restorative justice within New Zealand, and providing policy support to the Minister of Justice and restorative justice providers.

Collecting information on current referral practice

Data collection is planned for April / May 2008. Information will be gathered across the 30 courts where Ministry-funded restorative justice services are currently available. Stakeholders' views on possible improvements will be sought.

The focus of data collection will be on process matters involving the interface and exchange of information between court staff, providers, judges, police, defence lawyers, probation staff, victims and offenders during both the referral period and the period following the completion of a conference report.

Comments on the content and quality of restorative justice reports will be sought from judges and providers.

Policy matters relating to the referral of cases, for example offence criteria or case priorities, will not be considered during the review. These matters are being addressed separately as part of ongoing policy development work.

Consultation with external stakeholders

External stakeholders include individual provider groups, Restorative Justice Aotearoa, District Court judges, Police prosecutors, defence lawyers, Corrections staff (Probation), and any community groups involved with referral processes at a particular court.

All provider groups will be asked to participate in the review — either by attending meetings with the review team or completing a postal questionnaire. Meetings will also be held with other external stakeholders at courts visited by the review team, and with District Court judges.

The review team proposes to visit provider groups and other stakeholders at the District Courts sites listed below.

The sites were selected because collectively they cover the widest possible range of court type and referral practice. Courts and/or provider groups with the following characteristics are represented:

• large metropolitan courts operating both sets of referral arrangements

• courts with smaller population bases but with proportionately high numbers of restorative justice cases

• provider groups undertaking a wide range of cases including pre-conviction (diversion) referrals

• provider groups undertaking cases across more than one court.

The selected courts / provider groups represent more than half of all courts where restorative justice services are available, and deal with two thirds of total Ministry-funded services (as measured by estimated numbers of completed restorative justice conferences).

Remaining provider groups will be contacted separately and asked to complete a questionnaire. We will take care that the questionnaire builds on information already collected in a recent stocktake of providers by Restorative Justice Aotearoa.

We may also wish to contact other external providers outside the selected District Court sites to seek additional information.

There will be an internal process of consultation with District Courts staff.

National referral standards

Following the data collection phase draft national referral standards will be developed. It is intended that the referral standards will eventually be used across all courts. The aim is to provide a clear and useful guide for court staff and providers which will help them to ensure good quality restorative justice processes. The referral standards may need to be supplemented by a local court / provider group service level agreement to take account of local issues.

We expect to release the draft referral standards for consultation with providers and other interested parties at the beginning of August 2008.

Other policy development work

In addition to work which is the subject of this information sheet a number of related projects are underway within the Ministry.

These include:

National practice standards and guidelines for restorative justice providers

The national standards will be based on the Ministry's 2003 Principles of Best Practice for Restorative Justice in Criminal Cases. When finalised they will be incorporated into future contracts with providers and supported by guidelines for new and existing providers.

Draft standards have been sent to providers for the first round of consultation. The Ministry is currently collating feedback from providers and expects to send out a revised draft for further comment by June 2008.

National facilitator training programme

The Ministry has developed a revised national training and assessment programme for restorative justice facilitators, based on the training programme established for the Courts pilot. The content has been broadened to cover providers working with a wider range of cases and processes, and has been designed to allow for eventual NZQA accreditation. Provider representatives were involved in the development of the programme.

The Ministry plans to pilot the programme during mid 2008 before finalising the new training and assessment materials.

National funding framework

The Ministry is currently working towards the development of a single funding arrangement drawing on the best of the block funding and fee-for-service funding arrangements currently in place.

Providers will be consulted throughout the development process. Finalisation of the new funding framework is dependent on the completion of national referral standards.

Case management systems

A new case management and reporting spreadsheet is now being used by providers contracted through the Crime Prevention Unit. The spreadsheet assists providers to manage their referrals and streamlines the process for reporting to the Ministry. The first set of six-monthly reports using the new spreadsheet is due in June 2008.

Reviewing the use of restorative justice in family violence and other sensitive cases

Two separate reviews of the delivery of restorative justice in family violence cases by Ministry-funded providers are nearing completion. They will be used to develop a draft policy on the use of restorative justice in these cases, for consultation during 2008.

Piloting restorative justice and the revised Police Adult Diversion Scheme

Changes to the Police Adult Diversion Scheme implemented by Police in November 2007 included new requirements for the selection and referral of cases for restorative justice.

Three restorative justice providers were involved in testing the new processes and were asked for feedback on their experience. This information will be fed back to Police and will also be taken into account as proposals for the funding framework and practice standards are developed.

What happens next

This month a member of the review team will contact all provider groups to either arrange a meeting or ask them to complete a questionnaire. Other external stakeholders may also be contacted.

Further information will be sent to providers and posted on the Ministry's website as the review progresses.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the review, members of the review team would welcome your enquiry. Contact details are provided in the covering letter attached to this information sheet, and on the Ministry's website (see website details below).

April 2008

Table 1 : Profile of District Courts with Ministry-contracted restorative justice services

* District Courts: Estimated number of completed conferences 2007 CPU: Number of completed conferences specified in 2008 contracts with providers

Information can be accessed at www.justice.govt.nz/cpu/restorative-justice/