Te Ara Whakatika

Inside this issue

Integrating restorative justice into the military justice system is one of the issues being examined by the country's defence forces.

Inspirational Process

Attending a restorative justice conference was an enlightening experience for an Auckland constable.

"I just wanted to see if it was going to be of benefit to me," says Constable Adrian Kerin. "It was of definite value to me and beneficial in my job."

The court-referred restorative justice conference involved a case of careless driving causing injury, in which a car and a bicycle had collided.

Adrian was impressed with the process and the value it offered the victim and offender.

"I found it really good to see the people get together and just talk through what had happened. It's so sterile and stagnant in the court situation, where the police prosecutor reads out a list of injuries someone has received. It was good to hear the man (the cyclist) tell his story. It really brought home the seriousness of the incident, being able to see the scars. I believe everybody who attended gained from the process."

And having the chance to listen to the concerns of the victim and offender has inspired Adrian to change his approach to dealing with traffic accidents. The constable, who is involved in traffic control, management and incident attendance, says that police often "pigeon-hole people.

"We say ‘if you've done this you are the offender and if you've had harm caused to you you're the victim.' We don't normally mix the offender and victim together and don't pass on information. "But at the conference the guy in the car wanted to know why he wasn't allowed to visit the victim in hospital, and the cyclist was quite surprised that he hadn't visited."

The car driver, who was Asian, spoke of how it was normal practice in his country of origin to visit an injured person in hospital to talk to them and apologise.

As a result of the conference, Adrian says he would now ask a car accident victim how they would feel about the other motorist visiting them in hospital, and visa versa. And it is a lesson he has passed on to colleagues."It's good to find this out and nice to know these things, especially from a cultural aspect as well."

He also thought that having the conference at a nonthreatening

venue - in this case a school - was better than meeting in a police station or a court building.

Adrian says the conference gave the victim and offender the chance to talk about their perspectives on the accident.

There were issues that the person who got injured wanted to raise, such as whether the car driver was going to make the effort to get a New Zealand driver's licence. At the time of the accident he had an overseas one. The driver was able to say that he had already done so, and showed the cyclist the licence.

"I'm glad I went. I think that it is a better system to get two people together, in a case such as this, to express their feelings to each other.

"I believe it is a really good idea. But it is only going to work if everyone involved is prepared to make it work.

Everyone has to be prepared to sit down and hear what other people say, and listen to them. The facilitators who ran this case did it very well and put everyone at ease."

Sharing Practical Solutions

Restorative justice practitioners from throughout the South Island met recently to discuss day-to-day practical issues.

"The benefit was in getting together and sharing ideas and information," says meeting organiser and Nelson Restorative Justice Services co-ordinator Sally Mottram.

"It is about acknowledging that this is an isolated business for many of us. The meeting offered an opportunity to talk about practice issues. We need to be able to meet, debrief and share as a way of improving our service delivery and practice."

It was the third such meeting of South Island facilitators and co-ordinators, with another planned for November. The meeting was open to everyone involved in restorative justice. "We want to be inclusive, not exclusive."

Issues covered included what to do when something goes wrong at a meeting, domestic violence cases, conferences involving Maori, and managing restorative justice processes when multiple victims and/or offenders are involved.

Christchurch District Court Judge Ryan answered questions from participants from a judicial perspective, and member of Parliament and restorative justice advocate Matt Robson took part in discussions about practice issues.

Eight of the 11 community-based restorative justice groups in the South Island were represented at the meeting.

Beyond Retribution

"Highly readable, logically organised, thorough and provocative..."

Those are some of the accolades Chris Marshall's book Beyond Retribution has received from restorative justice experts and academics worldwide.

The 342-page book, which has now been mentioned in three prestigious American listings of outstanding academic titles, is primarily a study of justice from a biblical and theological perspective, although it also looks extensively at forgiveness and explores criminological theory on the purpose and ethics of punishment.

Chris, who is a member of the Waipareira Restorative Justice Community Group and a facilitator for the courtreferred restorative justice pilot, has been involved with restorative justice since 1992 after reading a book written by leading international restorative justice practitioner Howard Zehr.

Chris Marshall's book - subtitled A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime and Punishment - will "interest criminal justice practitioners and theologians alike, and will be an important resource for college and graduate classes," says Howard Zehr.

Useful Suggestions Put Forward

Public submissions on the draft principles of best practice for using restorative justice in the criminal courts have generally been positive, according to the Ministry of Justice.

"We've had useful suggestions made about how the draft principles can be improved," says the ministry's Caroline Holden.

Particular areas of debate concerned whether or not a guilty plea should be required before a case could be referred to a restorative justice process, whether the reason for a restorative justice process not going ahead should be provided to the court, and the use of restorative justice processes for family violence and sexual violence.

Caroline says the ministry is "very appreciative of the amount of work that people have put into preparing submissions."

Work is now underway to finalise the principles.

Restorative Justice in the Armed Forces

Integrating restorative justice into the military justice system is one of the issues being examined by the country's defence forces.

"Restorative justice is a new idea for us, but it may have some real application," says New Zealand Defence Force military justice review project officer Lieutenant Commander Chris Griggs.

Chris has written a paper on the issue, which includes how new restorative justice components of the Victims' Rights Act impact on the military justice system.

"We have an obligation to look at how it might interact with the military justice system and sort out how we are going to apply the new laws."

Wide internal and external consultation is likely to take place before a decision is made as to whether, and if so, to what degree restorative justice should be integrated into the military system.

Chris says that the military justice system facilitates the maintenance of discipline in the armed forces and involves a higher set of standards than for the civilian population. Defence Force members must obey orders and maintain discipline in a range of circumstances, including combat, and are also subject to a hierarchical structure.

The military justice system has to deal with a wide range of scenarios, from a soldier striking a superior officer to the rights of victims in a case where a soldier has fallen asleep on guard duty, resulting in infiltration by the enemy.

"It might be that restorative justice could in some cases be more relevant to us than in a civilian environment, where if someone burgles your house you may not see them again. In the armed forces there is a high likelihood you know the person who has offended and might serve with them. That makes resolution all the more important. It might work quite well for us in some cases.

"We are looking at restorative justice quite closely. We're taking it seriously enough that we are examining it as a high priority within the context of our major review of the military justice system.

"In some instances we have similar sorts of issues as the criminal justice system, and in some we don't. We need to think about how restorative justice might be facilitated with shells falling all around."

New Minister Takes Over

Overseeing the development of the court-referred restorative justice pilot for the Government is one of the priorities for new Courts Minister Rick Barker.

Mr Barker took over the Courts portfolio in May, following a minor cabinet reshuffle. He retained his existing responsibilities as Minister of Customs, Associate Minister of Justice and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment.

Mr Barker says he is interested in seeing how central government and the community can work together to improve outcomes for victims and reduce re-offending through restorative justice.

"I'm very interested in seeing the outcome of the pilot study and suggestions on where we may go from here."

The Department for Courts and Ministry of Justice are being merged on October 1 - a process that the Minister says will be seamless for the public. "The only thing the public should see is a change in name to the Ministry of Justice."

Educated at Otago University, Mr Barker has a wealth of "hands-on" work experience in positions as diverse as a shop assistant, bartender, storeworker, farmhand, driver, factory worker and quarrier. He was the national secretary of the Service Workers' Union prior to his election as member of Parliament for Hastings in 1993. He was re-elected in 1996, 1999 and 2002 in the renamed Tukituki seat.

Mr Barker is a trustee of Nga Tukemata O Kahungunu, and patron of SPELD and the Schizophrenia Fellowship. He also chairs the New Zealand-China parliamentary friendship group, and is a member of other friendship groups associated with Israel, Latin America, Germany and Taiwan, as well as the parliamentary lobby group for Tibet.

When time allows, Mr Barker joins friends and rides his Triumph Thunderbird in the countryside, or helps support his children at rowing, netball and other sporting events.

Values Statement Completed

Restorative justice groups throughout the country have developed a "values statement."

The statement was finalised in mid-June, following two years of consultation and review which included discussion at two national conferences of the Restorative Justice Network.

"The existence of the statement does not preclude the creation of parallel documents by Maori and Pacific sectors of the Restorative Justice Network," says national secretariat member Suzanne McNabb.

The network see the values being applied beyond the ‘conference' setting, into the relationships between restorative justice groups, and between restorative justice groups and funding/regulatory agencies.

The core restorative justice values are identified as participation, respect, honesty, humility, interconnectedness, accountability, empowerment and hope. Each of these values is summarised in the seven page statement, which also includes a description of restorative justice values in practice.

It says that a conference process may be considered restorative if it is guided by competent and impartial facilitators, strives to be inclusive and collaborative, entails voluntary participation, fosters an environment of confidentiality, recognises cultural conventions, focuses on needs, exhibits genuine respect for all parties, validates the victim's experience, clarifies and confirms the offender's obligations, aims at transformative outcomes and observes the limitations of restorative processes.

The document is being distributed to network members, but is available from Suzanne (suzanne7@xtra.co.nz) to others interested in restorative justice.

As a result of the national conference held this year, restorative justice groups are also establishing a national council. "We're in the process of expanding our structure to take account of the changes that have happened in restorative justice. A lot more groups have formed in the last 12 months. We had a system that worked pretty well up to now, but we wanted to extend it out so it provided a broader framework to discuss issues nationally," says Suzanne.

"We're asking the regions what would work for them, and to put forward nominations."

Suzanne says Maori are also being asked what would be the most appropriate means to represent their needs.

Te Ara Whakatika is produced by the Department for Courts to ensure the wide community of people who support the restorative justice movement

are kept informed about the court-referred restorative justice project. The items in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department for

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be viewed online at www.courts.govt.nz/publications/news.html. Inquiries regarding the court-referred restorative justice project should be directed to:

Alison Hill, Department for Courts, PO Box 2750, Wellington, Phone (04) 918 8839, Fax (04) 918 8820, email: alison.hill@courts.govt.nz; or to co-ordinators Islay Brown (Auckland) Phone 025 745 141, (09) 916 9000; Garry Summers (Waitakere) Phone 025 271 5148, (09) 916 5268; Marianne Lammers (Hamilton) Phone (07) 957 7816, (025) 271 5203; Cathy Brown (Dunedin) Phone 025 271 5164, (03) 471 5170. Te Ara Whakatika mailing list inquiries should be directed to: Abpost, PO Box 38756, Petone, Wellington. Fax (04) 568 3400.