Restorative Justice
Dr. Martha Brown is an expert in the field of restorative justice, particularly in schools. Her book, Creating Restorative Schools: Setting Schools Up for Success, is available for purchase from Living Justice Press. She has also published several articles and book chapters on RJ. As an active member of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice (NACRJ), she worked with colleagues to develop NACRJ's policy statement and implementation guidelines for restorative justice in schools.
Evaluating Restorative Justice
It’s important to include evaluation in your plans to implement RJ, no matter where. You want to look at the integrity of your processes, satisfaction rates, how relationships changed, how harms were repaired, adherance to agreements, and the larger impacts RJ makes on your school or community. You can benefit from Martha’s experience as both an evaluator and teacher of restorative justice. She incorporates restorative processes into the evaluation so your evaluation is grounded in the same values as your program.
What is Restorative Justice?
Restorative justice provides schools, communities, correctional facilities, and businesses with processes for building trust and community, and for repairing harm when things go wrong. It requires us to look at harm not just as broken rules, but as broken relationships. RJ is places relationships at the heart of all we do, with the goal being to create healthy, positive relationships, and then repair those relationships when someone has committed a harm. When someone harms their relationship with a person, a group, or an entire community, they have an obligation to repair it, with input from those who have been harmed. This kind of accountability provides all involved with opportunities for growth and healing – something that punishment does not provide. RJ provides evidence-based and viable alternatives to suspensions, expulsions, and even incarceration. Watch this video of Martha talking to the Interfaith Cafe about RJ.
“The opposite of poverty is justice.”