Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Carol Palmer, gestures during a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the newspaper's North Street offices yesterday.
THE MINISTRY of Justice will continue to use restorative justice as part of improvements to the judiciary system. Restorative justice, said Permanent Secretary Carol Palmer, would reduce the burden on the justice system and allow offenders and victims to better resolve their situations.
Mrs. Palmer was speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum held on the subject at the company's North Street offices. Present to share their experience were United States restorative justice practitioners, prosecutor Don Johnson and consultant Gwen Chandler-Rhivers, both from Minneapolis.
WHAT IS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?
While here, they are to visit the recently-ended four-year restorative justice pilot projects in the troubled communities of Trench Town, Kingston and Flankers, St. James. A third scheme is to begin in Spanish Town later this year.
Restorative justice is a process in which victims and community members are involved in mediation, trial and even sentencing of offenders.
Government, said Mrs. Palmer, aims to have "the justice system operating with a philosophy of restorative justice."
Mr. Johnson said the process was the first "I have been involved in where victims are more likely to come to resolution ... They have a voice that normally is given over to legal representation and they have a say as to what happens to the person who caused them the harm." He cited the 250-270 families in Texas waiting to meet with the convicted murderer of a family member, as evidence of this demand for greater public and community involvement in the legal process.
The permanent secretary admitted that the Trench Town experiment had not been a success. "Trench Town hasn't gone as well as we would have liked ... our gut feeling is that there hasn't been enough economic activity for the people so it hasn't happened as well," she said. But Flankers residents, Mrs. Palmer added, "had found restorative justice useful in helping the community return to normal after an event." Reports on the two projects should be finished in three months.
The participants agreed, however, that there were barriers. Communities would have to be convinced of its role in the legal system and as an alternative to vigilante justice such as kangaroo courts and beatings. Last Friday an alleged rapist was killed by a mob angry in Green Pond, St. James.
Trust in the legal system had been a barrier to restorative justice in both the U.S. and Jamaica. There was, said Mrs. Palmer, a climate of fear and doubt surrounding the legal system and "we cannot do restorative justice without a public education campaign."
Speaking of the U.S. experience Mr. Johnson admitted that initially "the distrust level was quite high," but consultation within communities built trust.
The panellists agreed that American restorative justice had been a success. Introduced in a Minnesota school for troubled children, referrals to police fell 75 per cent, said Mrs. Chandler-Rhivers.
Leon Dundass, director of the Inspectorate Branch of the Correctional Services Department, said a youth court scheme in the Bronx, New York, where children aged 12 to 13 years old tried each other, had seen remarkable results. He added that children were more successful in enforcing curfews and gave harsher sentences than adults.
