Many countries across the world struggle with finding effective rehabilitation for criminals, both juvenile and adults. The problem is finding the right balance between punishment, and a reintegration mechanism which will not have convicted persons alienated from society upon their release.
Well, all across CARICOM member states, they've been looking at a regional approach to the problem, and in 2009, CARICOM partnered with the Canadian Government to seek a solution.
Fast-forward to today, and the results of that effort is a project called IMPACT Justice, short for Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean, funded by the Canadian Government. Under this project, 123 educators will be receiving training in the idea of restorative practices inside the classroom. The workshops started yesterday, and continued today, and we stopped by the find out how exactly do these restorative practices actually work. Here's what one of the lead coordinators told us about it:
Bruce Schenk, Dir., Int'l Inst. for Restorative Practices
"The purpose is to really see that a safe community and a community that's working well is one where the relationships are strong. In schools for example, how can we actually build and strengthen relationships among the students and staff and where we not only build relationships but when things break down, how we can repair and rebuild relationships. So we're here as part of that project to do that sort of training and help people reflect on that approach. The workshop is 2 days and on the first day we cover what's called the 'restorative practice framework'. This is understanding that restorative practice is not a program, but rather it's a way of thinking and being. So what I mean by that is that really what this is about is as I said, how you can actually build and strengthen relationships in the school community. The restorative part of that more specifically is strategies or practices, but more of a way of thinking that when things break down, such as harm is done or conflict happens, how the approach we use is around focusing on asking questions about what happened, how people are affected by this and what we can do to make it right or fix the situation."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Persons who come in conflict with the laws or with rules and regulations, they often find that stigma follows them and their sort of written off by society."
Bruce Schenk, Dir., Int'l Inst. for Restorative Practices
"So many of our societies are very punitive based and very blame based on how we deal with things like crime or when harm is done. So I'm from Canada and certainly we rustle with that as well, it's kind of a universal challenge you can say. So that's why we really think that we need to have really think 'well what's really going to work? What's this all about?' If you look at a strong healthy community, it's not where people are against each other, it's where they work with each other. So the Restorative Justice conference for example that we also teach about, is a way that somebody who has caused offence, meets with their victims, they have a meeting to try to talk about what happened, the impact and how they can try to repair that and that actually helps to integrate that person."
The First set of workshops ends today, and tomorrow, another starts, with the final session ending on Thursday.
Email
Print