Restorative Justice
Nandor Tanczos MP – 21/4/00
Last year we voted in a referendum on the nature of our justice system. When asked whether we supported more rights for victims of crime and longer sentences and hard labour for violent criminals, 92 per cent of us voted yes.
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| Nandor Tanczos Photo source Presto |
I was one of that 92 per cent. I voted for a justice system that increased the rights of the victim – for a system that puts victims of crime at the centre of the judicial process. Where they belong.
I certainly didn’t vote for longer and harsher sentences for criminals because it is a proven fact that this approach fails, and it is failing right now. Up to 80 per cent of prisoners will be back in prison within five years of release and 70 per cent of crime is carried out by ex-prisoners.
Justice is a very simple concept. Everybody, including the victim and, usually the offender, knows when justice is really done. The problem is that justice is very rarely done under our current system and the reason for this lies in the very foundations of our justice system.
In this country a crime against a person automatically becomes a crime against the Crown. The victim is effectively sidelined and the only role for them is that of a witness as the Crown seeks punishment.
This alienates victims from the process. They have no chance to address their offender and have no input into a punishment that is appropriate for them. This process completely ignores the fact that when a crime is committed a person is usually hurt. The way things work at the moment offenders don’t have to face up to the damage they cause through facing their victims, and victims miss out on the healing opportunity of dealing constructively with their offenders. So our current system doesn’t work for the victims of crime, but it also fails to stop reoffending as well. The focus of a progressive justice system, when dealing with offenders, should be two-pronged: getting offenders to take responsibility for their actions and doing something to put it right. Nearly all criminals will get out of jail eventually and the focus must move away from punishment towards making the criminal a better person. This is not to say that dangerous offenders will be released into the community and all prisons will be closed. Prison sentences will still be given to very violent people as a protection measure. But under the system we have now prisons are universities of crime where young people go to prison for unpaid fines and minor cannabis convictions and come out with a ‘degree’ in burglary. A restorative justice system would put the victim back at the heart of the process. Where possible, they should receive full financial restitution from the offender for monetary and property crimes committed against them, and counselling if they want it. And perhaps most importantly, the victim should have the option of receiving an apology from the offender.
I’m in favour of restorative justice because it restores dignity to the victim. It treats them like a person instead of a number on a police report sheet. And I also believe that the simple process of facing up to the people they have harmed brings home to offenders the reality of their actions. Crime harms people and true justice should balance out that harm.
But we must go further and look at the causes of crime – in poverty, unemployment and alienation. And it is only through addressing these issues that we will find the real solutions to crime.
