About adult restorative justice

[On screen text] What are the benefits of restorative justice conferencing?

Kirsten Eades, Executive Director, Community Justice Services, Department of Justice: It gives victims and the people that have caused harm to them to come together and talk about what's occurred and to try to repair the harm or the damage that's been created by their actions.

It just allows a lot of questions that people have to be answered about why what happened did happen.

I think that's particularly important when a crime was a random crime. Often people want to know why me, why did you do this to me? And often it's a random situation and that really helps victims to understand that they weren't particularly targeted by that.

For a lot of victims, it means that they don't have to go through a court process or some other justice process and that's very scary for people.

This is an opportunity for people to avoid that process and to do it in a safe space where they feel prepared and they're ready to come along and to say what it is that they need to say.

Also in a justice process, sometimes the victims just don't get heard at all. They don't get an opportunity to even speak or participate. And so, this does leave them with that feeling of being heard and having their questions answered.

The success rate for adult restorative justice is considerably higher than most other processes that are available to people. So that in itself is telling, both for the victim and the person that's caused harm. You know, most of them tell us that this is a far better process for everybody involved.

[On screen text] What victim-survivors say about restorative justice conferencing:

• ‘I liked that I could give the defendant full insight into the repercussions of his actions.’
• ‘It was a way to express my feelings and tell my story. It gave a structured way for the offender to "undo" the harm that they had caused, leading to a good outcome.’
• ‘I had the ability to speak to the offender to understand why and how. Also to have my voice heard on the impacts.’
• ‘I liked that I was able to get some closure for myself.’

[On screen text] What are the benefits for the person who caused the harm?

Kirsten: Often, they don't really think about what it is that they're doing at the time and what impact that may have on individuals in the community. And so, for them to have to sit and listen to that and understand that means that they walk away from the session with a much greater understanding of how their actions have impacted an individual but possibly even the community in some sense as well.

Andrew Robinson, Adult Restorative Justice Conferencing Convenor: It's helping people see where they went wrong and helping them be part of a process that repairs that harm.

Kirsten: The person that's caused harm often feels very differently at the end of the session in terms of understanding how what they did has impacted the person that was involved.

[On screen text] What people who caused harm say about restorative justice conferencing:

• ‘It gave me the opportunity to apologise for my actions and resolve the issue and put it behind me.’
• ‘It was the chance to say sorry and reflect on what happened.’

[On screen text] How successful is restorative justice conferencing?

Andrew: We have a 99% compliance rate with all of the outcomes that we facilitate. And there is a good body of evidence out there that does support that conferences can lead to lower rates of recidivism.

[On screen text] Results:

• 99% of agreed outcomes are met
• 94% of participants express satisfaction with restorative justice conferencing
• Lowers the rate of re-offending.

[On screen text] For more information visit www.qld.gov.au/adultrestorativejustice

[On screen text] Repairing harm—Carmen and Roman's restorative justice experience

Carmen: I remember quite clearly, even though it happened a couple of years ago, and it's been imprinted in my brain now.

Roman: Carmen actually heard some cafuffling going out in the back door.

Carmen: I was shocked to see a big young man standing quite close to me. I told him to get away or I'll call the police.

So he pushed me aside quite roughly. I ran back to the bedroom, shook Roman and said, there's a man in the house trying, and he's breaking all the stuff.

Roman: I got out with Carmen to the lounge room and there he was sitting, and he got up off the couch, picked up a very expensive ornament and smashed it on the coffee table and that shattered into millions of pieces.

It shook us, and Carmen in her presence of mind at the time decided that was it, for us to leave.

Carmen: Within a few minutes, the police had arrived and took him away. The destruction that actually happened to our house, our home that was always well put together and warm and a safe space.

Andrew: My name's Andrew Robinson and I'm a convener with Adult Restorative Justice Conferencing. My job, essentially, is to work with people who've been most impacted by crime.

I provide a safe, structured process to bring those people together to discuss what happened, how they were impacted, but more importantly, what can be done to repair the harm.

Kirsten Eades, Executive Director, Community Justice Services, Department of Justice: The most common outcome would be an apology, so someone owns their behaviour and makes an apology to the people that they've harmed.

But some of the other things might include paying restitution or making good, if you like, for what they've done.

So if the victim was out of pocket for a certain amount of money, they may agree to pay that or for some of that. They may make a donation to a charity. They may agree to counselling or to some type of program that addresses some of their behaviour. They may make commitments to not do certain things again in the future.

That gives the victim some sense of ease in terms of their future behaviour.

Roman: It presented an opportunity for us to talk in more detail. In particular, we had the chance to meet the offender.

Andrew: There's a number of steps before actually bringing the people together. And we need to be absolutely certain, of course, that the conference isn't going to cause any further harm.

Roman: In discussion with Andrew, the prospect was pretty positive, and we took that into consideration.

Carmen: His age also, we felt that it would be counterproductive for someone that young to not be given a chance to change the outcome of his life.

Restorative justice participant: What's got me here today is, if I'm being honest, just to show my gratitude towards the justice mediation, you know, I came, I did make a few mistakes. The incident that I caused was a pretty big one.

You know, Andrew showed me a pathway on how to, you know, possibly fix it.

It was just a big reality check in my opinion. And, you know, talking to the people, to the victims, opened up a whole different perspective of me on life. And yeah, I just, I feel like I'm a better person now.

Carmen: We had written a sort of impact letter to him, and he listened to what I had to say. I reiterated the events of the day, and then he had a turn to express how he felt, and he said that he didn't know what was happening to him at the time.

Restorative justice participant: I just knew that I wasn't that person that I portrayed to them that night and it’s just really heartbreaking to hear the monster that I was. It was just sad to see that, what I, the damage that I caused.

Andrew: He was able to give a really genuine apology, as a starting point that goes a really long way to be able to front up, look the person that you've hurt in the eye and offer some sort of an assurance about their future safety, what your intentions are for the future, what your hopes are for them moving forward as well.

Carmen: After that, he got a job and he handed me $100 from his first pay check.

Roman: It was a safe environment.

Carmen: Yeah, it was a safe environment, you're right. And it provided a finality to the whole experience.

Restorative justice participant: I owned up to my mistakes. I took it on the chin. It's good to bring a little bit of peace, a little bit of warmth inside. You know, it was not an easy process.

Kirsten: It can be quite challenging, it can be confronting, it can be emotional. It works towards repairing the harm, and that's why it's a great option.

Restorative justice participant: I've moved out of my mum's house, living by myself, me and my girlfriend, being grateful for every day I wake up.

Kirsten: So referrals can come from a range of sources. We deal with any type of crime essentially from pre-charge right through to post-charge where people might be incarcerated.

But those referrals essentially come from the DPP (the prosecutor), from the police. They may come from Queensland Corrective Services. And people can self-refer as well.

Andrew: We think that it can be a really important way to help people recover from harm.

It's got nothing to do with whether the conference process is an easy option for offenders. It's about what do the people harmed need out of all of this?

I think all of us that do this sort of work, we care about people and relationships.

Kirsten: I think it makes a happier community just generally. I think people walk away feeling more in control of their outcome, their lives.

Carmen: You might be surprised to know the whole process somehow gives you a sense of justice in a sense. We felt proud that our country does care for the victims of crime.

This process, I think, is very therapeutic for me. It's a process of rehabilitation.

[On-screen text] Learn more about adult restorative justice conferencing at www.qld.gov.au/adultrestorativejustice