Restorative Justice the New Zealand picture

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Restorative Justicethe New Zealand picture
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Restorative Justicethe New Zealand picture

• Julia Hennessy
• Senior Policy Advisor
• Restorative Justice Unit
• Ministry of Justice, New Zealand

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The restorative justice landscape
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• RJ in the adult criminal justice system
• 30 community-based providers Crime Prevention
  Unit and Courts contracts
• Community panels
• Victim-offender conferences
• and variations
• Community-based RJ providers
• not staff of justice agencies
• Mostly small Charitable Trusts
• Maori organisations Iwi (tribe) organisations
  may provide a range of services, including health
  and health promotion, education etc

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• Legislative framework
• Sentencing Act 2002 allows, and requires, Judges
  to take RJ outcomes into account
• Parole Act 2002, RJ to be taken into account in
  decisions about parole of prisoners
• Victims Rights Act 2002, agencies to hold
  meetings between victims and offenders - where
  parties wish to meet and resources are available
• Corrections Act 2004, Parole Board to take RJ
  process into account when making decisions on
  release of offenders

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• Principles of Best Practice for Restorative
  Justice in Criminal Cases
• Consultation
• Published along with statement of values 2003
• Voluntary
• Full participation of the victim offender
• Participants are well-informed
• Offender held accountable
• Flexibility and responsiveness
• Emotional and physical safety
• Effective process
• Should only be undertaken in appropriate cases

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Court-referred restorative justice pilotRJ for
serious offences by adults
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• Began September 2001
• Moderately serious offences
• Max penalty 2 yrs imprisonment or more
• Nothing that can be diverted
• Excluded Family Violence, Sexual Offences
• 4 District Courts
• Chosen for volume, judicial attitude, cultural
  mix

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Court-referred restorative justice pilot process
Offender pleads guilty
Offender sentenced
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Evaluation
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Objectives Increased victim involvement Increased
victim satisfaction Reduced re-offending
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Results for victims

• Positive experience
• Would recommend to others
• Would participate again
• Satisfied with agreements, conferences and
  sentences
• Low uptake by victims
• lt 40 referrals went to conference

Victim satisfaction declined over time
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Results for offenders

• reduced reconviction
• 32 compared with 36

• more involved in addressing offending behaviour

• satisfied with process agreements

• reduced imprisonment
• 14 compared with 19

• reduced length of imprisonment
• 444 days compared with 533 days

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Effective interventions
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Prison population - the defined problem

• inmate population significantly exceeds forecasts
• March 2006 - New Zealand gt7,000 in prison
• by 2010 will be 9,000
• New Zealand will have 2nd highest rate of
  imprisonment in western world
• Exceeding capacity forecasts
• Recorded crime has shown a steady decrease over
  two decades

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• Maori
• 17 of population
• 51 of prison population
• 3 times more likely than non-Maori to be arrested
  for criminal offence
• more likely to be prosecuted, convicted and
  receive prison sentences
• 1/3 more likely to be victim of crime
• twice as likely to be victims of violence
• higher rate of domestic violence

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• Pacific Island peoples
• 8 of population
• 11 of prison population
• over-represented in violent offending statistics
• higher risk of being victims of violence than any
  other ethnic group

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Effective interventions project

• Justice sector agencies Police, Justice,
  Corrections (ie, probation and prisons), Social
  Development, Treasury
• strategies to manage the inmate population
• options to reduce the pressure on prisons
• initiatives to address causes of crime and
  offending behaviour

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The evidence base

• Evidence from court-referred restorative justice
  pilot
• Fewer and shorter sentences compared with matched
  offenders
• Offenders more likely to be granted leave to
  apply for home detention
• Small reduction in re-offending - measured over
  2 years
• Shorter prison sentences 444 days compared with
  533 days.

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The next step national expansion of restorative
justice
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The next step

• Aims
• restorative justice available nationally at 3 key
  points
• replicate results of court-referred restorative
  justice less use of imprisonment, reduction in
  re-offending
• ensure quality of restorative justice provision
• Developments
• Budget bid 2007/08
• National quality assurance framework initial
  work underway
• Diversion
• Pre-sentence
• Prisoner reintegration

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Performance framework

• Quality of RJ provision outcome focused
• Regional support structures and staff
• Build providers capacity and capability - to
  meet identified need
• Provide resources to enable providers to meet
  quality standards includes national training
  and assessment programme
• Standards - contracts

To ensure consistent high-quality outcomes from
restorative justice processes
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Extension of RJ in diversion

• Restorative justice as option in Police Adult
  Diversion
• new provision in 20 areas over 3 yrs
• 1st focus high Maori PI offender areas
• Evaluation
• re-offending
• outcomes for Maori and PI

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Extension of RJ pre-sentence serious offences

• Restorative justice pre-sentence service in
  serious offending
• New provision in up to 9 new areas over 3 yrs
• Guilty plea, victim involvement required
• Evaluation can we repeat results of pilot?
• re-offending
• outcomes for Maori and PI

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RJ in reintegration

• 100 RJ conferences annually from 2 prison
  regions
• RJ Coordinators based in prison reintegration
  team
• RJ process spot-purchased from community-based
  providers quality standards
• 3 years initially staged rollout if successful
  re victim satisfaction reduced re-offending

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Cost benefits

• Prison beds
• 25 beds annually at 70,000 pa total saving of
  175,000 annually
• Increased number of offenders given leave to
  apply for home detention
• Suggests increased use of home detention as a
  sentence
• Other savings small

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Other benefits

• Increased capacity and capability of local RJ
  providers
• Benefits for Maori and Pacific Island people
• Victims and offenders have increased access to
  restorative justice at all stages in the criminal
  justice system

While the new developments have been driven by
financial and other pressure on the prison
system, the benefits will be felt by victims, the
families of offenders, and all those affected by
offending.
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The new landscape

• 60 community-based RJ providers 3 years
• Local interagency advisory groups to ensure
  provision continues to meet needs
• National training and assessment of practitioners
• Monitoring and support of quality standards by
  Ministry of Justice

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• RJ Unit Ministry of Justice national and
  field roles
• RJ Centre Auckland University of Technology
  multi-disciplinary, tertiary centre for training,
  education and research into RJ theory and
  practice
• Restorative Justice Aotearoa new national body
  for RJ practitioners

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Challenges

• how to be victim-centred in an offender-focused
  system
• how to create quality standards that allow for
  flexibility and growth of process
• how to recognise and build on traditional Maori
  and PI processes and allow flexibility

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