What is Restorative Justice

What is this Restorative Justice that is creeping into our justice system? The idea is to bring the criminal and the victim together to reach an understanding that will heal both the criminal and the victim.

The RESTORE Program provides an alternative to conventional justice for both Survivors of sexual assault and the Responsible Persons who commit such crimes. Using a restorative justice model, RESTORE seeks a solution that is healing for Survivors, Responsible Persons, and the community. Dialogue regarding the act, its impact, and consensus on a redress plan lead to the Responsible Person's commitment to action that addresses the situation and fosters remorse and acceptance of responsibility. Survivors avoid retributive justice's sometimes destructive adversarial process that can lead to blaming of Survivors. Survivors are not asked to publicly retell intimate details of the offense or examined by a defense attorney. Survivors are not humiliated through seeking justice. Rather than focusing on the state's punishment of Responsible Persons, RESTORE's implementation of restorative justice is an alternative punishment that offers meaningful opportunities to express remorse and regain the respect of the community by repairing the harm to Survivors. Restorative justice serves to break the isolation and lack of validation felt by crime survivors and focuses on reconnecting Responsible Persons with the law-abiding community.

Sitting around the campfire and singing Kumbaya while holding hands may appeal to the idealistic vision of the brotherhood of man, but it will be a sad illusion in the real world once the curtain is pulled back to reveal the bankruptcy of the concept. The real problem is the human wreckage that will be left in the wake of another failed experiment in social engineering.

The first public example is the case of Judge Cashman of Vermont who gave a child rapist a 60 day sentence so he could get "therapy".