Restorative Justice Proposal Essay

After working as a judge in New Zealand and seeing the disconnect between the youth and adult justice system, Fred McElrea (2007) put forth a proposal which takes on many ideas the CYPF Act succeeded in and extends many practices already used. At the heart of the proposal is the idea of restorative justice. Restorative justice is referred to as the process of acknowledging the harm that has been done and how to best rectify the harm and prevent future wrongdoings (McElrea, 2011). It brings together the offender, victim (voluntary) and their supporters in methods of face-to-face interaction, community based actions, group conferencing, and supportive prevention and reintegration strategies (Carruthers, 2012). The proposal if for a justice system
He details the vision he has for New Zealand that if implemented would allow for victims to initiate justice in ways they are comfortable with (McElrea, 2007). Similarly to the youth justice system this change would move away from the heavy reliance on the court system currently present (Becroft, 2009). McElrea (2007) places strong emphasis on diversion, however it have greater range and more variability than the seemingly one dimensional diversion system we hold today, which offers only first time offenders of minor crimes a diversion (Carruthers, 2012). The proposal would provide community based alternatives to court that could deal with civil and criminal offences of any kind other than those only the high courts may handle, such as murder or manslaughter (McElrea, 2007). The proposed change encourages offenders to stay within their community and build stronger relationships within their families, as alienation is a common and negative impact of the adversarial adult system we currently operate under (Carruthers, 2012). The community justice centres would aim to be noncustodial and find alternative criminal proceedings, such as group conferencing as a positive restorative approach to offending (Lynch,
Consent is an essential part of the community justice centre proposal. It is crucial that both the offender and the victim give consent to attending restorative justice practices, and it is also important to note offender accountability is required for the process to be effective (McElrea, 2007). Group conferencing ensures a comprehensive range of offences can be dealt with through this process and are able to do so on a case-by-case basis, which aims to move away from punishment and toward a sense of community (Maxwell et al,. 2002). As this proposal would significantly reduce the number of offenders going through the court system and being imprisoned, in turn results in fewer staff and respective costs, therefore it would be appropriate for the government to fund a local community and victim based justice programme (McElrea,