Compassion can change the world

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation uses a variety of media to get out the word about their efforts for justice, peace, and nonviolence. Examples include a monthly television show broadcast on local public-access TV, a film series, and a partnership with the local newspaper, The Olympian, to provide op-ed perspectives on current issues. This past weekend, Jody Tiller Mackey, co-chair of the Olympia FOR's steering committee, published the following perspective in the newspaper:

One night, a few boys with baseball bats and an unthinking need for excitement cruised their small-town Vermont neighborhood smashing mailboxes. An elderly woman arose the next day, the first anniversary of her husband’s death, to find the mailbox, his very last woodworking project, smashed in her front yard. Emotionally distraught, she didn’t know what to think. Had she been targeted; was something like this going to happen again? In our traditional justice system she might never get to find out the answer to those questions.

Yet Vermont’s judicial system now responds to this kind of juvenile criminal behavior with a process called restorative justice. Restorative Justice (RJ) is used to divert cases from the court system into a conference that includes truth telling, acknowledgment of any harm done, compassion and developing an appropriate restitution plan. This conference included all of the boys, who stated their role in causing the damage. They then heard the emotional story of the older woman and how she feared being targeted again. Together they created a restorative justice plan that included restitution to the victims, community service and a connection to each other that eased the woman’s fears.

Vermont’s system is rare in our country. In the 1980s and 1990s, when much of our country was instituting harsh punishments and three-strikes laws, Vermont moved from a punishment model to a restorative juvenile justice system. As a result, they have only one small juvenile lock-up facility and the lowest recidivism rates in the country. The Green Mountain state’s juvenile system portion of state funding remains small, and Vermonters believe their system is fair.

This process is being adopted in many communities and countries for everything from truancy and neighborly misunderstandings to gang violence. In Pennsylvania, West Philadelphia High School was listed as one of Pennsylvania’s Persistently Dangerous Schools year after year. The first year they began RJ conferencing, the culture of violence changed. There were no more fires, teachers felt safer, classrooms felt like communities instead of gang territories and rates of disciplinary procedures such as suspensions and expulsions decreased dramatically. If restorative justice can help in the most dangerous of schools what could it do in your school, workplace, neighborhood and family?

Thurston County’s very own Community Youth Services sponsored an RJ training last spring and then instituted a corrections program that balanced the needs of the victims, the community, and the offenders. The results? The youth in their Juvenile Diversion program completed 95 percent of their requirements and repaid 100 percent to their victims.

Some church communities across our country, including the Unitarian Universalist Association, instituted RJ panels when tough discussions were happening. They said committing to restorative justice can demonstrate the healing power of our faith. If Unitarian Universalism has a message of healing the brokenness of the world, surely it begins here. Surely it begins in the basic principles spoken by a prophet of a new religion centuries ago: doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.

So with Restorative Justice, outcomes are excellent, including greater victim satisfaction, the perpetrator becomes a restored community member, and the costs to the public are lower. Isn’t this something all of us could stand for – instead of retribution, fear and high costs – we can transform the world with acts of compassion and justice.

Jody Tiller Mackey is co-facilitator for the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, a member of Olympia’s Veterans for Peace Rachel Corrie Chapter 109, a member of the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and a manager at Traditions Fair Trade in downtown Olympia. Perspective is coordinated by Interfaith Works in cooperation with The Olympian.