About Restorative Justice Initiative (Midlands).

We are a community based charity organisation committed to providing Restorative Justice/Alternative Dispute Resolution (mediation) to migrants’ population, local communities, victims and incarcerated offenders in the Midlands. We mediate crime/conflicts between victim and offenders and assists to reintegrate ex-offenders with their families/communities.
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Restorative Justice Initiative

Restoring Relationships!!!

A crime is not just about breaking the law. More importantly, it is about damaging the relationships between members of the community. It creates an emotional wound that requires emotional healing. Restorative Justice is about restoring relationships!!!!!

Restorative Justice acknowledges the fact that harm has been done to people and relationships. This process allows the victim, the offender, and community members to talk to each other with the intent of finding a way to repair the harm done. During the process, offenders must take responsibility and display a willingness to be accountable for the harm done, not only to the victim, but to the community and to themselves.

Empathy (the ability to imagine what it would be like to be in the victim’s situation), along with sincerity and the willingness to face the consequences are essential for the offender to be successful in this process.

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Restorative justice is a process whereby

  1. all the parties with a stake in a particular conflict or offence come together to resolve collectively how to deal with its aftermath and its implications for the future, and
  2. Offenders have the opportunity to acknowledge the impact of what they have done and to make reparation, and the victims have the opportunity to have their harm or loss acknowledged and amends made.

The benefit of Restorative dialogue includes:

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The Offender

You face the harm caused by your offense. Since you are not being personally attacked, it is safe for you to admit your responsibility, feel remorse, apologise for your actions, and refrain from similar harmful behaviour in the future.
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The Victim

He/she is able to express the pain, fear, anger, and loss suffered from the offense. He/she is able to hear the offender’s admission of responsibility, apology, and willingness to repair the harm and is better able to let go of feeling of fear, anger, resentment, and the need for revenge.
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The Community

The community becomes a safer place. The victim and the offender return to being contributing citizens. Order and peace are restored and there is a shared sense that justice has been done.
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  • A more sympathetic view of the principles of Restorative Justice (mediation) amongst community members
  • The promotion of alternative disputes resolution in local communities.
  • Reduced pressure on the on police, social services, and courts.
  • Greater crime awareness and alternative disputes resolution amongst young people, migrants and local community.
  • Greater community participation in dealing with crime, wrongdoing and conflict.
  • Communities will be strengthened through the rebuilding of relationships, by maintaining ownership of this process; and through increased skills and knowledge which will be acquired through their participation.
Restorative Justice Initiative Midlands

Recidivism

Restorative processes have as their goal attempting to meet the needs of all parties affected by crime – victims, offenders and communities. Preventing recidivism is often used as a long-term measure of the “effectiveness” of such programmes; clearly, such prevention benefits offenders directly, and more broadly, benefits communities. There has been some concern that the demonstrable outcome of reduction in recidivism should not be the only measure of effectiveness, but rather that it should be placed in a broader context that includes the range of restorative goals. “Healing to crimes, reintegration of offenders, reduce prison overcrowding, police and court case loads and cost of prosecutions”