Prisons

Experiments with restorative processes in prisons and the creation of a restorative prison environment are growing.

Biermans, Nadia And d'Hoop, Marie Nathalie. Development of Belgian Prisons into a Restorative Perspective: Biermans and d’Hoop explore in this paper the development of a restorative approach in the Belgian prison system.
Biermans, Nadia. Restorative justice and the prison system: For about two years now, Nadia Biermans, along with others, has been trying to apply restorative justice ideas and practices in Flemish prisons. Based on her experiences, in this paper she raises some questions and makes certain observations about restorative justice in the prison system. She begins by explaining how restorative justice in Belgian prisons began and how it is organized. This leads to discussion of the question of whether restorative justice has a place in prison, the issue of educating and persuading the wider public about restorative justice, and successful ingredients for introducing restorative justice in prisons.
Criminal Justice System (England). Restorative Justice Mapping Exercise of UK Prisons: As part of the Government’s commitment to raise the profile of Restorative Justice (RJ) throughout all Criminal Justice agencies, last July we carried out a mapping exercise involving all establishments to find out how much RJ activity, victim awareness and reparative work is currently taking place. We would like to thank everyone who was involved with the replies. RJ is about managed contact between victims and offenders, in order for victims to get answers to their questions, tell the offender what the real impact of their offending was and receive an apology. Offenders are given the opportunity to make amends for their crime, either to the victim themselves or to the community. The strategy document on RJ, issued in 2003 stated that the Government aims to maximise the use of RJ in the Criminal Justice System as it serves to increase victims’ satisfaction and may reduce re-offending. (excerpt)
Criminals could cut sentences by saying ‘sorry’: from the article by Anushka Asthana and Jamie Doward in The Observer: Tens of thousands of offenders may be able to reduce their sentences by making personal apologies to their victims, under plans for a “rehabilitation revolution” in the criminal justice system. Crispin Blunt, the prisons minister, is considering the move as part of a drive to offer victims the chance to come face-to-face with the person who committed the crime against them. A report released today by two charities, Victim Support and the Restorative Justice Consortium, suggests the policy could save £185m in two years by cutting reoffending.
Curry, Devinder and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian and Knight, Victoria and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Semenchuk, Mike and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Williams, Brian and Semenchuk, Mike and Patel, Sunita and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian. Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Secure Estate: This research was funded by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales in order to establish the scope of restorative work currently being undertaken within custodial and secure establishments, and to identify and disseminate good practice. It was undertaken by the Community and Criminal Justice Division at De Montfort University, Leicester between 2002 and 2003. The full report describes the use of a range of restorative interventions in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Local Authority Secure Units (LASUs)1 and Secure Training Centres (STCs) (collectively known as the juvenile secure estate). The research aimed to establish the extent to which restorative justice influences the regimes and programmes in secure institutions, as well as to identify good practice that might usefully be replicated elsewhere. (excerpt)
Daelemans, Ann. Guiding the Change Process in Belgian Prisons: Towards a Restorative Prison Policy.: The presentation will deal with the implementation of restorative justice in the Belgian prison system. In 2000, the position of the restorative justice consultant was created in order to realise a ‘restorative detention’. RJ-consultants are working within the prison walls and are employees of the Federal Department of Justice. In their mission of guiding the change process towards a restorative prison policy, they have an advisory role towards the prison governor. (excerpt)
Dinsdale, Jennifer. Restorative Justice in HM Prison Holme House: A Research Paper: The International Centre for Prison Studies initiated the Restorative Prison Project to examine the conceptual framework for imprisonment and to work with the Prison Service in Great Britain to apply restorative principles in the prison setting. One site for this work is HM Prison Holme House in northeast England. In 2001 Jennifer Dinsdale, a graduate student unaffiliated with the Restorative Prison Project, conducted research into the feasibility of restorative schemes in Holme House. She looked particularly at prisoners’ perceptions of the impact of their crimes on their victims, the openness of prisoners to engaging in reparative activities, and prisoners’ perspectives on their relationship to the community outside the prison. This paper reports her research findings.
Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today
Eyckmans, David and Dufraing, Dirk and Regelbrugge, Marianne and Dufraing, Dirk. The concept of restorative justice in prison seen from the community and illustrated by the practice of victim-offender mediation: As David Eyckmans, Dirk Dufraing, and Marianne Regelbrugge point out, to understand the topic they address in this presentation, it is important to recognize that Belgium is a federal state consisting of communities and regions. Determination of law and policy in Belgium is shared by the federal government and regional communities and their authorities. The Flemish region is one of those communities. In general, with respect to criminal justice the federal government has responsibility for major functions concerning sanctions and incarceration of offenders. The communities have responsibility more for aid and social services, including those to prisoners and their victims. Since 2000 the federal Minister of Justice has begun to incorporate aspects of restorative justice in prison policy. Against this background, the authors detail the way the Flemish community, in cooperation with federal justice authorities and other organizations, is trying to pursue a restorative initiative toward prisoners and their victims. The authors discuss in this regard the conceptual framework for and outcomes of victim-offender mediation in prison.
Feasey, Simon and Williams, Patrick and Clarke, Rebecca and Williams, Patrick. An Evaluation of the Prison Fellowship Sycamore Tree Programme: based on a statistical analysis of Crime Pics II data.: Within the context of the Sycamore Tree Programme, the questionnaire has been used as an evaluative measure, assessing at both the pre and post programme stages. In doing so a difference measure can be calculated that looks at the degree of change from before to after the programme and therefore can be used to inform about programme impact/effectiveness. Central to the Sycamore Tree programme is the victim empathy area. In this regard, analysis of the V (victim empathy) scale is crucial in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of the Sycamore programme for its participants. (excerpt)
Hagemann, Otmar. Victimization in Prison: Otmar Hagemann, a sociologist at a university in Germany, in this paper looks at the issue of male prisoners as victims of violence and degrading treatment in prisons. To do this he sketches the Mare Balticum project. He and colleagues from several countries that border the Baltic Sea are researching conditions of life and work in closed prisons for sanctioned offenders. From the data collected the researchers are developing a picture of victimization in prison. Hagemann discusses data on inter-prisoner violence and data on structural violence against prisoners. This leads to more detailed examination of specific categories of violence and their effects on victims/prisoners in prison settings. Finally, Hagemann presents an alternative model of a restorative prison.
Hoyle, Carolyn. Restorative Justice Working Group Discussion Paper.: This discussion paper provides the background to the issues we considered at the first meeting of the Restorative Justice Working Group and a précis of the focus of our discussion. (excerpt)
Kearney, Niall. Issues of affecting victims of severe violence in the context of RJ in Scotland.: SACRO (Safeguarding Communities Reducing Offending) is the largest NGO (non governmental organisation) operating in the criminal justice sector in Scotland. SACRO has pioneered communication between those injured by crime and those responsible since the late ‘80s through its diversion from prosecution and Youth Justice services. Since 2002, a number of requests have been made to SACRO by Criminal Justice Social Work Departments and the Scottish Prison Service to facilitate communication within a post sentence context between those harmed by and those responsible for severe violent crime. SACRO has provided training from David Doerfler, an experienced Victim-Offender Mediator from Texas USA, to meet these requests. This has led to the development of a new SACRO initiative called TASC (Talk After Severe Crime), which operates to date on a limited spot purchase basis. In this new service the words ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ are replaced by: person injured and person responsible. The new service takes its language from the broader human sciences discourse in order to maximise the potential for increased understanding between all those affected. (excerpt)
Liebmann, Marian. Restorative Justice and the Prison System in the UK: There has been a recent burgeoning interest in Restorative Justice (RJ) in prisons in the UK, much of it dependent on the enthusiasm of local governors and staff, and the particular circumstances in those prisons. In the UK there are no ‘systematic’ (i.e. regular and predictable, thought out) or ‘systemic’ (i.e. involving the whole prison system) RJ processes which apply to all prisons. Nevertheless it is possible to categorise different forms of RJ, and develop a framework which relates RJ initiatives to different aspects of the prison system and the criminal justice system in general. Initiatives can be categorised by the amount of interface they have with outside bodies, the criminal justice system in general, or the justice system within the prison. This paper is an attempt to do this and to see if such a classification is useful. (excerpt)
Nation, David and Monk-Shepherd, Rosa. "Mediation in Prison following Incest": Rosa Monk-Shepherd, now a Probation Officer in Devon, in collaboration with David Nation, then of Plymouth Mediation, outlines the potential gains for victim/survivor and perpetrator, of mediation initiatives during the offender’s prison sentence.
Newell, Tim. Restorative Justice in Prisons in England and Wales: Project led by Tim Newell: Restorative principles have an important contribution to make to create safer communities. From the very first contact with the victim to the resettlement of an offender there are opportunities to improve on traditional policy and practice. It is to consider this application of restorative processes in the Prison Service that the project has been set up, led by Tim Newell, from October 2001 till March 2002. As well as having a direct application to the considerations implicit in the recommendations of the Halliday Report concerning sentencing the work of restorative justice addresses many of the newly stated Purpose and Aims of the Home Office. (excerpt)
Norway builds the world's most humane prison: But how restorative is it? from William Lee Adams' article in Time: Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn't tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual."
Prison Ombudsman seeks apologies from staff for unfair treatment of prisoners: by Stephen Shaw, England and Wales Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writing in Inside Time: As Ombudsman, I have tried to pioneer a restorative approach to complaints investigations. If a prisoner has been treated unfairly, a properly worded apology from the staff concerned is the best way of putting things right.
Transforming Offenders in England and Wales.: The Sycamore Tree Project® is an intensive in-prison programme that brings groups of victims into prisons to meet with unrelated offenders.They talk about the effects of crime, the harms it causes, and how to make things right. Prison Fellowship of England and Wales implemented the programme in 1998. In this article, Peter Walker, executive director, offers a description of the programme and examples of its impact.
Wolthuis, Annemieke and Meijnen, Marieke. Developing Restorative Skills for Delinquent Youth (Herstelopvoeding): Sitting behind closed doors and working on your own development, taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions and where possible restoring the damage that has been done. That’s what’s happening in the closed youth facility “De Heuvelrug, location Eikenstein”, located in Zeist, The Netherlands. The experiment is called: ‘Herstelopvoeding’, in translation: Developing restorative skills for juvenile delinquents. The first results are promising, and the method is being further developed. What are the contents of this program? What are the results of the first evaluation and what has the future in hold for this method? (excerpt)

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Navigation Lecture Hall Introduction to Restorative Justice Restorative Justice around the World Africa Asia Europe Juvenile Justice Prisons Schools Eastern Europe Standards European Union Evaluation Community Articles from RJ Online All Documents Latin America Middle East North America and the Caribbean Pacific Educational Opportunities Restorative Justice Theory Making Amends Restorative Justice Course Syllabi Book Reviews Video Reviews Real People, Real Stories Practice Manuals Evaluation Research Evaluation Tools Role Plays Using Restorative Practices	Info Prisons Experiments with restorative processes in prisons and the creation of a restorative prison environment are growing. Biermans, Nadia And d'Hoop, Marie Nathalie. Development of Belgian Prisons into a Restorative Perspective Biermans and d’Hoop explore in this paper the development of a restorative approach in the Belgian prison system. Biermans, Nadia. Restorative justice and the prison system For about two years now, Nadia Biermans, along with others, has been trying to apply restorative justice ideas and practices in Flemish prisons. Based on her experiences, in this paper she raises some questions and makes certain observations about restorative justice in the prison system. She begins by explaining how restorative justice in Belgian prisons began and how it is organized. This leads to discussion of the question of whether restorative justice has a place in prison, the issue of educating and persuading the wider public about restorative justice, and successful ingredients for introducing restorative justice in prisons. Criminal Justice System (England). Restorative Justice Mapping Exercise of UK Prisons As part of the Government’s commitment to raise the profile of Restorative Justice (RJ) throughout all Criminal Justice agencies, last July we carried out a mapping exercise involving all establishments to find out how much RJ activity, victim awareness and reparative work is currently taking place. We would like to thank everyone who was involved with the replies. RJ is about managed contact between victims and offenders, in order for victims to get answers to their questions, tell the offender what the real impact of their offending was and receive an apology. Offenders are given the opportunity to make amends for their crime, either to the victim themselves or to the community. The strategy document on RJ, issued in 2003 stated that the Government aims to maximise the use of RJ in the Criminal Justice System as it serves to increase victims’ satisfaction and may reduce re-offending. (excerpt) Criminals could cut sentences by saying ‘sorry’ from the article by Anushka Asthana and Jamie Doward in The Observer: Tens of thousands of offenders may be able to reduce their sentences by making personal apologies to their victims, under plans for a “rehabilitation revolution” in the criminal justice system. Crispin Blunt, the prisons minister, is considering the move as part of a drive to offer victims the chance to come face-to-face with the person who committed the crime against them. A report released today by two charities, Victim Support and the Restorative Justice Consortium, suggests the policy could save £185m in two years by cutting reoffending. Curry, Devinder and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian and Knight, Victoria and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Semenchuk, Mike and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Williams, Brian and Semenchuk, Mike and Patel, Sunita and Owens-Rawle, Derek and Knight, Victoria and Williams, Brian. Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Secure Estate This research was funded by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales in order to establish the scope of restorative work currently being undertaken within custodial and secure establishments, and to identify and disseminate good practice. It was undertaken by the Community and Criminal Justice Division at De Montfort University, Leicester between 2002 and 2003. The full report describes the use of a range of restorative interventions in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Local Authority Secure Units (LASUs)1 and Secure Training Centres (STCs) (collectively known as the juvenile secure estate). The research aimed to establish the extent to which restorative justice influences the regimes and programmes in secure institutions, as well as to identify good practice that might usefully be replicated elsewhere. (excerpt) Daelemans, Ann. Guiding the Change Process in Belgian Prisons: Towards a Restorative Prison Policy. The presentation will deal with the implementation of restorative justice in the Belgian prison system. In 2000, the position of the restorative justice consultant was created in order to realise a ‘restorative detention’. RJ-consultants are working within the prison walls and are employees of the Federal Department of Justice. In their mission of guiding the change process towards a restorative prison policy, they have an advisory role towards the prison governor. (excerpt) Dinsdale, Jennifer. Restorative Justice in HM Prison Holme House: A Research Paper The International Centre for Prison Studies initiated the Restorative Prison Project to examine the conceptual framework for imprisonment and to work with the Prison Service in Great Britain to apply restorative principles in the prison setting. One site for this work is HM Prison Holme House in northeast England. In 2001 Jennifer Dinsdale, a graduate student unaffiliated with the Restorative Prison Project, conducted research into the feasibility of restorative schemes in Holme House. She looked particularly at prisoners’ perceptions of the impact of their crimes on their victims, the openness of prisoners to engaging in reparative activities, and prisoners’ perspectives on their relationship to the community outside the prison. This paper reports her research findings. Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today Eyckmans, David and Dufraing, Dirk and Regelbrugge, Marianne and Dufraing, Dirk. The concept of restorative justice in prison seen from the community and illustrated by the practice of victim-offender mediation As David Eyckmans, Dirk Dufraing, and Marianne Regelbrugge point out, to understand the topic they address in this presentation, it is important to recognize that Belgium is a federal state consisting of communities and regions. Determination of law and policy in Belgium is shared by the federal government and regional communities and their authorities. The Flemish region is one of those communities. In general, with respect to criminal justice the federal government has responsibility for major functions concerning sanctions and incarceration of offenders. The communities have responsibility more for aid and social services, including those to prisoners and their victims. Since 2000 the federal Minister of Justice has begun to incorporate aspects of restorative justice in prison policy. Against this background, the authors detail the way the Flemish community, in cooperation with federal justice authorities and other organizations, is trying to pursue a restorative initiative toward prisoners and their victims. The authors discuss in this regard the conceptual framework for and outcomes of victim-offender mediation in prison. Feasey, Simon and Williams, Patrick and Clarke, Rebecca and Williams, Patrick. An Evaluation of the Prison Fellowship Sycamore Tree Programme: based on a statistical analysis of Crime Pics II data. Within the context of the Sycamore Tree Programme, the questionnaire has been used as an evaluative measure, assessing at both the pre and post programme stages. In doing so a difference measure can be calculated that looks at the degree of change from before to after the programme and therefore can be used to inform about programme impact/effectiveness. Central to the Sycamore Tree programme is the victim empathy area. In this regard, analysis of the V (victim empathy) scale is crucial in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of the Sycamore programme for its participants. (excerpt) Hagemann, Otmar. Victimization in Prison Otmar Hagemann, a sociologist at a university in Germany, in this paper looks at the issue of male prisoners as victims of violence and degrading treatment in prisons. To do this he sketches the Mare Balticum project. He and colleagues from several countries that border the Baltic Sea are researching conditions of life and work in closed prisons for sanctioned offenders. From the data collected the researchers are developing a picture of victimization in prison. Hagemann discusses data on inter-prisoner violence and data on structural violence against prisoners. This leads to more detailed examination of specific categories of violence and their effects on victims/prisoners in prison settings. Finally, Hagemann presents an alternative model of a restorative prison. Hoyle, Carolyn. Restorative Justice Working Group Discussion Paper. This discussion paper provides the background to the issues we considered at the first meeting of the Restorative Justice Working Group and a précis of the focus of our discussion. (excerpt) Kearney, Niall. Issues of affecting victims of severe violence in the context of RJ in Scotland. SACRO (Safeguarding Communities Reducing Offending) is the largest NGO (non governmental organisation) operating in the criminal justice sector in Scotland. SACRO has pioneered communication between those injured by crime and those responsible since the late ‘80s through its diversion from prosecution and Youth Justice services. Since 2002, a number of requests have been made to SACRO by Criminal Justice Social Work Departments and the Scottish Prison Service to facilitate communication within a post sentence context between those harmed by and those responsible for severe violent crime. SACRO has provided training from David Doerfler, an experienced Victim-Offender Mediator from Texas USA, to meet these requests. This has led to the development of a new SACRO initiative called TASC (Talk After Severe Crime), which operates to date on a limited spot purchase basis. In this new service the words ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ are replaced by: person injured and person responsible. The new service takes its language from the broader human sciences discourse in order to maximise the potential for increased understanding between all those affected. (excerpt) Liebmann, Marian. Restorative Justice and the Prison System in the UK There has been a recent burgeoning interest in Restorative Justice (RJ) in prisons in the UK, much of it dependent on the enthusiasm of local governors and staff, and the particular circumstances in those prisons. In the UK there are no ‘systematic’ (i.e. regular and predictable, thought out) or ‘systemic’ (i.e. involving the whole prison system) RJ processes which apply to all prisons. Nevertheless it is possible to categorise different forms of RJ, and develop a framework which relates RJ initiatives to different aspects of the prison system and the criminal justice system in general. Initiatives can be categorised by the amount of interface they have with outside bodies, the criminal justice system in general, or the justice system within the prison. This paper is an attempt to do this and to see if such a classification is useful. (excerpt) Nation, David and Monk-Shepherd, Rosa. "Mediation in Prison following Incest" Rosa Monk-Shepherd, now a Probation Officer in Devon, in collaboration with David Nation, then of Plymouth Mediation, outlines the potential gains for victim/survivor and perpetrator, of mediation initiatives during the offender’s prison sentence. Newell, Tim. Restorative Justice in Prisons in England and Wales: Project led by Tim Newell Restorative principles have an important contribution to make to create safer communities. From the very first contact with the victim to the resettlement of an offender there are opportunities to improve on traditional policy and practice. It is to consider this application of restorative processes in the Prison Service that the project has been set up, led by Tim Newell, from October 2001 till March 2002. As well as having a direct application to the considerations implicit in the recommendations of the Halliday Report concerning sentencing the work of restorative justice addresses many of the newly stated Purpose and Aims of the Home Office. (excerpt) Norway builds the world's most humane prison But how restorative is it? from William Lee Adams' article in Time: Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn't tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual." Prison Ombudsman seeks apologies from staff for unfair treatment of prisoners by Stephen Shaw, England and Wales Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writing in Inside Time: As Ombudsman, I have tried to pioneer a restorative approach to complaints investigations. If a prisoner has been treated unfairly, a properly worded apology from the staff concerned is the best way of putting things right. Transforming Offenders in England and Wales. The Sycamore Tree Project® is an intensive in-prison programme that brings groups of victims into prisons to meet with unrelated offenders.They talk about the effects of crime, the harms it causes, and how to make things right. Prison Fellowship of England and Wales implemented the programme in 1998. In this article, Peter Walker, executive director, offers a description of the programme and examples of its impact. Wolthuis, Annemieke and Meijnen, Marieke. Developing Restorative Skills for Delinquent Youth (Herstelopvoeding) Sitting behind closed doors and working on your own development, taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions and where possible restoring the damage that has been done. That’s what’s happening in the closed youth facility “De Heuvelrug, location Eikenstein”, located in Zeist, The Netherlands. The experiment is called: ‘Herstelopvoeding’, in translation: Developing restorative skills for juvenile delinquents. The first results are promising, and the method is being further developed. What are the contents of this program? What are the results of the first evaluation and what has the future in hold for this method? (excerpt) Next 3 items » [1] 2 Document Actions Send this Print this	Africa Asia Europe Latin America Middle East North America and Caribbean Pacific Search 9932 publications on restorative justice Recent RJOB Comments Oakland as a RJ city? Jul 29, 2010 Trauma Jul 29, 2010 Psych Reports to BPT board Jul 29, 2010 More… Slide Show: What is Restorative Justice Click to view a slideshow discussing the definition of restorative justice. Jul 21, 2010 Promoting Restorative Justice in Panama Jul 28, 2010 Raising Community Awareness in Swaziland Jul 28, 2010 Exploring alternatives in Finland Jul 28, 2010 PF Rwanda Receives Grant for Reconciliation Work Jun 27, 2010 Restorative Justice in the Community.