The traditional adversarial court process is often poorly equipped to address many of the material, emotional, and social needs associated with violent crime. In order to better meet these needs, the Vera Institute of Justice is launching a participatory justice demonstration project in fall 2008 as a voluntary alternative to the traditional court process for qualified cases, including assault, burglary, and robbery.
Participatory justice is a process that brings people immediately impacted by a given harm—the harmed party, the person responsible, and community members with a stake in the outcome—face to face before a trained facilitator to acknowledge what happened, address the reparative needs arising from the incident, and reach agreements about appropriate sanctions to hold the responsible party accountable. Research has shown this approach to be effective not only in substantially reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress among those who have been hurt, but also in reducing recidivism among the people responsible and in increasing perceptions of safety and fairness among all parties.
Vera’s participatory justice project will target cases involving young adults ages 16 to 24 who face felony charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court and will place special focus on meeting the needs of the people these young adults have harmed. Although still in the planning phases, the process will draw from extensive experience in the field with similar scenarios.
This project aims to diminish the over-reliance on incarceration in cases where it does not serve the public interest, to offer culturally appropriate and responsive “victim services” to the broad array of people who are not adequately served by the current system, and to provide a meaningful, cost-effective, and safe avenue for healing to communities impacted by harm. Dr. Mark Umbreit, of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, has said the Participatory Justice Project will “make a profound and essential contribution to the field and to the people [it] will serve.” Dr. Paul McCold, of Simon Fraser University and the International Institute for Restorative Practices, has called it a potential “watershed for criminal justice policy nationwide.”
This demonstration project is being undertaken with support from the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney, the New York State Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution, the New York State Crime Victims Board, the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims, Brooklyn Legal Aid, and the Brooklyn Defender Services.
For more information, contact Danielle Sered.