Strengthening Restorative Practices for those Impacted by Crime
Justice leads to wholeness and well-being within relationships, communities and the world. Like fishermen who mend their nets in the morning after fishing all night, justice requires those most impacted by crime do the hard work of mending their relationships.
Why Restorative Justice?
Crime and wrongdoing not only damage individual relationships but also ripple out, affecting friends, families and communities. Crime both results from and contributes to broken relationships and societal issues rooted in deeper wounds, power imbalances and unjust systems. Prison Fellowship International digs into these underlying hurts – often overlooked or suppressed – to facilitate true healing. Restorative programs brings together victims, offenders and the community to address core needs and repair harm.
Victim
Need healing
Offender
Need to make amends
Community
Need relational health and safety
Restorative Justice in the Context of Prison Fellowship International
Prison Fellowship International is not a restorative justice organization, but operates from a restorative justice lens. In PFI’s prisoner-focused context, the three key stakeholders are prisoners (as offenders), their families (as secondary victims), and the church (as integral community members). As a global family, we seek to repair the harm caused by crime by emphasizing accountability, forgiveness and making amends for those in prison and those affected by their actions. When victims, offenders and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results are transformational.
Restorative justice aims to foster right relationships among all stakeholders
Especially as ex-prisoners reintegrate with families and communities. Programs become truly restorative when they meet personal needs, strengthen bonds, and address underlying conflicts. When ex-prisoners live in right relationship with their families and communities, they are more likely to desist from criminal behavior. Justice must also confront root causes of crime, seeking to transform unjust systems. Recognizing our interconnectedness, restorative justice calls us to examine and address the deeper issues behind crime and its context.
Three Core Elements of Restoring Justice
Encounter is the starting point, a facilitated meeting that brings together people most impacted by crime to determine how to repair harm. Encounters start with an invitation, and all parties participate voluntarily.
Because crime harms people and tears apart both relationships and communities, restorative justice seeks to repair harm from a broad perspective. Each stakeholder has unique needs that arise from crime.
Restorative encounters create spaces that lead to transformed individuals— victims and offenders – and pinpoint root causes of crime, even systemic and structural issues.
Restorative Justice Principles and Practices Handbook
Looking to better understand restorative justice in the prison context? This handbook answers this question and more by openly sharing best practices for organizations to apply in varied contexts. Available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Our Vision Of Restoration
Prison Fellowship International sees programs as restorative to the degree stakeholders come together in a dialogue (‘encounter’) that meets stakeholder needs (‘repair’). Values that are prized and intentionally cultivated in our restorative justice processes and programmatic best practices are respect, inclusion, empowerment, safety and accountability. Restorative justice is inherently solution-oriented, enacting steps toward healing and reintegration in proactive ways.
Resources and Training Materials
Discover Restorative Justice | Video
Essential introduction video for Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers just learning about restorative justice.
Presentation
PowerPoint presentation and talking points for national ministries to train staff on how to make their programs more restorative within PFI's prison-focused context. It also reviews RJ basics
Talking Points
Resources
Browse and access past newsletters, reflections, articles and other restorative justice resources.
Restoring Family Bonds Series
Best practice series to help national ministries think through how they might build and maintain important connections between families and their loved ones in prison.
Meet Crime Victim Needs Series
Best practice series to help national ministries think through how best to meet victim needs in their programs, especially Sycamore Tree Project.
Explore More Resources
Want to dig deeper into restorative practices and principles?
Our initiative, Restorative Justice Exchange, exists to house a variety of resources to strengthen restorative practices in your programs for prisoners, victims and families of prisoners.