The London borough of Lewisham is being taught to speak to each other in order to resolve conflicts through restorative approaches, the offshoot of restorative justice.

Restorative justice is the approach that is primarily used within the criminal justice system that focuses on restoring the victim and community rather than just punishing the offender.

The support of victims and the healing process takes priority within restorative justice, as well as ensuring that the offender takes full responsibility for what they have done.

Professor David Miers, from Cardiff Law School feels that restorative justice is far more effective than conventional methods of dealing with young offenders.

“Victims do feel better and offenders feel a better sense of responsibility. It can not be used unless the offenders agree and the victims have consented. It is mostly used with young offenders, first timers and generally only used for minor offences.”

Restorative justice gives victims the opportunity to find out about the offender and ask those questions that only an offender can answer. Victims can express their feelings and seek compensation, along with finding some peace within their minds.

The victim can educate the offender about the harmful effects of crime and sort out any resentment that they have towards the offender. Ultimately, it is a chance for the victim to put the crime behind them and move on with their life.

Offenders have the opportunity to face up to their criminal behaviour, understand the effects of their actions, make amends for the harm that they have caused and reassess their future behaviour.

There are times when the whole process does not work out. Some of the main reasons are when the attention is not directed on the victims, so they do not feel like they are going to gain anything from the experience. At other times, the victim or offender just does not want to engage with the process.

Denise Norman, a person who has gone through a restorative justice conference is very critical of the process.

“I cannot tell you why this process is called Restorative Justice? In my opinion it did not ‘restore’ any kind of justice. Criminals use this process to show their ‘remorse’ about their crimes and in doing so, the public, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and even some victims then feel pity for the offender. The perpetrator can too readily use these emotions to seek alternatives to punishment and incarceration.”

However, the way in which restorative justice works is by actually changing the way we, as a society understand crime and justice. It cannot be looked at purely as a new technique for controlling crime, or another form of punishment. The approach has to be fully embedded into a new direction where society starts to take responsibility for offenders rather than allowing the state to deal with every problem.

The problem with the state controlling the criminal justice system is plain for anyone to see. We have the highest penal rates in Europe and lock up more young people than most countries around the world. Our prison population is at bursting point and our government is proposing to build huge titan prisons to handle the capacity rise for the future. Here in England, we lock up (figures for young people), if we compare that to Finland, they lock up three young people in the whole country (check).

Marian Liebmann, a mediation practitioner and trainer from the UK who has written a book documenting restorative justice processes around the world agrees with the idea that something else needs to be done.

“Punitive ways are not working. Prisons are bursting and victims do not get anything back for themselves. It is a chance to put things right and a much better way of living life. The current system does not work.”

Marian was one of the first practitioners in this country, working in the restorative justice field since the 80’s. She went feels that even though it has come a long way since then, more still needs to be done.

“I am not really that happy with the level of uptake, as the real question is who is it being up taken by? Bureaucratic processes make things difficult and the government needs to support the uptake. There is a big disparity between those that know and those that do not. Uptake at grass roots level is pretty good but there is no lead from the top.”

So this brings us to the work that is currently being carried out within the Lewisham borough. Restorative approaches, the name adopted from restorative justice as many people within the area did not like the connotations with the word justice, is being rolled out across many of the council services.

The approach is being used within primary and secondary schools, the police service, youth offending teams, community centres and there is even a trial taking place within the residential area of New Cross Gate.

One of the main reasons for the implementation of restorative approaches in schools has been the dramatic reduction in the amount of exclusions that participating schools have to mete out on their students.

The figures of the exclusion rates before restorative approaches had been adopted in the area were horrendous. In 1999, there were (get figures) exclusions, ten years later the exclusion rate has fallen to (get figures). Moreover the schools that have taken up the practices have seen there exclusion rate fall dramatically, with schools like Catford High, Deptford Green, Forest Hill, Baring and Lewisham Bridge schools resolving all conflicts restoratively.

The approach is contributing to an improved environment, boosting emotional literacy, reducing the amount of serious confrontational incidents, a positive atmosphere within the playground and overall a less stressful place to learn, work, and play.

These new approaches are enabling schools to promote understanding and healing over assigning blame and dispensing punishment. It is also used to create a safe space where young people can approach teachers with their problems, with the full confidence that the situation will be sorted out through discussion.

The old way of doing things has a young person feeling resentment towards another young person for getting them excluded. Now with this approach the aggressor can learn from their behaviour and almost decide on their own punishment, by suggesting what they are going to do to put things right.

The person who is in charge of rolling out these initiatives within the area is Sian Williams, the behaviour inclusion co-ordinator for the children and young people’s directorate for Lewisham Council. Her role has been to provide training and oversee restorative approaches throughout those services in direct contact with young people.

“The restorative process is hard, really hard. It can make people feel very vulnerable because their being asked to open up and hear things about themselves that they might not like and are difficult to hear. But it also gives them an outlet to say what they feel about that and perhaps reflect back some of the things that have made them feel like that. So it’s a much more open exchange of emotion.”

A restorative discussion takes place between a minimum of two people, usually with the young person who has caused harm and the receiver of the harm. An adult facilitates the discussion and makes sure that both parties are willing to talk to each other. The intention of the meeting is to ensure the young person knows what happened, understands the effect on others, comes up with a solution to the situation and suggests some ideas on how not to repeat such actions.

The process is great for teachers at deputy head and head of year level, as it relieves them of their only option being to exclude pupils. With exclusions, the young person leaves the school for a few days then comes back without addressing the key issues that caused the exclusion in the first place. This approach provides the opportunity to get everyone together to talk about the situation and resolve any future conflicts that may arise. So the teachers no longer have to be the judge, jury and executioner.

Sian gives some examples of when the restorative approach has been really effective. “There was a time when this child broke a teacher’s windscreen, and had to sell his PSP to pay for it, as it was the only thing he had. That is what he did and that was his idea. The young child was asked how are you going to pay for the windscreen and that is what he came up with, to sell his PSP. The solutions that the meetings come up with are a lot more meaningful then what somebody else can impose because they involve things like selling the PSP.

We have had another where washing has been involved in a shirt. A child fly kicked another child and got mud all over his back. It was a big deal as it was the only shirt, which was new and it was the last bit of money, you know all of that was really meaningful for this child. So the child who had done the fly kicking as a joke, took it home, hand washed it and brought it back the next morning. So they come up with a lot more creative solutions than adults ever really can in some ways.”

The approach has been adopted for use within the New Cross Gate NDC area, which is the first restorative justice neighbourhood in the country. There is a partnership between the Youth Offending Team, Metropolitan Police, Lewisham Council, and local schools to train local people in how to set up a restorative justice discussions and conferences.

The scheme has managed to train 80 people within the area but is finding it hard promoting the message to the wider community. On Valentine’s Day, the council were out in the local supermarket car park handing out flyers and speaking to local shoppers about how the area is changing, making a real difference to victims, wrongdoers, and community relations.

So the jury is still out on whether New Cross Gate will become a success story in turning the whole area into a place where people resolve their issues and conflicts through talking. The area has its problems but maybe restorative approaches will facilitate some much needed change.