Court-referred restorative justice begins when a guilty plea is entered and there are people or organisations identified as being harmed.
Once we receive a referral from the court our process begins.
Prior to our service making contact sometimes your lawyer, police , or a victims advisor may ask you about your thoughts on possibility of Restorative Justice.
Our process will usually begin with an initial phone call from one of our Coordinators, (sometimes depending on the contact details we receive this could be a letter or email) Our coordinators will briefly explain the next steps of the process and ask you if this something you want to do. RJ is completely voluntary, and you may decline at any stage.
If both the person charged, the person harmed and our coordinator agrees it is appropriate to proceed further, we will assign two trained facilitators to work with you.
In the next stage of the process, the facilitators working with you will arrange a time to meet with you to prepare you for a meeting with the other party. We encourage you to bring a support person with you to this meeting. The meeting will take place at a time and location that suits you. At this meeting, our facilitators will ask you about what happened and go over what might happen at a meeting with the other party. They will be preparing you for the meeting with the other party and assessing if it is safe and appropriate for a meeting to take place. This is an opportunity to tell your story privately with our facilitators, information from this meeting is NOT shared with the other party or the court.
If you decide to continue to the next step and our facilitators assess it as safe and appropriate to do so, they will arrange for a conference meeting to take place. This is a supported conversation between the parties. Our facilitators will be there to guide you, and keep the conversation safe and on track. You can ask for the meeting to stop at any point. It will take place at a neutral location.
After the conference, our facilitators will write a report, which is a summary of what was discussed. The report may include quotes, but is not a full transcript. We do not do audio recordings. You will receive a copy of this report, a copy will also be sent to the Judge and legal counsel.
The Judge will read this report prior to sentencing, and may refer to the conference report content during sentencing.
Our facilitators will also check in with the parties after the conference. This will usually be a phone call to see how you are doing, check on the progress of any agreements made in the conference and assist you with accessing further supports if required.
The one word which is most important to Restorative Justice above all others is respect; respect for all, even those who are different from us, even those who seem to be our enemies
