As part of the Good Friday Agreement, a ‘wide-ranging’ review of the Northern Ireland justice system was undertaken in 2000. Nearly all of the recommendations of the report were adopted by the state, including those that called for a restorative justice approach to the juvenile justice system.
Most states take a
traditional approach to justice, one that puts the offender at the centre of
the process and is putative in nature. Restorative justice, in contrast, is
much more victim-focused.
The core principles of
restorative justice hold that crime violates people and relationships. The
process helps identify needs and obligations, encourages dialogue between all
parties involved, and provides a means for communities to deal with crime.
In addition to being more
consistent with the human rights ideals embedded in Northern Ireland’s
governing principles, applying restorative justice practices and keeping youth
out of the court and prison systems can simply be practical.
Statistics in Northern
Ireland show that young people are proportionally much more likely to be
convicted of an offence, but that their likelihood of continuing to engage in
criminal behaviour. Thus, some make the argument that it is neither necessary
nor productive to put every act of juvenile delinquency and petty crime through
the criminal justice system.
Since the Youth Justice Agency was founded in 2003
it has operated on the principles and practices put forward by restorative
justice ideas. Several statutory tools were put in place so that placing young
people into custody could be a measure of last resort. One of the most
effective of these tools is youth conferencing.
A youth conference is a
process that involves a trained facilitator, the juvenile offender and a
parent/carer. The victim (or their representative) and any support persons
whose presence is agreed upon may also take part, but their presence is
voluntary.
During a youth conference,
offenders are given the opportunity to discuss their actions. If
the victim is present, they are allowed to make statements and explain the hurt
and damage done to themselves and their community so that they offender may
have a deeper understanding of their actions.
The end result of a youth
conference is a youth conference plan. This plan documents the course or
courses of action the young person must take as a result of their offense. The
plan must be agreed to by all parties involved – including the offender – and
can include such items as an apology, community service work, or restriction of
movement.
Youth conferences can either
be voluntary (pre-trial) or court-mandated, after prosecution has taken place.
With a few exceptions, all young offenders who go through the court system must be referred to a youth conference.
As of 2008, statistics
showed that young offenders who took part in a conference were far less likely
to re-offend than were those who were placed into custody. Also, there is a
high proportion of young people successfully completing their youth conference
plan.
Victims who have taken part
in youth conferences have also given favourable reviews to the process.
According to the Prison Reform Trust’s 2010 Bromely Brief,
victims were present in two thirds of all youth conferences held in 2008 and
2009, with 89% saying they were satisfied with the outcome.
There are other principles
of restorative justice at work within the youth justice system as well, such as
reparation orders and community responsibility orders. The Juvenile Justice Centre
in Bangor, featured in the third Youth and Justice series article on Fair Cop,
is a restorative justice-based facility. All have had a measure of success both
in how they have been received by communities and in how effective they are.
Much work has been put in to
forming the youth justice system in Northern Ireland around restorative
practices, and statistics show that it may be a better approach than a
‘traditional’ putative system. What do you think? Is restorative justice the
right approach? Should similar principles be adopted across the justice system
as a whole?
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This article concludes Fair
Cop’s ‘Youth and Justice’ series, which was written in anticipation of the
release of a comprehensive review of Northern Ireland’s Youth Justice System by
the Department of Justice. The report is due out this June, so look for more
coverage on these issues on Fair Cop in the future.
