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Detailed Schedule
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DAY 1 |
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 |
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| 8–9 AM | REGISTRATION |
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| 9–10:20 AM | PLENARY SESSION [Weston Theatre] |
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OPENING ACTIVITIES Conference Chairpersons: A greeting from local practitioners. SPEAKER: TED WACHTEL SPEAKER: REV. BENJAMIN SHORTRIDGE VIDEO: FAMILY VOICES |
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| 10:20–10:50 AM | COFFEE BREAK |
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| 11 AM–12:20 PM | 80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Weston Theatre | Video Festival
FACING THE DEMONS COMMENTARY ON FACING THE DEMONS: THE FACILITATOR'S PERSPECTIVE |
| Weston II | A Bare-bones Causal Theory of Restorative Justice Paul McCold Kurt Lewin said there is nothing so useful as a good theory. A good theory of restorative justice would explain how a restorative response is expected to affect the causal chain of events in the aftermath of a crime. It would tell us what constitutes the outcomes we hope to achieve and why we should expect those outcomes. It would provide unambiguous ways to evaluate whether an intervention is successful. Beyond providing for these practical needs, a good theory is also a testable theory. Evaluations of well-implemented restorative justice programmes should also provide a test of the theory itself. They would provide a plain set of expectations about the effects of restorative justice interventions so that hypotheses derived from the theory might be tested in the real world of practice. This workshop presents a bare-bones causal theory of restorative justice and invites participant feedback and discussion. |
| Weston III | Peaceable Schools Project Julia Duffy & Julie Wolstenholme The session will take the delegates through a time line of how the Peaceable Schools Project was developed. This takes us back six years ago when East Manchester was recognized as a social-economic deprived area within the city limits of Manchester. Educational attainment was poor, school attendance poor, and unemployment of adults and young people high, and there were high levels of teenage pregnancy, crime and disorder. East Manchester became a regeneration area, and education was at the heart to support improvements and life chances of families. |
| Conf. Rm. 1 | Restorative Practices in Probation and Parole Terry O'Connell This workshop examines the use of restorative practices in probation and parole. Drawing on some early work in Australia in this area, the presenter will explore how restorative practices have been integrated into day-to-day interactions and interventions with offenders and their families. Using an explicit restorative practice framework, a detailed description will be given on the processes used to engage, challenge and, importantly, to help offenders build capacity. This involves a number of key steps: narrative, reflection, feedback, future action and clarifying expectations. |
| Conf. Rm. 2 | Community Conferences: Widening the Circle Mark Bryant & Sharon Inglis Community conferences are a new approach to community problem solving for children, young people, their families and communities in West Berkshire, England. Community conferencing is a process for transforming conflict and providing solutions for the participants. A community conference can be arranged when an important issue about children or young people in a community needs to be resolved. Community conferences are a meeting of people affected by behaviour that has caused harm. The aim of the meeting is to: understand what has happened, hear how everyone has been affected, consider how things can be made better and prevent it from happening again. The model is based on restorative principles, our experience in family group conferences and community participation. The session will be a mixture of presentations and exercises looking at the background and development of the process, the model, the meeting itself, implementation, as well as some of the issues that practitioners are likely to encounter. |
| Conf. Rm. 3 | Conversation with Rev. Benjamin Shortridge This is an opportunity for participants to meet with Rev. Benjamin Shortridge and have a follow-up conversation on his featured presentation. |
| Conf. Rm. 3a | Conversation with Ted Wachtel This is an opportunity for participants to meet with Ted Wachtel and have a follow-up conversation on his featured presentation. |
| Conf. Rm. 4 | Learning to Be Restorative Hugh Campbell & Tim Chapman This workshop will describe the staff development programme produced and implemented by the University of Ulster for the Youth Conference Service in Northern Ireland. It will describe how it enabled practitioners to change their paradigm of practice and to learn the specific skills required for restorative practice. It involved the design of a practice manual, a ten-day training programme, practice development days and coaching. An advanced programme is currently being produced for the service. The University of Ulster is also developing a degree programme in restorative practices. |
| Conf. Rm. 5 | The Challenges of Institutionalizing Comprehensive Restorative Justice for Youth: Theory and Practice in Nova Scotia Bruce Archibald Nova Scotia has instituted a comprehensive restorative justice programme that is centred on youth criminal justice and operates through referrals by police, prosecutors, judges and correctional officials to community organizations, which facilitate restorative conferences and other restoratively oriented processes. More than five years of experience with thousands of cases and careful review and empirical evaluation of the programme has led to considerable rethinking of theory and practice in relation to governing policies, standards for programme implementation and responses to controversial issues. Structuring quality restorative processes, ensuring equality in programme service delivery, controlling professionalization, balancing offender and victim concerns and encouraging restorative community development have all been central to the programme's evolution. This presentation will explore the significance of this experience for sustaining restorative justice beyond the pilot project stage, where a vision of community-based justice is institutionalized with the support of considerable state resources. |
| Conf. Rm. 6 | The Challenge of Culture Change: Embedding Restorative Practice in Schools Margaret Thorsborne While notions of restorative approaches to behaviour management are very appealing, schools that are serious about reform have found that the greatest challenge lies in moving beyond 'programme' thinking to grasping the fact that it means large-scale culture change. To effect this culture change (without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the task) requires a systematic, strategic approach over several years. This session will focus on the experiences of two of Australia's leading restorative justice consultants in this field, Margaret Thorsborne and Peta Blood. Together they have developed a practical and systematic model that will assist schools in their attempts to move away from traditional, punitive approaches of behaviour management to embrace more restorative, relational approaches. |
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| 12:30–1:30 PM | LUNCHEON [Weston I] |
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| 1:40–2:20 PM | 40-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Weston Theatre | Video Festival
FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCES—WHAT'S THAT? TAKING CARE OF THE CHILDREN |
| Weston II | Post Conflict: Contested Policing and Restorative Approaches in Ireland Jim Auld, Harry Maguire & Paddy O'Donnell The session will look at restorative approaches in action within the context of community disputes. It will also be vital to examine issues around policing arising out of our recent conflict in Ireland and looking at these with a positive view to creating a new paradigm around criminal justice. The session will also point out the absolute need for communities to be involved in justice issues and how restorative justice can be the vehicle to achieve this. |
| Weston III | Why is Good Restorative Practice Difficult to Implement within Referral Orders and Community-based Sanctions? Catherine Nicholson The speaker believes that restorative justice is fundamental to dealing with wrongdoing and conflict. The practice is designed to be at the core of youth justice in the United Kingdom. However, her experience gained working with young offenders in an inner-city Youth Offending Team has highlighted a number of real difficulties with the techniques in a criminal justice setting. This session will therefore focus on the practical problems faced by youth justice professionals when using conferencing and other restorative practices with young people. Through case studies and discussion, participants will identify legislative, financial, psychological and practical barriers to attaining a restorative justice outcome. This session also aims to discuss possible solutions to these difficulties. |
| Conf. Rm. 1 | Restorative Practices in Complaint-resolution Processes Terry O'Connell & Nicola Preston This workshop examines the use of restorative practices in complaint and grievance procedures in workplace and community settings. Using an explicit restorative framework to explain how these practices have been successfully integrated into policing and other workplace complaint systems, the broader potential of restorative practice in day-to-day supervision and management will be explored. This also has implications for challenging and changing organizational culture. |
| Conf. Rm. 2 | Doing Justice in Former Communist Countries: From Retribution to Restoration—The Case of Romania Doina Dobrescu Balahur The presentation approaches, through a multi-layer analysis, the main 'stairs' of the complex process of justice rebuilding in a victim country. The objective picture of the process, based on quantitative data and analysis and on the changes in legal frame, alternates with victims' stories and confessions and also with life histories. An important conclusion the presentation arrives at is that the values and practices of restorative justice are needed in Romania (with its long and well-known experience of victimization), not only to rebuild its justice system, but also to contribute to the restoration of the everyday life relations among people and to tolerance. |
| Conf. Rm. 3 | Exploring the Use of Family Group Meetings in Cases of Adolescent Sexual Offending and Abuse Vincent Mercer The workshop will give an account of the development of practice in this sensitive and complex field. It will consider the opportunities, the recent developments in the field of adolescent sexual abuse, characteristics, models of practice, pitfalls, other structures employed and the use of a specific risk/need assessment framework to determine appropriateness and issues for preparation. It will also outline an innovative partnership model, which seeks to reconcile the traditional offender-led approach with the need to engage with victims who are often left without access to services for support. |
| Conf. Rm. 3a | Introducing Restorative Practices into Highland Schools Peta Barber Highland Council is one of three Scottish local authorities involved in piloting the development of restorative practices in schools. The session will outline the approach taken by Highland, which involved 11 pilot primary and secondary schools in urban and rural environments. It will focus on the role of the coordinator in developing a council-wide project, highlighting areas of difficulty, as well as areas of success. There will be discussion of the strategic planning process and the ongoing evaluation process. |
| Conf. Rm. 4 | Widening the Circle to Create Restorative Justice in the Community Michael Kearns The session will examine the implementation of recent UK legislation following the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Amendments in 2002 prescribe the use of restorative justice in juvenile justice. Practical examples of restorative approaches in action will be used to outline the route taken in response to the guidelines issued by the Youth Justice Board. Questions posed relate to the recommended governmental practices in dealing with youth crime and the moral issues concerning criminalization of young people for minor offences. The presenter has a vision of widening restorative circles from Youth Offending Team work through schools, social services and the community projects that may create the social capital required for true partnership and cooperative action when dealing with young people who behave badly. |
| Conf. Rm. 5 | The Problems and Potentialities of Building Restorative Communities from a Position outside Statutory Services Jon Steel This session focuses on a project to work with young people from a relatively deprived neighbourhood in Oxford, England, to develop restorative approaches to their own conflicts and those around them. Young people from this area are more likely to be victims of crime and disorder. They also generally have poor relationships with police and schools and are therefore less likely to turn to these authorities when they are in trouble. Their usual response to conflict is to fight back if they feel strong enough; otherwise, to hold their feelings inside, taking them out on the next suitable person they meet. The session will involve a description of the project's response to this situation through the local development of restorative skills and attitudes amongst the young people. This will be followed by a consideration of the problems and possible benefits of developing restorative practices outside the structures of statutory service provision (such as the police, education or social services). |
| Conf. Rm. 6 | Restorative Justice in the Criminal Justice System: Conditional Cautioning Joanna Mears Conditional cautioning is a new disposal introduced in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act. It is an alternative disposal for a person who would usually have been prosecuted for the offence. It allows us to find out the reasons behind a person's offending behaviour. It also frees the court from many minor offences that take up so much of its time, allowing it to focus on the more serious crimes or those who do not wish to take the opportunity of addressing their offending behaviour. One of the main advantages of using restorative justice with conditional cautioning is that victims have a greater involvement in the process. They are able to say what they would like to happen, although this has to be agreed by the Crown Prosecution Service. |
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| 2:25–3:05 PM | 40-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Weston Theatre | Video Festival
BEYOND ZERO TOLERANCE: RESTORATIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS CONFERENCING: A SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR'S PERSPECTIVE |
| Weston III | Aspirations of Proponents and Experiences of Participants in Family Group Conferences Margarita Zernova The paper will look at some aspirations of restorative justice proponents in light of data collected in the course of an empirical study within one family group conferencing project. Are the aspirations of proponents to create an alternative to punishment and rehabilitation paradigms of justice and to develop a victim-centred, empowering, voluntary way of doing criminal justice realistic? What happens when these aspirations are pursued in practice? What insights can lay participants in restorative justice interventions bring to the debate about restorative justice? The paper will also highlight some problems, tensions and dangers inherent in the current development of restorative justice. |
| Conf. Rm. 1 | The Victim within the Offender: Restorative Approaches to Insurgency, Terrorism and Other Wrongdoing that Offenders Perceive as Justified Louise Greentree When offenders regard their unlawful, damaging actions as totally justified within one or more of the following situations—their world view (whether as a result of personality disorder or religious, political or ideological beliefs and values); their ideas of revenge; their beliefs in respect of religious sanctions; their responses to frustration and/or disempowerment—they may not be seen to be ideal candidates for restorative approaches. Is it possible to develop a restorative process that will extend to these situations? The paper will explore the development of a process that can give full acknowledgement to the victim within the offender, not as an excuse but as a step towards mutual understanding and the activation of conscience that precedes empathy and remorse. |
| Conf. Rm. 2 | Boundaries in Victim-offender Mediation: Reflections on Mediation in Certain Cases and Crimes Alice Delvigne Victim-offender mediation and restorative justice are getting more and more known and practised in Belgium, even though our practice shows there are some kinds of cases in which we see that the offer of victim-offender mediation raises questions. Are there boundaries on mediation? In which kinds of cases and what do we do with these cases? For example, cases concerning traffic offences, stalking, violence between partners. Does the mediator have to be more aware of certain aspects of mediation in these cases? This session will concern a small part of restorative justice practices in Belgium. In addition, there will be reflection about difficulties with some kinds of cases/crimes. Questions will be raised on the boundaries of mediation, illustrated by real examples of our practice. Also, the question is asked if, despite those difficulties, mediation might be the best way to react? |
| Conf. Rm. 3 | Restorative Practices: Changing the Climate Christine Settino This presentation by a public-school teacher from suburban Philadelphia, USA, will discuss how she began to use restorative practices at the prompting of her principal, who had been very involved with the practices at a previous school. She will discuss how the programme expanded to all of her classes and then to the school in general. She will focus on how the climate of the school can be changed by the use of a programme that encourages the students to take an active role in their own discipline, education and environment. Statistical data detailing the dramatic reduction in discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions that resulted from the implementation of restorative practices will be included. Also Ms. Settino will touch on how her school has encouraged reluctant teachers to come on board with the programme, as well as how to introduce the community to the use of restorative practices. |
| Conf. Rm. 4 | Communities, Culture and Conflict: Confronting the Challenges of Restorative Approaches in Canadian Aboriginal Communities Jane Dickson-Gilmore Dr. Dickson-Gilmore will present findings from her book, co-authored with Dr. Carol LaPrairie, entitled 'Will the Circle be Unbroken?': Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenges of Conflict and Change (University of Toronto Press, May 2005), which engages a critical analysis of the social, political and economic challenges facing restorative processes in Aboriginal communities in Canada. |
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Achieving Success with Victims and Young Offenders: The Youth Conference Northern Ireland Balanced Approach |
| Conf. Rm. 6 | Classroom Conferencing Margaret Thorsborne Resolving difficult classroom dynamics is one of the most challenging tasks facing teachers and school managers. We know that such responses as class detentions and temporary removal of individual students rarely provide lasting solutions, failing to make wrongdoers accountable to their classmates. The classroom conference, a restorative process designed for large groups of students, can address such issues as classroom conflict, persistent disruption, classroom bullying and teacher-student relationship breakdown. This session will dissect the classroom conference process and be an opportunity for participants to explore how some of the frustrations associated with tricky classrooms might be resolved. |
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| 3:05–3:35 PM | TEA BREAK |
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| 3:40–4:20 PM |
PLENARY SESSION [Weston Theatre] |
| VIDEO—BURNING BRIDGES Burning Bridges is a documentary about the arson of Mood's Bridge, an historic covered bridge in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA, and the restorative conference held in its wake. This emotional conference brought together the six young men who burned down the bridge with their families and members of the community. Using news footage, interviews and video of the actual conference, the documentary tells the story of a community moving through grief and anger to healing. Produced by the IIRP. |
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| 5-7 PM | WELCOME GATHERING [Weston I] |
| An opportunity to mix and meet fellow conference attendees. Hors d'oeuvres will be served. Cash bar. | |
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