New Restorative Justice Scheme Gets Go Ahead

A community restorative justice scheme in Newry and South Armagh has been told it can apply for Government approval.

In order to access public funding the schemes have to be formally assessed by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate for Northern Ireland (CJINI), and once this process is completes the scheme can then apply for full Government accreditation.

Community Restorative Justice uses alternative approaches while working alongside the existing criminal justice system and have developed in Northern Ireland as an alternative to punitive "self-policing" by paramilitary groups. CJINI inspectors said they sought evidence that human rights, the rights of the child, and UN principles on restorative justice were being observed.

Deputy Chief Inspector of CJINI Brendan McGuigan said that all appropriate cases had been passed on to the PSNI, "Case files studied by inspectors showed the majority of cases handled by the scheme involved incidents such as underage drinking, anti-social behaviour, minor vandalism and neighbour disputes. CJI spoke with victims and an offender who had engaged with the scheme all of whom were positive about their experience. They reaffirmed to inspectors that no coercion had been applied to secure their participation and that the outcomes had been fair and balanced."

Despite some opposition restorative schemes have flourished in Northern Ireland although opponents of the approach insist that they are an alternative policing or judicial system. However, the inspectorate said it had seen no such evidence when reviewing the scheme based in Newry and South Armagh.