Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof:
Teshuvah and Restorative Justice

(Part 1 of a two-part series)

My transformation from a "soft" supporter of Law and Order to a committed advocate of restorative justice began one Pesach in Canada's only federal institution for women. That was when I got my first glimpse into the realities of living behind bars. I'd gone with five other women from Ottawa to our Federal Prison for Women (known as P4W) to help Jewish inmates celebrate Pesach for the first time since their incarceration. We found the inmates indistinguishable from any other women that we knew. Some of them have been in prison for as long as eight years, with another eight to ten still to go.

Recollections of a steel gate clanging shut as women wistfully waved goodbye to us through the bars shook me into questioning Canada's love affair with incarceration. I left shaken by the experience, and appalled at the thought that 8 - 20 years of imprisonment could in any way "rehabilitate" lawbreakers, and make them fit to re-enter society.

The visits were an incredible learning experience to us from "outside." To celebrate the holidays with inmates is to appreciate their importance in building Jewish community. Freedom is much more than a word when a seder is held in a prison. There were at most four Jewish women prisoners at any one time, a fraction of the prison population, but their conditions within the institution, and their reasons for being in prison were not that different from those of other, non-Jewish women. The issue soon became not, "What about Jewish women?" but "What about all incarcerated women?", and indeed, all incarcerated people.

As I questioned our policy on incarceration, I began to wonder if long prison terms did in fact "improve" people. Is there some point at which very long terms become "overkill"--except for the most heinous of crimes?

My attitude has been influenced by the well-attested fact that most prisoners, male and female, come from disadvantaged groups in society; aboriginals, racial minorities, and the poor are heavily over-represented. This suggests that crime is often a warning sign of injustice in society. Warehousing offenders in the hope that somehow the basic problem will go away will not significantly lower the crime rate.

It was during the Yamim Noraim (High Holiday) services following those visits that I began to reflect on how Jewish beliefs and traditions could be used to support reform of the criminal justice system. I was introduced to a new concept which has come to be called variously Restorative or Transformative Justice, and was struck immediately by the similarity between the Jewish concept of teshuvah and the concepts embodied in these new approaches.

Restorative Justice is modeled on the traditional Native approach to Justice, where criminal activity is seen as a sign of sickness in the community which needs to be healed, rather than as an isolated act which must be punished. Through the use of Sentencing Circles to which the entire community, including the victim.and offender, come together to consider the offense and appropriate punishment, Native justice aims to bring the offender and community into a healthy relationship with each other. Punishment which does not lead to reconciliation and reintegration is deemed a failure. Variations of this approach under different names are being tried in a variety of communities and cultures, with promising results.

This concept of community is familiar to us as Jews. We are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as a community, including the misfits and "undesirable" among us. Is it not time in our modern integrated world to extend this attitude toward the wider community? Our prophets, and the Torah itself have taught us to care that justice is done, iniquities are corrected, and fairness and compassion are our guides in ordering our society.

The approach of restorative justice and our own concept of teshuvah bear strong similarities to each other. Both emphasize real repentance: an admission of wrong doing; an acceptance of personal responsibility for the offence; asking of forgiveness; a determination not to reoffend--and action to redress the wrong done. A particular insight that Judaism has to bring to this emphasis on repentance and reconciliation as part of a justice process is our teaching that wrongdoing against a person can only be forgiven by the victim: the wrongdoer must face the victim, admit the act, and ask forgiveness. And the victim must, according to our tradition, grant that forgiveness. Reconciliation must take place.

In our next issue: the application of Restorative Justice