Making things right: A vision for criminal justice

Source: (1995) Richmond, Victoria, Australia: Jesuit Social Services. Downloaded 9 June 2004.

Peter Norden, a Jesuit, has been visiting Australian prisons for over twenty years. He maintains that the Australian past influences attitudes toward crime and response to crime. Specifically, he believes that Australia’s history – as a penal colony for England – significantly shapes what he claims is the general public’s rigidly punitive stance toward those in prison. Norden examines the use of imprisonment in Australia and public perspectives on imprisonment, and he asks the question whether imprisonment is an effective response to criminal behavior. In this context, he states that a new and better approach is needed, which he identifies as restorative justice. He then develops a theological analysis, based on Christian values, of restorative justice.