Conferencing Handbook: The New Real Justice Training Manual

Source: (1999) Pipersville, PA: The Piper’s Press.

Real Justice was the name of an organization founded by Ted Wachtel in the United States in 1994. Subsequently, Real Justice has been transformed into the broader International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Real Justice continues as IIRP’s program in the sphere of criminal justice. Ted Wachtel initiated Real Justice after hearing Terry O’Connell talk about his work as a police officer in Wagga Wagga, Australia, where in the early 1990s O’Connell adapted and employed a New Zealand model of conferencing in his youth justice efforts. Real Justice, then, promoted this Wagga Wagga model of family group conferencing, with its emphasis on the use of a script to conduct the encounter between young offenders, their victims, and their families and friends. This document is a training manual or guidebook for facilitating real justice conferences. It focuses on lesser incidents of wrongdoing, not serious, violent incidents. The manual covers the following topics: the script itself; determining when to hold a conference; preparing for and running a conference; establishing a conferencing program; restorative justice practices beyond a formal conference; and appendices on conference observation and data sheets, conferencing program literature samples, and facilitator training notes and training agenda.