Source: (2003) In Douglas Sturm, ed., Belonging Together: Faith and Politics in a Relational World. Claremont, California: P&F Press. Pp. 61-73.
In this essay, Thomas Porter recounts his own personal journey to seeing justice in terms of a restorative justice paradigm. It is a story of profound change in his consciousness with respect to the meaning of justice, ways to respond to conflicts that serve justice, and the practice of law. This journey was marked by several milestones in his practice as a civil trial lawyer, his work as a mediator, a trip to South Africa, and study with Howard Zehr and others. Porter summarizes key ideas in a restorative justice paradigm, and then he sketches those milestones in the process of his evolving understanding and affirmation of restorative justice.
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