Restorative Justice and the Criminal Justice System (Collaborative Justice Project’s Learning Profiled to the Ontario Office for Victims of Crime Conference)

Source: Speech delivered to the Ontario Office for Victims of Crime Conference by the Project Co-ordinator for the Church Council’s Collaborative Project. The Church Council on Justice and Corrections, Canada. Downloaded 14 January 2005.

The Church Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC) is a Canadian coalition of faith-based individuals and churches advocating for a more humane way to practice criminal justice. James Scott is the project coordinator for the CCJC’s Collaborative Justice Project. A community based pilot program operating out of the Ottawa courthouse through court referrals, this project focuses on serious crimes and operates primarily at the post-plea, pres-sentence stage. It attempts to bring offenders and victims together in order to help the victim, the accused, their families, and others deal with issues of communication, support and safety needs, accountability and reparation – all to give the affected parties a voice and choice in the criminal justice process. Scott explains all of this in describing what the project is not, as well as what it is and how it operates in practice.