Restorative Justice and the Prison System in the UK

Source: (2002) In Restorative Justice and its Relation to the Criminal Justice System: Papers from the second conference of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice, Oostende, Belgium, 10-12 October. Pp. 66-69. Downloaded 23 February 2005.

There has been a recent burgeoning interest in Restorative Justice (RJ) in prisons in the UK,
much of it dependent on the enthusiasm of local governors and staff, and the particular
circumstances in those prisons. In the UK there are no ‘systematic’ (i.e. regular and
predictable, thought out) or ‘systemic’ (i.e. involving the whole prison system) RJ processes
which apply to all prisons. Nevertheless it is possible to categorise different forms of RJ, and
develop a framework which relates RJ initiatives to different aspects of the prison system and
the criminal justice system in general. Initiatives can be categorised by the amount of
interface they have with outside bodies, the criminal justice system in general, or the justice
system within the prison. This paper is an attempt to do this and to see if such a classification
is useful. (excerpt)