Page 4671 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 November 2018
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restorative justice is a facilitator process in which victims of crime, offenders and, where appropriate, their respective communities of care together actively participate in addressing what has happened and who has been affected. Participants at a restorative justice conference also make decisions together about how to repair the harm done by offences. Restorative justice is a voluntary process which directly involves victims of crime in their justice process.
Members may be aware that the scheme was informed by the subcommittee on restorative justice established to report to the ACT sentencing review committee on extending the use of RJ programs in 2003. The scheme commenced operation with phase 1 in January 2005, which covered less serious offences committed by young people. It then expanded to phase 2 in February 2016, encompassing adult offenders and more serious offences. Phase 3 will mean that sexual and family violence offences will now be eligible to be referred to restorative justice, allowing victims of these crimes, and the people responsible for committing them, the opportunity to access facilitated restorative justice conferencing if they are assessed as suitable and choose to participate.
Section 61 of the Crimes (Restorative Justice) Act 2004 provides for the director-general to issue guidelines outlining procedures for, relevantly, making decisions about referrals, the management of restorative justice, and the conduct of conferences. This guideline has been made by the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate and was notified on the ACT legislation register earlier this week. The guideline will commence on the day phase 3 of the restorative justice scheme commences.
Consultation on the development of this guideline began early in the life of the restorative justice scheme to support the future implementation of this phase, involving some of the most complex offences in our community. This final phase of the scheme has taken some years to arrive. Initially, the referral uptake for juvenile offenders was so strong that the capacity of the restorative justice unit required expansion to move to phase 2, offering conferencing for adults and making more serious offences eligible to be referred.
The Crimes (Restorative Justice) Act 2004 was constructed to recognise that access through restorative justice for more complex crimes of family violence and sexual offences should not commence until the convening team had time to receive best practice training, raise facilitation capabilities, explore appropriate models of practice, and embed quality clinical supervision and peer supervision practices. This has now been put in place, and we are ready for phase 3 of the scheme to commence.
Violence against women, children and vulnerable members of our community is a serious issue, and any response to such violence must take into account the severe and accumulative impact of these offences on victims, the presence of power and control dynamics, and the reduced capacity for some victims to make un-coerced decisions in their own best interests.
The guideline sets out, for restorative justice unit staff, referring entities and other stakeholders, particular requirements and considerations for managing restorative
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