The Restorative Justice System is being put back into the spotlight by the Prince George RCMP.
Today (Wednesday), the detachment along with the Prince George Urban Aboriginal Justice Society launched a video detailing the role restorative justice plays in our system.
Cpl. Jennifer Cooper told MyPGNow.com the service, which has been in place since 2015, plays a vital role in helping offenders.
“We all hear about the revolving door of the criminal justice system and this is an alternative to that. If offenders have been down a path before and if they have been at it a number of times, then maybe this is something that can connect with them with the people they are impacting with their crimes.”
“I have attended a few Restorative Justice circles. One that stands out is with a young man in the community who was staring down a life of petty crime with break and enters and theft. He participated in a Restorative Justice circle and was required to complete some community service. After that, we were able to see that he changed around his life graduating grade 12 and being a contributing member of society.”
Cooper also mentioned Restorative Justice is a lot more open than your standard court proceedings.
“The courtroom tends to be depersonalizing. Everybody sits in their box and talks about their perspective but there is no dialogue between victim and offender whereas restorative justice brings together those who have caused harm and received it.”
PG Urban Aboriginal Justice Society Executive Director, Bill Pavich noted steering Indigenous kids away from police custody is crucial.
“It’s very important to us that we divert the youth from the criminal justice because we know once we these young kids get into the criminal justice system it’s very hard for them to get out and back into the community.”
“I was told once before it’s about $150,000 per year to keep a federal offender incarcerated and I am going to guess that it is fairly similar to the provincial rate. I don’t know those stats but I will say it is a lot of money, money that could be used for infrastructures like hospitals, schools, and other programs for kids.”
The Urban Aboriginal Justice Society has dealt with Restorative Justice programming for over 20 years while the RCMP launched its initiative in 2015 led by coordinator Linda Parker.
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