Restorative Justice begins with the notion that justice is about healing rather than punishment. It is a worldwide movement that has been slowly growing, but it comes from the indigenous tradition of sitting in a circle and communing about matters of significance to the community. A circle is non-hierarchical; everyone in it is equal and everyone's presence is vital to the whole. I call this a state of "vibrant equality."

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My guest is award-winning journalist and author, Bob Koehler. Welcome back to OpEdNews, Bob.

You recently reprinted an older column on restorative justice. I'm intrigued. Can you tell us a bit about what it is?

BK: Restorative Justice -- RJ -- encompasses a number of practices and concepts, but begins with the notion that justice is about healing rather than punishment. It is a worldwide movement that has been slowly growing over the last 20 years or so, but it comes from the indigenous tradition of sitting in a circle and communing about matters of significance to the community. A circle is non-hierarchical; everyone in it is equal and everyone's presence is vital to the whole. I call this a state of "vibrant equality."

The peace circle is the cornerstone of Restorative Justice, and the most important part of the ritual of sitting in a peace circle is using a talking piece (a rock, a stuffed animal, a piece of driftwood -- anything you can hold in your hand, often with some meaning behind it). Only the person holding a talking piece can talk. It's passed around, clockwise or counterclockwise. Everyone gets a turn to either talk or pass. When it's not your turn to talk, you listen. People who think they are enemies -- rival gang members, for instance -- will listen to one another in a peace circle and discover how much they have in common. Restorative practices are the essence of common sense. Here in Chicago, where I live, RJ is gaining a significant foothold in the school and juvenile court systems, both of which are in desperate need of common sense.

JB: Talking things out - what a radically simple concept. How did you get involved with this?

BK: I first heard about peace circles through the friend of a friend -- a woman who was involved in mediation. She talked about peace circles, and the turnaround they brought about in people's lives, with so much enthusiasm I knew I needed to learn more. The universe works in mysterious ways. A day or two later, I got an email forward from an acquaintance announcing peace circle training at a local high school. While it was geared toward teachers, anyone was welcome. I immediately signed up for it and have never looked back. This training led me to further opportunities to train and learn; a door opened for me into the RJ community. As a syndicated columnist and self-proclaimed peace journalist, I began undertaking the complex task of writing about RJ and the way people achieve understanding with one another.

JB: I want to know everything, Bob! How does a "case" arrive at a peace circle? What's the mechanism? And what kind of cases show up at RJ? I'm assuming not everything qualifies.

BK: Well, it's important to remember that RJ is based on voluntary participation. It doesn't blend easily or simply with the criminal justice system, and bureaucratic attempts to make it do so distort the process to the point of meaninglessness. Cases don't simply show up -- indeed, RJ circles are tremendously diverse and aren't necessarily about dealing with harm or conflict. Those that do, usually called conflict circles, require voluntary participation of all parties: those who were injured, those who caused the harm. And often "those who were injured" is an all-inclusive label.

We're all wounded in various ways. Circles are complex and sometimes lengthy processes, especially if they are dealing with conflict; several circles may be necessary to build trust between people and get to the bottom of a harmful event. As Rupert Ross explained in his brilliant book Returning to the Teachings, indigenous justice isn't focused on "who did it?" but on "where is the harm?" A circle searches for the harm, which is often more psychological than physical. And many people may be harmed by a particular action, including those who love the perpetrator. All are welcome to be part of such a circle. Circles work by entering people's consciousness.

In a school setting, kids who know about circles will ask for a circle, or organize one themselves, if a fight threatens to erupt on the playground. It's a matter of spreading awareness, not creating a new bureaucratic category. RJ-aware schools have all kinds of circles. They may have morning check-in circles, in which the students simply talk about how they're doing in that moment. One teacher told me that such circles are like daily vitamins. They strengthen the social immune system. RJ isn't reactive; it's preventative.

JB:The comparison to daily vitamins is very apt. This is fascinating and exciting but still a bit hard to visualize. Can you give a specific example of RJ in action so we can see how it works, Bob?

BK: Here's a passage from a columnI wrote a year and a half ago, about how the RJ process worked at a Chicago public school, Fenger High School:

"While peace circles can be held for any reason, a peer jury, which is run by students trained in the process, is held to deal with a dispute or the commission of harm; it's an alternative to suspension or other form of traditional punishment, which never deals with underlying causes. Peer jury circles give all sides a chance to listen, a chance to apologize and a chance to forgive.

"Sometimes all that matters is the listening. In a recent post at the Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice website, staff member Robert Spicer wrote of an incident at Fenger that could have blown up into headline-grabbing violence. One morning, two boys in the lunchroom were trying out a new kind of handshake, which another student took offense to. He challenged them, they felt disrespected -- and suddenly eight students were involved and ready to fight.

"School security guards broke it up and, later that day, all the participants were part of a peer jury circle. They could have been suspended, but the anger would have continued to smoulder and could easily have erupted into violence at some point, at school or in the neighborhood.

Instead, as Spicer wrote, "all the students, when they received the talking piece, agreed that the situation was a big misunderstanding. Some began to share stories about situations they were dealing with and others in the circle were able to relate by sharing their stories. . . .

"After the closing ceremony, each of the students shook hands and even hugged each other as they were preparing to leave my office. They did this without any adults prompting them to do this, which showed their sincerity. Once we concluded the circle, the adults decided to allow them to blow off some steam and play basketball. And the students who were the main ones in conflict were on the same team!"

"This is a glimpse at what it means to build lasting peace: to transform the volatility of hopelessness into deep and real connection between people. I visited Fenger recently and talked to five of the student peer jurors -- who have become ambassadors of peace in the classrooms and hallways -- and I will write more about this in future columns.

"We are family," said Ana, one of the peer jurors. "Right here. All these people are here for me. We understand -- we go through the same stuff."

JB: Reading this gave me goosebumps! How do you get schools to sign up? Are they typically resistant or eager to participate? And how do you get cases that might work well within the peace circle context to avoid getting plunged into the black hole of traditional justice bureaucracy?

BK: You don't get schools to sign up, you get people. And people sign up -- become passionate about RJ is more like it " decide to devote their lives to it -- because they try it and have an "aha" moment and know it makes sense. People who are part of very troubled -- broken -- systems, such as public education and juvenile justice, have a desperation that pushes them to look beyond bureaucratic, punishment-based, zero-tolerance solutions. That's why people who work in these areas, along with social workers and other members of helping professions, make up such a large percentage of RJ practitioners. They're at the cutting edge of psycho-social disaster.

Bringing RJ into a school is more than just implementing a program. It's fostering a shift in consciousness. Struggle with traditionalists is inevitable. Sometimes higher-ups in the system will reluctantly give RJ a try at one school or another, but grow dissatisfied because it doesn't work quickly enough. Turning the whole system around is slow-going indeed, but we're making inroads.

JB: So, let's say that I'm a parent in an at-risk school and I decide to try RJ before throwing up my hands in despair. What's the process? How precisely do I get involved and bring Restorative Justice into the school setting?

BK: It's not precise. You have to make use of your connections in life. Are you friends with any of the teachers? Do you know the principal? Are you involved? You have to sell the idea. I think most people in the Chicago Public School System have at least heard of RJ. You should also take training yourself. This is absolutely essential. Hold a peace circle at your house! Hold one every week! I recently took training with Community Justice for Youth Institute, which is highly regarded in the Chicago area. Everyone interested in lasting change should familiarize herself/himself with RJ work and peace circles. You have to go into this knowing you can never give up.

JB: Exciting but scary. When you say, "Hold a peace circle at your house!" I'm assuming that I, or anyone else for that matter, would need training before actually convening a peace circle. For any readers for whom this idea is enticing, can you talk some more about what the training was like: how long it lasts, who conducts it, what you do once you're "trained". Are you busy holding weekly peace circles at your house? What does this look like?

BK: This is a wide-open, creative process. People hold circles for all kinds of reasons. I've done lots of training and the duration varies, but it usually lasts several days. The training I just completed lasted four intense days (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). It's a definite commitment. You learn the tradition and rituals associated with circles. You learn about "creating a safe container" -- that is, how to make a circle a safe place for people to speak about difficult matters. This takes a lot of work. Much of circle training is about how to build trust in a group setting. Once again, this is not precise.

Every person is different. Every time you hold or participate in a circle, you are amplifying your training. People and their relationships with each other are infinitely complex. Last year several friends and I started holding what we called "community-building circles." They're on hold right now but I hope to renew them in the near future. One remarkable aspect of circles is that it matters little whether, going in, you know some or any of your fellow participants. The idea of the circle is so respectful toward all present that you know you will be given a chance to speak -- and be listened to -- even if you are a stranger to the rest of the group. You will not be a stranger by the time it's over.

JB: Maybe when you get back into it, you'll invite me to one of those "community-building circles", Bob. What else can you share with our readers that we haven't talked about yet?

BK: Absolutely, Joan! To me, peace circles and RJ work are my largest source of optimism about the future. I'm committed to spreading the word about them any way I can. Here's a link to one of the columns I wrote about peace circle work that, I think, gets at their essence somewhat. Peace circles have their origins in indigenous cultures around the globe and reverse the flow of teaching and information. It's not the "civilized" world giving "primitive" people computers and tennis shoes and automatic rifles. It's the world's tribal people drawing the rest of us back into the circle of life.

JB: I completely get why you're so jazzed by Restorative Justice, Bob. YES! Magazine has had a few articles on the subject recently [see below]. No wonder this all sounded familiar to me. It was a pleasure talking with you again. I'm looking forward to holding you to that invitation to join your personal peace circle!

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Recent YES! magazine articles on Restorative Justice:

Discipline With Dignity: Oakland Classrooms Try Healing Instead of Punishment 2/19/2014

How Restorative Justice Changed This Colorado Cop's Views on Prison 1/14/2014

Bob offers other articles on the subject:

New York Times Magazine story

Ted Wachtel, long-time RJ advocate, at Huffington Post

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.