16/11/2022
Cachella Smith
Non-profit organisation Remedi are currently contracted by seven Police and Crime Commissioners; South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Humberside and Cumbria.
Restorative justice is a requirement of the Victim’s Code of Practice and funding is available for all PCCs.
Charity Remedi holds a national contract facilitating RJ for the National Homicide Victim Service and is also contracted by 10 youth justice services.
Director Steve Jones told Police Oracle: “I’ve heard officers describe restorative justice as ‘old-fashioned bobbying’ – a common sense approach that enables the officer to take a proportionate response to low tiers of offending which meet the needs of the victim and which doesn’t necessitate a response which criminalises the ‘wrong doer’ or result in protracted administration.
“Recognising that anything more than a very low tier offence that can be dealt with there and then by the officer needs additional resourcing- [and could be helped by] passing the leg work to a qualified RJ provider with the time to fully explore the needs and risks of a concerned and facilitate a meaningful intervention. The forces that have embraced partnership working in this way therefore recognise the time savings that already hard pressed officers simply do not have the time to facilitate.”
Right Three within the Victim's Code gives a victim the right to be provided with information when reporting a crime. Victims need to be provided with information on RJ within five days of making a report (or one day for victims eligible for enhanced rights).
According to the CPS, the aims of RJ are; victim satisfaction, engagement with the perpetrator and creation of ‘community capital’ (increase public confidence).
The NPCC outlines three levels of RJ used within the criminal justice process. Level one is informal and often occurs as it happens – for example the use of street negotiations with low-level crime and ASB.
Meanwhile, level two is where restorative justice is used instead of or as an addition to the formal criminal justice process. Level three will usually occur post-sentence and may be for more complex or sensitive cases.
For Mr Jones “RJ simply makes sense”.
“If we believe in a criminal justice system that truly serves the needs of those most adversely affected i.e. the victim – then RJ is the only game in town that has that mantra at its heart. In our experience, officers who ‘get’ RJ are driven by a passionate desire to affect positive change- for the victim and for the offender- RJ genuinely achieves that goal.”
The core service that Remedi provides is mostly the same across all areas. However, the organisation has also developed ‘restorative-based’ services that are provided in certain areas.
In Derbyshire and Cheshire for example they provide a targeted support service for youth victims of crime, and in the West Midlands and South Yorkshire they have a “Step Up Beat Hate” project which provides support to victims of hate crime and works to raise awareness.
“For restorative justice to truly work, there are some fundamentally vital partners that must be on board – police, probation, prisons and the Youth Justice Service. Without that robust network RJ would not work and certainly would not be fully maximised.”
In the areas Remedi has worked – they have facilitated 2,841 RJ cases in the last year. When proactively contacting victims they have an average engagement rate of 75 per cent. Violence against the person and acquisitive crime are the highest rates of referrals.
In 2018, a study completed by Shapland and others 'The evidence for Restorative Justice' evaluated a number of experiments in the UK. They found that offenders who took part in RJ committed significantly fewer offences in the following two years that those who did not.
There are other charities which also offer restorative justice services, including Victim Support, while other OPCCs – such as Durham, have opted to bring restorative justice services in house.
For Mr Jones: "If we believe in a criminal justice system that truly serves the needs of those most adversely affected ie the victim- then RJ is the only game in town that has that mantra at its heart."