3,904 Court Cases Resolved Through Restorative Justice in 2021 and 2022

Some 3,904 court cases were satisfactorily resolved through Restorative Justice (RJ) procedures during 2021 and 2022, says Minister of Justice, Hon. Delroy Chuck.

The number represents 87.5 per cent of the 4,460 cases that were referred to RJ by the courts over the period.

Minister Chuck noted a satisfactory resolution means that the charges are withdrawn or the offenders admonished and discharged.

“Invariably, the parties come to a mutual understanding, and that is why we refer to RJ as ‘justice that heals’,” he said.

The Minister was delivering a virtual address at the just-concluded regional symposium on crime and violence held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

RJ seeks to resolve conflict by having all parties involved come together to reach an agreement. It focuses on holding the offender accountable in a more meaningful way. It repairs the harm caused by the offence, assists in reintegrating the offender into the community and helps to achieve a sense of healing for both the victim and the community.

In Jamaica, the Government is increasing employing the use of RJ processes to resolve disputes, particularly at the community level, to rebuild relationships and avoid further acts of violence from reprisals.

This is through the setting up of RJ centres in parishes and training facilitators to conduct restorative conferences and healing circles, which are integrated into the justice system.

These processes can result in a reduction in the number of cases presented to the court and at the same time, provide for more satisfactory outcomes for all parties.

Minister Chuck said that RJ offers “significant curative value” not only for the participants but the communities that would otherwise have been impacted by continued cycles of violence and, by extension, the country at large.

The Minister said that since the collection and tracking of data from the RJ programme started in 2018, the success rate emanating from the RJ conferences held averages of more than 80 per cent annually.

Approximately 75 per cent of the cases that are referred to RJ are court referrals and the success rate is about 90 per cent.

Minister Chuck said there is at least one RJ centre operating in each parish across the island and another two will be opened shortly.

Additionally, he indicated that there are about 1,000 trained RJ facilitators who are equipped to conduct the healing process.

“Our focus is to expand the programme so that these trained RJ personnel can be more fully utilised as we try to stem the violence in our communities,” he pointed out.

The Justice Minister said that the Ministry’s plan is to effectively inform and sensitise people to use RJ to settle disputes.

“If we can get more persons to use RJ to settle their differences instead of using abuses, assaults and criminal violence to resolve conflicts, we would make a huge dent in the level of violent crimes across the region,” he said.

The regional symposium, which was held under the theme ‘Violence as a Public Health Issue – the Crime Challenge, involved Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).