– by Perry Gates
On Thursday, July 21, I represented Projects, Inc. at the Restorative Programs and Practices for Maine Youth sponsored by Maine’s JJAG and held at USM in Portland, Maine. The intent was to learn the results of their survey on restorative justice practices as they impact the juvenile justice and education systems in Maine. And report they did!
The presentation was clear, easy to follow, and unequivocal. Many facts, both general and specific, surfaced during the day with the summary numbers indicating that over 80% of those surveyed believe that Maine should become a “restorative state” with respect to how youth are educated and interact with the justice system. Clearly, restorative practices “work,” meaning reparation occurs, healing is practiced, victim needs are met and satisfied, causes for doing harm are addressed, and the likelihood of future offenses is reduced.
As true with most entrenched and funded pathways for doing business, the culture will have to change while restorative justice proves itself… in scientific terms. But change, the culture will. The current list of what doesn’t work such as punishment, bullying, lock-ups, compressed group housing, forced assimilation, suspensions, and labeling is long and egregious. It really can’t get much worse. The science of what does work will be slow to reveal the healing of the human spirit into an arena where no harm is done; but this revelation will occur starting with the simple truth that social change occurs fastest when the cost goes down. Tax payers love this. And the science on this one is clear. It costs 1/20 as much to apply restorative practices as it does to persist with punishment… and in both cases, justice is served.
Exciting though this may be, I found the excitement focused on mission and purpose, with little talk about vision. In fact, by the end of the day’s long presentations, I realized that I had yet to hear the leadership, or anyone else for that matter, use the word “vision.” Whirlwinds of energy swirled around what we are going to do; but not much, if any, attention was given to where are we headed.
So, I asked. “What’s the vision? Where is all this headed?” After a flutter of rustling paper and scratching of pens I was answered, “ We’ll put some energy into this. Great idea.” I know a vision exists. It simply needs to be put into words.
In future blogs I will write about the six criteria Projects, Inc. uses for assuring sustainability. Of these, vision is the most important. When the going gets tough, and it will, vision is the faith we lean on. It’s kind of like when someone says, “Oh, just do the right thing.” That’s all nice and spiffy, but if we can’t say what the right thing is–the vision–we are doomed to a shortened performance of doing.
What can Projects, Inc. do to move restorative practices forward?
1. Assist those interested in creating organizational, community centered visions.
2. Articulate expressions which outline communities even where there are no obvious outlines. How is community defined? Somewhere between spiritual fuzziness and geopolitical borders we are all parts of innumerable communities. This is a tough one!
3. Move those interested away from “what” they do towards “why” they do it, their BELIEFS, since (like it or not) it is our passions, our emotional core, our “beliefs” that drives us.
4. If you or your organization feels stuck, contact us at info@projectslearning.org. We can all work on getting unstuck.