Ramp up restorative justice

THE EVIDENCE – anecdotal and otherwise – supports Delroy Chuck’s assertion of the need to increase the awareness and use of alternative dispute resolution and restorative justice mechanisms in Jamaica.

For as Mr Chuck, justice minister, indicated in the past, when these mechanisms are employed they deliver good outcomes. What, however, seems obvious to this newspaper is they are not as readily available, or accessible, to potential users, especially with respect to restorative justice in communities where, too often, simple conflicts turn violent.

While data is not available for the number of conflicts resolved via restorative justice arrangements (it’s likely to be relatively few), only around 10 per cent of the over 30,000 cases that are annually lodged at the island’s parish courts find their way to alternative dispute resolution. The resolution rate for these matters, meaning that they do not have to go back to the court, is close to 90 per cent.

AGGRESSIVE AND CREATIVE

That is why The Gleaner not only backs Mr Chuck’s effort to massively increase the number of people with restorative justice skills, but believes that he needs to be more aggressive, and creative, in ensuring that these skills are available in communities when they are needed.

Jamaica annually records more than 1,300 murders, close to 80 per cent are committed by young males between the ages of 16 and 25. The vast majority take place in depressed urban communities.

It used to be, according to the police, that over 70 per cent of Jamaica’s homicides were related to gang conflicts. That, in 2023, fell to two-thirds, which the authorities attribute to the constabulary’s anti-gang strategies.

However, as Mr Chuck told a restorative justice conference this week, murders that result from interpersonal disputes have risen to 30 per cent, more than double the ratio of the recent past.

Explaining some of the triggers for interpersonal homicides, Mr Chuck said: “Husband and wife can’t get along; mother and child can’t get along; father and son. You see how many domestic murders occur regularly – over 300 per year ... I know restorative justice can play a part (in reducing the number).”

It was against this backdrop that the minister said that Jamaica had to “move with missionary zeal not only in the schools, but in the churches, the communities, the business places, the construction sites” with mechanisms to counter the island’s deep culture of violence.

In that regard, Mr Chuck should urgently provide an accounting of the partnership he announced a year and a half ago with 13 Christian denominations, comprising 3,000 congregations, to train their members in restorative justice.

At the time, he said at least 25 members from each congregation would be trained. That should mean at least 75,000 people gaining restorative justice skills. Which is a good number.

‘PERPETUAL ANGER’

Against the backdrop of what Dorian Dixon, a former head of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and court mediator, called Jamaica’s state of “perpetual anger”, this newspaper believes that the contingent should be substantially larger. At least double the 75,000.

“...If we’re going to try to [fix] that (violence that arises from conflicts) and get rid of it, mediation and conflict resolution are critical,” Mr Dixon said in a recent speech.

Mr Dixon, however, operates primarily within the formal system in the diversion of cases from the courts. Our view, though, is that the greater need is to cauterise and resolve conflicts in communities, before they escalate to problems that demand intervention by law enforcement or become court issues.

Mr Chuck’s programme of establishing restorative justice centres in communities is a feasible model. But the available centres are insufficient and lack the flexibility needed in dynamic communities.

Mr Chuck, for instance, wants, in workplaces and schools, people with restorative justice training who can intervene between contesting parties to mediate perceived or real wrongs and hurts. But at the end of the school and workday, students and workers return to their homes and communities, where the majority of conflicts take place. Not infrequently, perceived slights and insults (being respected is held at a premium in Jamaica) morph into something bigger – even deadly.

It would be of value, therefore, if there were people – preferably many of them – available to conciliate disputes when they occur, even when the restorative justice sentences are closed and professionals are absent.

Indeed, what often is necessary early on is someone with the skill to de-escalate a conflict, followed by the ability to cause the contending parties to believe that they are being genuinely listened to – and heard. There has to be a sense that a wrong is recognised, and some level of atonement and genuine healing. Immediacy in this context is crucial.

It is a process that, for a long time, helped to keep the peace in August Town, St Andrew, until the arrangement weakened. Hopefully , it can be rebuilt in that community and simultaneously expanded to all communities at risk from minor disagreements morphing to major conflicts.

The opinions on this page, except for The Editorial, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Gleaner.