Restorative Justice

Justice Justice is defined as the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments. In the case of upholding the law, punishment is the usual assignment. The purposes of punishment include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and restoration. Although, punishment concepts such as retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation have been around for a while, the concepts of rehabilitation and restoration are fairly new.

Restorative Justice

Most contemporary justice systems focus on a violation of the law(s), a offender, and a punishment for which to dole out. However, a concept called “restorative justice” is an approach

This approach is based around three concepts: that when crime occurs, the focus is on the damage that has been done to people and relationships, when harm has been done, it creates obligations and liabilities and the way forward involves transgressors, victims and the community in efforts to reconcile the damage and put things right. However, “the methods are mostly applied in less serious crimes, like property offenses in which the wrong can be righted — stolen property returned, vandalized material replaced. The processes are designed to be flexible enough to handle violent crime like assault, but they are rarely used in those situations. And no one I spoke to had ever heard of restorative justice applied for anything as serious as murder” (Tullis, 2013). Although, against the odds, the case of Conor McBride, who on March 28, 2010 in Tallahassee, FL, shot and killed his girlfriend of three years, Ann Grosmaire, was the first case to use restorative justice in Florida. Instead of being hostile and hating McBride and his family, Ann’s mother and father decided to forgive McBride for their sake and

In 2011, Julie McBride, Conor’s mother, contacted Baliga who proceeded to tell her why restorative justice wouldn’t work for her son’s case since it was a homicide. Although, in the end Baliga was convinced by both families and decided to help. Baliga then set up a restorative-justice community conference, in which all parties — the offender, victim, facilitator and law enforcement — come together. Each person speaks, one at a time and without interruption, about the crime and its effects, and the participants come to a consensus about how to repair the harm done, for June of 2011. On the date of the conference, the McBride’s, the Grosmaire’s, who set up a chair with Ann’s belongings to represent her, Baliga, the lawyers, a victims’ advocate and the Grosmaire’s priest would all be in attendance. After hearing everyone’s thoughts on the subject and how the crime has affected them everyone in the meeting came to the census of 10-15 years in prison. However, the final verdict for McBride’s sentence was 20 years in prison with 10