Restorative justice is New Zealand's social development gold mine. But how long will it be, asks Bruce Munro, before we realise its full transformative potential?
Nigel Finney does not feel animosity towards the young woman driver who smashed into his car in January. Not any more.
It was five weeks after the January 17 head-on crash on Highcliff Rd, Dunedin, which ruptured his bowel and temporarily threw his life into chaos, that police mentioned restorative justice to the still-recuperating Mr Finney.
''They said the other party was interested in restorative justice,'' he recalls.
''I didn't know anything about it. But I was open to finding out.''
Facilitators contracted by the Ministry of Justice met Mr Finney (47), talked him through the process and then, with his agreement, organised a meeting with the offender.
The face-to-face meeting was to be held in an inner-city church hall, overseen by two facilitators, with family supporters present.
Either party could have cancelled. Both showed up.
They talked to each other, about what had happened, the impact on their lives and how they felt about it. It took less than two hours.
''I was very pleased afterwards,'' Mr Finney says.
''To put a face to the name, and to see the very genuine remorse. It was very healing for me.''
What struck Mr Finney, apart from the young woman's contrition, was the conviction that the rest of her life should not be blighted by this one incident.
''She had been accepted into veterinary school in Australia. A criminal record could jeopardise that.''
So he decided to support her application to the court for a discharge without conviction.
For her part, the young woman offered to do voluntary work at Mr Finney's Highcliff Rd kennel and cattery.
''I said yes. I don't feel any animosity,'' Mr Finney says.
Restorative justice is about righting the harm that has been done rather than just punishing the offender, Sister Josie Dolan says.
''It's about putting things right in a way that is meaningful, helpful and has long-term effects,'' the Sisters of Mercy nun says.
Sr Josie has been involved in restorative justice since 2000 when the Dunedin Court became a pilot centre for the unorthodox approach to dealing with the effects of wrongdoing.
She is an experienced restorative justice facilitator and co-ordinator of Restorative Justice Otago.
''The dream is to have it as a way of operating within the community,'' Sr Josie says.
''We are so engrossed in the retributive process of who did it?, who's to blame? and how do we punish them?
"Which isn't to say there's not a sense of giving something back in restorative justice, of course there is, but it's usually not in a punitive way.''
When an offender is referred by the courts - or police, a lawyer, probation, or the Parole Board - for ''restorative justice to be explored'', facilitators contact both parties to see if they want to be involved.
Participation is voluntary. It is both the strength and weakness of restorative justice, Sr Josie says.
Some people, when they get the first letter, say they are not interested. Even when a joint meeting is arranged, either party can call it off at any time.
It has to be that way, she says.
''This is not mediation where both parties are in the right according to themselves. In restorative justice we have someone who puts their hand up and takes responsibility for the wrongdoing.
''For the injured party there has possibly been a huge loss of self-worth and personal security. They are now in control of the process. They have some power over what happens to them.''
The restorative justice process is not a soft option.
Facilitators have stopped meetings taking place when they believed the offender had no clear sense of accountability.
''Because we are not in the business of revictimising people.''
One facilitator ensures the conversation is constructive. The other takes notes, including any agreements made.
Occasionally it goes wrong.
''But often - not always, but often - in the middle of a meeting, there is an amazing transition. There is a complete change. It's not a meeting of minds; it's almost like a meeting of the story.''
For the offender it can often be a deeper realisation of the impact of their actions on others.
For those harmed this ''huge change of mind-set'' is not necessarily about forgiveness nor about feeling sympathy, Sr Josie says.
''But when they know a little of the other person's story, instead of saying prison is too good for them, the conversation may be: 'Well, prison's not the place for you; you're not going to learn anything there' or: 'I'd rather you were out and kept working so you can pay the reparation'.
''It's not about getting over those experiences. But it is about dealing with them, and learning from them, and moving on.''
The young woman driver who crashed into Mr Finney's car, and almost died from her injuries, felt extremely nervous going in to the midyear restorative justice meeting.
''The crash had been a complete accident. But I didn't know how he felt about it ... I felt so guilty leading up to it [the meeting],'' the 22-year-old said.
''It was definitely worth doing, but was very hard as well ... Saying sorry and knowing they understood it was an accident definitely took a load off my mind.''
The first of what would become known as restorative justice meetings was held on Hoani Waititi marae, in Auckland, in the mid-1980s, to tackle the problem of children shoplifting ice creams.
Judge Fred McElrea said the term restorative justice was still unknown in New Zealand when he was appointed a youth court judge in 1990.
But he recognised the family group conferences he was involved with in the youth justice system were ''a complete upheaval of the adversarial [adult justice] system''.
Then, in 1993, he read a book by a United States-based restorative justice proponent and thought: ''That's what we're doing here in New Zealand''.
Judge McElrea began writing about the New Zealand experience and about its potential in the adult justice system. In 1994, he began applying restorative justice in hand-picked cases involving adults.
The first facilitator in those meetings was the Rev Douglas Mansill, who later established New Zealand's first restorative justice organisation, Te Oritenga.
Since then New Zealand's family group conferences have come to be seen as leading the way internationally in terms of a restorative justice approach to youth offending.
But while almost all youth cases go through the restorative process, fewer than 5% of adult cases do.
A restorative approach in adult justice cases, however, has proven effective for offenders and those harmed. A recent study showed a 20% reduction in reoffending by adults who took part.
In the coming financial year, the Government will spend $4.4 million rolling out restorative justice to all New Zealand courts.
It is anticipated 3600 restorative justice conferences will be held during those 12 months, a quarter of which will be for police adult diversions.
A recent Otago case presided over by Judge McElrea demonstrated the power of restorative justice, he said.
The report came to him after a restorative justice meeting of two neighbours, one of whom had stabbed the other after several hours drinking together.
The stabbing was triggered, in part, by historic disagreements between the pair.
In addition to apologies and a restoration of goodwill, the report said the offender agreed to sell his house and move away, and both men agreed that in the meantime ''pets will be left alone when on the neighbouring property''.
''I thought, that's problem-solving,'' Judge McElrea said.
''No court would ever think of that or have the power to do it.
''Yet if you ask people how to make things right, they often have very inventive solutions that will make for a much more peaceful society than a court can produce.''
So how do we get there?
What has been happening in the justice sector has been a good start, Judge McElrea says.
But what he wants to see is the widespread use of restorative practices in New Zealand well beyond the confines of court and prison.
''For many years I have promoted, unsuccessfully, the idea of community justice centres which would not be court-based,'' he said.
''Government would like to see it [restorative practice] used in a lot more cases. But as long as it is tied to the adversarial system it's hard to get traction. I don't think they understand that.''
Sr Josie also believes restorative principles could be having a much larger impact than at present.
''What we need is a mind-switch in our culture,'' she says.
''We are never going to be perfect, but we don't need to be so violent and oppressive and antisocial to the level we currently experience in our small country.''
Restorative practice takes the principles that have been hammered out in restorative justice and seeks to apply them in all relational settings, whether they be workplaces, schools, sports clubs, neighbourhoods, or families.
Rather than a punitive focus on broken rules and punishment, it asks the relational questions: ''Who has been affected?'' and ''Who needs to put it right?''.
''It's got the ability to be worked quite well into complaints-based processes and tribunals,'' Chester Borrows, the Minister for Courts and Associate Minister of Social Development, says.
''Within a workplace, for instance, it could be around dealing with complaints against employees or staff members or management, between unions and management, or between individual workers.''
While other countries still send their politicians and researchers to glean information on our restorative justice approach, the lead on restorative practice is being given by the likes of Melbourne's community justice centre, in Australia, Hull's restorative schools, in the United Kingdom, and Halifax's restorative approach to human rights hearings, in Canada.
In New Zealand, restorative justice is being explored, in pockets. Auckland-based Project Restore offers a non-court, restorative approach for victims of sexual violence and offenders.
The Corrections Department is trialling restorative practices to build better interstaff relationships at Kaitoke Prison in the lower North Island.
Last month, Prof Chris Marshall was appointed the inaugural Chair of Restorative Justice at Victoria University, Wellington.
Mr Borrows hopes Prof Jennifer Llewellyn, of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, will be able to talk to the heads of various New Zealand tribunals including the Human Rights Review Tribunal when she visits early next year.
A community-wide approach is being pursued by Wanganui, which hopes to become the country's first restorative practice city.
It is a ''never-ending journey'', of which Wanganui is in the early stages, Shelly Harkness, who is the Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust facilitator, says.
But already it is being used in local schools, some workplaces and community groups, and is being considered by the district health board.
Nationally, however, restorative practice has no mandated champion. The Ministry of Social Development, despite a mission to build ''strong, healthy families and communities'', despite funding various restorative initiatives, and despite national and international evidence endorsing restorative practice, has not been given the job of spearheading or even promoting it to the general public.
The best way to disseminate restorative practice is to demonstrate it in action, believes Mr Borrows, who is poised to become chairman of the advisory board of Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust.
''To have it running well in one particular location is probably a good start,'' he says.
Is it an unrealistic dream that one particular location should be the whole of New Zealand, demonstrating to the rest of the world the power of restorative practices to maintain, build and repair relationships?
If it is possible, it is probably at least a generation away from being realised.
The most comprehensive application of restorative practice in New Zealand, outside of the justice sector, is taking place in our schools.
The Ministry of Education has been using a restorative approach in its Positive Behaviour for Learning programme which it has been implementing progressively throughout New Zealand since 2010.
In Wanganui schools, since the programme began, suspension rates have dropped by up to 74%, teachers have reported better pupil engagement and youth court appearances have almost halved, Mrs Harkness said.
Almost 290 New Zealand schools are now using the programme school-wide, and the plan is to extend that to 628 schools by 2016.
It has the potential to bring more than 760,000 children and more than 50,000 teachers into contact with restorative practices each year.
Mrs Harkness has seen a glimpse of the transformation it could bring.
''I heard recently of a 6-year-old who stopped an argument her parents were having and started a restorative approach with the parents,'' she said.
''The mother was so amazed she rang the teacher and said: 'Wow, this is fantastic, our child helped us through our argument'.''
