Restorative Practices

What are restorative practices and restorative justice?

Restorative practices refers to everyday behaviors and facilitated processes that demonstrate and inspire meaningful, compassionate, and inclusive connections with others, both at an individual and a community level. The foundation of restorative practices is a restorative mindset, which means seeing others as whole and worthy individuals, capable of good and deserving of positive relationships. A major focus in restorative practices is on community-building and repairing harm. Restorative practices can take different forms – for example, restorative conferencing, restorative chats, talking circles, and other practices.

Restorative justice, part of the broader restorative practices field, describes an approach used specifically when someone has committed an offense. Implementing restorative justice means validating the experiences of people harmed while creating accountability for individuals who caused harm. Restorative justice processes are used as alternatives to court-based processes and other disciplinary procedures. Among restorative justice practitioners, there is often a focus on restoring relationships at a systemic level – e.g., combatting racism and other kinds of marginalization - and on advocacy for systems change.

Resources

• Restorative Practices Guides: The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) provides a number of guides describing restorative principles and practices.
• Restorative Justice “Little Books” Series: Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding published eight brief “little books” of restorative justice written by experts in the field.
• Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America: This article discusses the relationship between indigenous ways of peacemaking, tribal and contemporary courts, and current restorative justice practices.
• Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative: This organization focuses on tribal peacemaking, including facilitation, technical assistance, and other resources.
• Circle Process Graphics and Handouts: These resources from Living Justice Press are based on the book "Peacemaking Circles: From Conflict to Community" and are free and reproducible.
• Circle Keeper's Handbook: This 2017 handbook by Living Justice Press author Kay Pranis presents an overview, practical considerations for, and examples of questions that can be used in circle.
• Mediators Beyond Borders International and DPACE "Circle Process" article: This brief article provides background on circle process and describes how it can be used, how to structure the circle, and how to develop circle questions.
• Restorative Justice: The Evidence: This research paper provides examples of restorative justice processes and describes effective and less effective practices. 
• Do Restorative Practices Work?: This National Education Association article describes research on restorative practices effectiveness.