Community justice/restorative justice: Prospects for a new social ecology for community corrections

Abstract

Community corrections policies and programs have lacked a framework which articulates strategies for engaging community groups and defines roles for citizens in the corrections process. In this paper we critique both traditional approaches to community corrections based on an individual treatment model and the new “get tough” approaches which emphasize punitive sanctions and surveillance. We outline a restorative justice model as an alternative to both of these one‐dimensional, case‐driven approaches. The restorative model targets victims, communities, and offenders for intervention and attempts to engage each of these correctional clients in an effort to repair harm, strengthen communities, and reintegrate offenders following appropriate sanctioning. Obstacles to implementation and threats to cooptation and dilution of a restorative agenda are discussed.