The transition from schoolteaching to restorative justice practitioner was not a big leap for Rebecca Stone (MA ’11). She had worked in a therapeutic boarding school for two years and grasped the skills and methodologies helpful for addressing problems with special education students. She was patient, affirming, flexible. A good listener.

All of which stand her well for the hours she spends with middle and high school students in and around Charlottesville, Virginia, working case by case, often before school begins and at the end of the school day, to help students address the messes in which they find themselves and to make amends as needed.

Since the founding of in 2002, Stone is its first employee to meet many of its school-aged clients in the schools that they attend.

In 2001, (MA ’04) became the first full-time director of Central Virginia RJ. Saunier was lucky. Charlottesville, the hometown of Saunier and of the University of Virginia, already had a core group of “movers and shakers” interested in pursuing alternatives such as restorative justice.

The region’s criminal justice planner had assembled a “restorative justice task force,” consisting of a key judge and a half-dozen prominent players within the criminal justice system, including an assistant commonwealth’s attorney. To this day these individuals remain core members of the task force.

“I had the benefit of growing up in a community that has a culture of openness to doing things differently,” said Saunier.

Even though the interest and will were present, the funding was not – or at least, it had to be patched together from grants that were not large enough or long-term enough to enable Saunier to work with the security of a solid salary and assurance that his organization could operate beyond a year or two.

“Nobody is doing restorative justice as a lucrative career or highly prestigious profession,” said Saunier. “All of us are motivated by the belief that RJ is healthier for everyone – for the victims of crime, for the offenders, and for the communities torn apart by crimes. Healthy communities built on strong relationships produce less crime and wrongdoing.”

In fiscal year 2010, Central Virginia RJ served 190 people. The results were impressive. Juvenile offenders who went through RJ processes had a 10 percent re-offending rate, compared to 25 percent for the state of Virginia. The victims served expressed 100 percent satisfaction in the outcomes, in confidential post-intervention surveys. Eighty-two percent of the clients fully completed their agreed-upon accountability steps.

And demand keeps growing: More than 200 people were served in fiscal year 2011.

Asked for a story on how RJ has helped in Charlotteseville, Stone offered this one:

Two teenage boys were hanging out at a bus stop when a UVa graduate student and his girlfriend walked by. The girlfriend was whistled at, and a plastic bottle was thrown the couple’s way. The grad student verbally reprimanded the teens, and one of the young men punched the grad student, breaking his nose.

Stone and other staffers spent almost six months laying the groundwork – that is, meeting with all parties to prepare them – and then facilitated a circle process which included the teenagers, their closest adult family members, a former teacher of one teen, and the victim of the assault.

The teens expressed genuine remorse – one had tears in his eyes, after listening in the circle to his mother speak about how saddened and disappointed she felt upon hearing that her son would attack someone like that. The teenagers agreed to split the $520 bill for the grad student’s medical treatment and lost wages. The grad student expressed satisfaction at the end, saying he felt more secure and hopeful for the boys’ future.

Restorative justice is fragile. It hinges on people taking determined steps to relentlessly pursue their healing despite the pain it may bring. It challenges us to growth, to imagine beyond the current status quo and to take the creative risk of feeling and acting in a different, yet deeply courageous way.
—, 91����Ƶ restorative justice professor

I spend 30 to 40 percent of my time in a typical workweek researching grants for funding, writing grants, reporting to grant-givers, and otherwise focusing on fundraising. I had not expected to be doing so much of this type of work when I was getting my master’s degree in conflict transformation, but unfortunately it is an absolute necessity. This field does not yet have clear streams of funding.
—, executive director, Communities for Restorative Justice (Mass.)

How did I start from zero? We did research on the indigenous system of restorative justice called jirga, and I wrote a book on it. I then arranged for the first international conference on restorative justice in Pakistan. I started talking about the similarities and differences between jirga and RJ in the media, NGO and UN forums. I re-wrote Howard Zehr’s Little Book on RJ for the Pakistan-Afghan context and circulated it widely. I wrote a short play for [Pakistani] TV on RJ. I made it clear that I am doing RJ the Islamic way. And then donors started approaching us…
—, founding director of JustPeace International, based in Pakistan

At the outset we tried to convince some seemingly skeptical schools to sign up for the training. While they consented to the training, they did so reluctantly and ultimately the restorative action program there never successfully took root. A lot of time and money wasted to no avail. The experience taught us to go where we are invited and welcome.
—, author of Educating for Peacebuilding

Always start by building relationships, by working in partnership with others.
—, director of Central Virginia Restorative Justice

It’s common sense

Restorative justice is basically common sense – the kind of lessons our parents and foreparents taught. This has led some to call it a way of life. When a wrong has been done, it needs to be named and acknowledged. Those who have been harmed need to be able to grieve their losses, to be able to tell their stories, to have their questions answered – that is, to have the harms and needs caused by the offense answered. They – and we – need to have those who have done wrong accept their responsibility and take steps to repair the harm to the extent it is possible.
—, professor of restorative justice at 91����Ƶ