Non-Violent Justice

by James Loewen
Articles
Restorative Justice

As a person who spends much of his waking time thinking and doing restorative justice stuff, I couldn't help but draw a line of connection between Restorative Justice and Non-violence, what I will call nonviolent justice. It is abundantly clear to me that non-violence and restorative justice are of the same mother, although it may be said that non-violence is the elder of the two.

In light of the fact that many non-violent peacebuilders celebrate the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr. it seemed appropriate to draw a connection using something of his work. I will use MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, hereafter referred to as the letter. What a poignant setting in which to couch the connection.

I will point out some similar concepts, some similar concerns, some similar activities of those who do Restorative Justice and Peace Building, and some indication as to why restorative justice aught to be on the radar for non-violent activists.

First to the similar concepts. In his letter MLK states, "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states." This awareness of the connectedness we have with those around us is one of the major awarenesses of RJ. The need for community and the sensitivity to its realities is vital to a justice that restores. We cannot pursue Criminal Justice, a violent justice, for those labelled as criminal without having that violence ultimately become a part of our local community. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. "

Now, I realise that I am calling our current Criminal Justice system 'violent'. This is not a stretch, and in fact fits well with the retributive mind set of our Criminal Justice System. It is a system that determines blame and assigns pain. If segregation of the African Americans was unjust, how can we feel any different about the segregation of 'criminals'? If violence is the wrong way to promote justice and change, then we must deal with those who are our enemies, ie the criminals, non-violently - we must have a non-violent justice.

Another similarity between RJ and nonviolence lies in the value towards dialogue. MLK states that the progression of seeking justice has four steps "1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive. 2) Negotiation. 3) Self-purification and 4) Direct action. " Negotiation is preferable to direct action. Mutual agreement is preferred over imposed consequence.

This is not a negotiation of how we will be harmed/oppressed, it is a value rich negotiation of change from injustice to justice. Like MLK, RJ practitioners would much rather have the one committing the injustice acknowledge the harm caused, and negotiate the method, with the aid of the community, which would best go about aiding in the healing of the person harmed.

In fact, the first two steps MLK brings out look a lot like what Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs seek to carry out. An offender admits to the harm he caused, acknowledges it to have been wrong, and then expresses a desire to make the harm right. He then enters into negotiation with his victim and the community to work out a just outcome

In this process, the meeting of the offender, victim, and community, a tension is expressed and brought into focus. As MLK says in his letter, ". . . there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. " This tension between the one who offended and the one who was harmed must be resolved non-violently if we hope for a reduction of violence and injustice in our society, if we are going to hope for justice for all.

One concept which sits well in both nonviolence and RJ is that we must understand that, "an unjust law is no law at all." A system of laws, a program of justice "that degrades human personality is unjust." We now have a system of justice that degrades human personality. In support of this, look at the over representation of Aboriginals within our justice system. "Aboriginal people are incarcerated more than 6 times the national rate. While representing 2.8 per cent of Canada's population, self-identified Aboriginal people represent approximately 17 per cent of the federal offender population. In Saskatchewan, for example, the adult Aboriginal incarceration rate is over 1,600 per 100,000, compared to 48 per 100,000 for adult non-Aboriginals."

In an unofficial survey it was discovered that within one year an inmate can expect a 47% chance of personal victimisation, either through theft or physical/sexual assault. Add to that the degrading treatment by prison guards and loss of personal control over even basic decisions like when/what to eat, when to sleep and wake, and you can quickly see how we degrade the personalities of those we 'do justice to'. Our system is inherently violent.

This doesn't even take into account the fact that victim's needs have an obscenely low priority for our justice system, even for 'enlightened' justices like Queen's Bench Justice John Scurfield. The Morasco family, in a recently publicised case, had direct experience with the callous disregard our system of justice has for victims and their needs in justice. People harmed by crime often experience two victimisations. The first during the crime itself, and the second at the hands of the Criminal Justice System. Their cry for justice is rarely less impassioned than MLK's.

We must attend to the needs of all members of our society. MLK stood for a radical concept of justice, love for the enemy, all the while calling him to account. It is not a passive love, it is not a love that will tolerate injustice. It is a love that clings to right relationships characterised by peace, mutual respect, and justice. As MLK notes, "Was not Jesus an extremist for love -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.""

MLK, in his letter, was concerned about the silent majority, the middle class white folk. Little has changed. Now, 40 years later, often the most outspoken voice calling for retributive, or violent, justice comes from the middle class, and the so called religious right. I, too, mourn with MLK that those with similar faith commitments as I, are "standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice." The Christian spirituality is encumbered by the status quo, rather than freed by its relationship to a radical God.

MLK was also concerned by the public perception that the police and justice system was free of violence and abuse. This is no less true today than it was then. Prison violence is under reported, and over tolerated. Institutionalisation, a fancy word for the dehuminisation of our convicts, has ruined families and broken dreams.

Interestingly enough, MLK failed to apply his understanding of justice and nonviolence to his prison condition, other than to note that the Criminal Justice system was being used to promolugate injustice. He failed to recognise the inherent violence of the system of justice. He mentions that "society must protect the robbed and punish the robber." He failed to see the violence in the punishment, even though he had direct experience of the system. I am not surprised he missed this insight, he had plenty on his mind. However, those of us learning from his thoughts and actions can see the natural flow of his ideas towards nonviolent justice. We cannot tolerate violence in our justice system any more than we can tolerate it in our everyday life.

In 1963 MLK said, " We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

I would add that now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of violent justice to the solid rock of human dignity.

This not just theory, I am not saying anything profoundly new. There are numerous programs in existence that have been developed to promote RJ, a nonviolent justice.

In conclusion, as we walk in the paths lit up by Martin Luther King Jr. we must seek a nonviolent way towards justice. We must seek nonviolent justice for the multitudes of people who have been victimised who are broken within our communities and have seen no justice, no safety, no healing. We must seek nonviolent justice for the those who offend and lie broken outside our communities, who hide broken within our communities, and who are dehumanised within our own violent system of justice. We must seek nonviolent justice for ourselves, for we each carry the burdens of victimisation and offending. In seeking nonviolent justice we are no longer complicit in the suffering of so many in our land.

 

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