What is Justice? transcript

"Is a just outcome to create a similar, proportionate level of pain, loss, discomfort in the person who acted, possibly as an attempt to re-educate them around their behaviour. Does that create a just outcome?"
"Or is justice something very different?"
"Is justice about re-establishing, re-stitching therelationships that connect us? Is it actually about restoration; restoration not as in doing up the whole building, but restoration as in recovering balance after one has fallen, after one has tripped. So restoration needs to be understood quite specifically. It is not an attempt to return to a previous stage, because then we don't get the benefits of conflict, which are about learning, growing, moving forwards. So, is that what creates justice? Is justice whene we re-establish balanced, harmonious relationships? Is justice, at the end of the day, about connection: connection within us, and connection in the sense of shared experience and shared values as a community?"

This is an extract from this film:

(The full transcript is on the front page of the Restorative Justice Wiki )
And who decides what justice is?

Subscribe to the Restorative Justice Streetbank YouTube channel: user name Toothpaste007

Here's one I posted earlier

Posted initially on http://sussexcommunity.blogspot.com

"The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that no charges can be brought against either of the two men arrested on suspicion of their involvement in a fire at Hastings Pier in October 2010.
Tim Thompson, head of the CPS Brighton Trials Unit said: "Sussex Police arrested two suspects in connection with this fire. The focus of the police investigation has been to establish what happened and who was responsible. The case has been carefully reviewed by the CPS, in consultation with the investigating officers.
"The nature of the structure and the extent of the fire combined to make this a particularly difficult crime scene. There is evidence to place both suspects, as trespassers, on the pier at the material time. There is evidence that a fire started through some human act at the time they were on the pier. We are left in the position where we cannot show how the fire was started and cannot show that the human act must have been a criminal act.
"We cannot show that there was or must have been any kind of joint plan. We have no admissible evidence to show which of the two suspects might have been responsible. We cannot prosecute on the basis that one or other of the two suspects might have been responsible; we can only prosecute where there is enough evidence against an individual.
"All reasonable lines of enquiry have been pursued and I have concluded that the two suspects should be told that they will not be charged. The decision has been taken on the evidence and information available to us. If new information comes to light the case will be reconsidered.
"I appreciate there will be concern that no one is being prosecuted. It is disappointing that we are not able to mount a prosecution in a case that is of considerable local interest but it is our responsibility to only bring prosecutions where there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction."

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Here's a sideways response from the top of a hill:

The above response is by the incorrigible Imperfect Idealist,who has experienced a thing or two in relation to growing by facing up to what he's done.

How this has been reported in the national media:

• The Independent
• BBC News

Local Press:

• The Argus (Brighton)

More news will be found on the three other main other channels I use, so subscribe (or just read) 1-3 of these:

• YouTube Channel: Toothpaste007
• Twitter Stream: www.twitter.com/paulcrosland #HastingsJustice
• "Hastings Justice" Facebook Group

Other pages on this blog:
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Why Move to Hastings?

Some of my friends are....

Also criminologists or published in law, also very interested in what happens here in Hastings. We're not alone.
 I'm seeking advice widely for next week's letter to the Attorney General: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_217497271600346&ap=1