On Monday evening, just before the Ferguson decision was announced, the Springfield Race Unity Committee was holding a forum on restorative justice, a method that could improve race relations and make a positive difference in the lives of alienated youth. Experts on juvenile justice explained that “zero tolerance” attitudes toward youth by the law enforcement system don’t work, and incarcerating children who misbehave often makes matters worse. One of the several “restorative” techniques that helps after an incident is to get both victim and offender and witnesses in a circle and start asking questions: What happened? What were you thinking at the time? How can we make this right? How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again? These techniques have been proven effective in Chicago, Champaign and Decatur. Gauging from the interest of the crowd, restorative justice will likely come to Springfield soon. Among those present and ready to try new approaches were the sheriff-elect, the Springfield police chief, the District 186 school board president, the first assistant state’s attorney and two candidates for mayor. The amount of interest from people of power was impressive and hopeful. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2014.
