RESTORING COMMUNITY IN AMERICA: Restorative Justice Stories of Healing, Wholeness, and Belonging

Many Americans are feeling an urgent need for new approaches to achieving safety and justice. There is growing awareness of the damage our criminal justice system causes not just to those who are arrested and imprisoned, but also their families and communities. More and more people are demanding a complete reimagining of our legal system.

One of today's best-kept secrets is that alternatives to the criminal justice system exist-and they work. In communities around the country, probation and police departments are using restorative justice to divert youth from prosecution. Schools are using restorative practices to not only repair the consequences of misbehavior but also to create safe classrooms that prevent misbehavior. School culture is changed, classrooms are safer, and suspensions become less necessary. There is data that shows these successes. And yet, too many people working with youth and adults in these settings still do not understand the potential of restorative practices.

Especially during this time of unrest, stories are needed to demonstrate the data. Restoring Community in America is devoted to telling actual stories of the power of reconciliation and earned redemption through restorative practices. Joseph Campbell once said, "If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor." Restorative practices in schools create a sense of belonging that produces a culture of cooperation and caring. Restorative justice asks different questions when a harm occurs. Rather than asking "What law or rule was broken? Who did it? How will we punish them?" restorative justice asks, "What harm was done? How can the harm be repaired? Who is responsible?" The answers to these questions inevitably steer us toward preferable outcomes.

The stories in this anthology show how building community inside schools and asking the right questions when harm has occurred can yield safer schools and communities. They will demonstrate how schools and communities can create healing, wholeness and belonging. It will change the metaphor.