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The Prison Society's Restorative Justice Resources seek to change the lives of incarcerated people and the prison environment by challenging all to embrace values of accountability, respect, restoration and nonviolence.
Restorative justice is an approach to justice that actively involves all who are impacted by crime - victims, offenders, their communities of care and the broader community - and seeks to promote accountability, healing and the common good. The Pennsylvania Prison Society has worked closely with incarcerated individuals to explore the meaning of restorative justice for those who are in prison and to create prison-based restorative projects. As a result of the dialogue and collaboration, the Prison Society approached restorative justice in a way that was respectful of and responsive to the concerns and needs of those who have committed crimes and are incarcerated.
By using the metaphor of a web of relationships, the Prison Society's approach created a framework in which people in prison could safely explore the impact of crime on their victims. In addition, the web image made it possible to discuss offenders' experiences with victimization and their needs for healing, the impact of crime on their families, social justice, and ways to build restorative communities and live restorative lives on a daily basis. With this approach, restorative justice became more than a way to do justice. It became a path to individual meaning and community restoration.
The Prison Society created the resources below to assist others as they apply and practice restorative justice in prison in an effort to share what we have learned. While these resources were originally written for incarcerated individuals to promote their leadership in restorative justice efforts, the materials are also useful for community restorative justice practitioners, prison staff and others who work in prison. We encourage you to print and share these documents with incarcerated men and women, as many will not have internet access. Please keep checking back as more resources will be added in the weeks to come.
Restorative Justice: Rebuilding Your Web of Relationships, A Collection of Reflections for People in Prison: This collection of restorative justice reflections is useful for individuals wishing to do personal reflection on their own or as a resource for group assignments in workshops and classes. An appendix includes suggestions for changing the reflections into group activities.
Restorative Justice: Rebuilding the Web of Relationships, Resources for Restorative Justice Education in Prison: This collection of educational resources provides restorative justice educators with basic materials to create and facilitate restorative justice workshops geared for an incarcerated audience. The collection includes information about agenda planning and activities, facilitation and resources to use as texts.
Day of Responsibility Organizing Manual: A Day of Responsibility, a prisoner organized event, is a day-long seminar in which community members and incarcerated individuals together explore the impact of crime and discuss the possibilities for personal accountability and community responsibility. This manual provides basic information that incarcerated organizers, prison staff and community organizations need to organize a Day.
Creating Prison-Based Restorative Justice Projects: A Prisoners' Guide for Getting Started: This guide offers tools, reflection questions and suggestions for incarcerated individuals and groups to use in creating their own restorative justice projects. The guide assumes that the reader is already knowledgeable about restorative justice.
The Little Book for Restorative Justice for People in Prison: (Good Books, 2006) written by Barb Toews of the Prison Society complements each of these resources and can serve as background information for a variety of prison-based restorative projects. The book is available from Good Books or any major online book seller.