A new program at the university looks to utilize an alternative approach to the justice process in the form of restorative justice (RJ).
Connor Novotny, from the Dean of Students Office, spoke to ASUW on Tuesday night about the new Restorative Justice Program at the university (RJUW).
“Restorative justice is a way to prevent or respond to harm in a community with an emphasis on healing, social support, and active accountability,” Novotny said, reading from the University of San Diego’s (USD) definition of RJ.
Practices used in RJ include helping build community relationships, responding to harms and finding solutions in inclusive and collaborative decision-making processes.
“In the criminal justice system, it’s used as a means of keeping people within communities,” Novotny said. “It’s used in educational settings all the way from kindergarten classrooms, and maybe pre-k, all the way to universities.”
As far as what the RJUW will look like, Novotny said it will include a three-tiered system, based on the program at USD.
“We’ve been doing a lot of this work in terms of community building, understanding circles, and getting folks trained on circle practices,” Novotny said.
This first tier is an effort to build relationships in and prepare the community, and create preexisting relationships for incidences where RJ is needed.
“On that second tier is how to use these restorative processes when harms have arisen,” Novotny said.
“Finally, on the top tier, is thinking about how do we support people when they return to the university with restorative processes.”
The ‘return’ to the university can either be after a full removal from the campus or any situation in which a student has been involved in the criminal legal system.
“There has been a ton of outreach and education, so I’ve been trying to share information with various student groups about RJ, as well as taking feedback,” Novotny said.
“This is a community-based endeavor, and this program is not going to function without students who are going to be most impacted having understanding, and offering their input.”
In the near future, RJUW is looking to work with legal counsel to find ways to utilize the program as a diversion response when a student has caused harm.
“In restorative justice, it typically doesn’t make it in the doors without accepting a responsibility and wanting to take action to repair harms in this way,” Novotny said.
After this acceptance, the main goal of RJ is to build stronger communities, without removing individuals from society.
“There is also a broader social context of interrupting some of the school to prison pipeline statistics, and also trends of mass incarceration,” Novotny said.
To the best of his knowledge, Novotny said that UW currently hosts the lone RJ program in the state of Wyoming.
