Programs: Restorative Justice Initiative

The Somali Restorative Justices is focused on Strengthening the family and creating a stable environment.  It provides a new thinking on issues affecting the African community in the Metro Area.  The particular focus is the creation of an initiative; a model of community response based on the values and principles of Restorative Justice that is reflective of the cultural background of the African community, thereby complementing the mainstream human service, school, and justice systems.  The project will focus primarily on 4-6 specific Minneapolis neighborhoods with significant Somali population and the schools, law enforcement precincts, health care providers, and human service organizations that serve the families living in those neighborhoods.

The initiative is engaged in a planning process to explore a model of response for and by Somali families in designated neighborhoods with the local entities that serve them.  The approach will be to build on the strength of Somali families to gather and understand their own data about needs and conflict events.  Intervention and conflict resolution processes will be based on the principles of Restorative Justice, which also typify the traditional processes used by Somali families in their home country to focus on the restoration and the strengthening of the families and not breaking them apart.  This initiative will work on areas that include the justice system, human services including mental health, schools suspensions, and out of home placements.  It is hoped that the planning process whose funding this proposal is seeking will lead us to the development of a model that will make a remarkable difference and benefit both the specific families and also the local mainstream educational and service support systems who care about providing them effective services.

Maintaining strong families is a core value in the African communities.  The family ties (mostly extended family system) are instrumental to the economic and social advancement of its people.  The strength of the family and a good relationship with the community as a whole creates a climate of peaceful co-existence and platform for prosperity.  The principles of Restorative Justice reflect a way of living that was part of the community life of many Africans.  This project will allow this community justice value to be reclaimed and strengthened while introducing values related to equity in the role of women as leaders, a neutral facilitator when appropriate, consequences that relate directly to the harm that was done, and how to successfully maintain relationships within the community and with the local health, education, and service systems.

For the most part, Africans have well-developed traditional structures that resolve conflicts at a family and community level.  Their traditional foundation of justice is based upon the interconnectedness of the community.  Hence, a traditional bias towards Restorative Justice - a system that embraces the community emotions, compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation as it seeks to find solution to a crime committed.  Essentially, families and communities as a whole are stronger that way.  It is important to note that the modern system of justice, with its bias towards retributive justice, is increasingly the norm in the mainstream justice system in Africa.  Although there is an apparent growing focus on Restorative Justice especially with those nations that have been plagued with civil wars.  Liberia, Somalia and Liberia are examples of such cases.

To document needs and points of intervention for an Afro-centric Restorative Justice model that will work with the human service, school, and justice systems in Minneapolis and the Somali community and families who live in target neighborhoods.

However, while we cannot replace one system for another due to various complex considerations, the practice of Restorative Justice should be seen as one that serves the purpose of complementing retributive justice.  If based on community values and led by community members the restorative approach can also address issues of cultural differences, language barriers, and overcome issues of isolation or lack of knowledge about how and when family and community members engage with mainstream school, social services, criminal justice, and human service organizations.

The US justice and intervention systems are very complex for the African immigrants and refugees.  There are cultural barriers to understanding the system and to obtaining a fair resolution to conflict.  Neither do mainstream system professionals have relationships in the African community or understand the strengths that can help address the needs of Africans who are in the system for various reasons.  The traditional African ways of resolving conflict, especially with minor crime and family-related matters, within the community have not gained adequate grounds.

Consequently, many Africans have found themselves becoming victims of the justice, school, and human service systems with no room to maneuver.  With the extended family system a crime committed by an African may result in a complete devastation to the family and the community–especially when that individual is put in prison and that same individual happens to be a bread winner for the family.  The unique legal status of many African immigrants/refugees puts them at even greater risk of not knowing how to get the help they need or negotiate resolutions that might be known by mainstream families.

Fortunately, there appears to be a growing interest to build community capacity for Restorative Justice.  However such a development can only be successful if it reflects the cultural background of the community it serves.  That is the main reason why we are considering the development of an Afro-centric model on Restorative Justice.  It is our hope that this will significantly complement our mainstream justice and human service systems when engaging Somali families and individuals.

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