Restorative Justice

community safety     victim satisfaction    offender accountability

The Restorative Justice Program at Resolutions Northwest

Restorative justice is a visionary new paradigm by which we can address and respond to the causes and effects of crime. Rather than focus on punishment and isolation of offenders from the community, the restorative justice paradigm focuses on meaningful accountability and direct reparation of harm to victims and the community by offenders. We work to develop and strengthen a positive youth identity by creating opportunities for personal responsibility and direct accountability to victims and the community. In a nutshell, the vision of the restorative justice work we are doing at Resolutions Northwest is to create safer communities, greater victim satisfaction, and authentic and meaningful accountability for offenders. Every practice we develop and every  processes we use in our programs is in support of that vision. We are constantly asking ourselves, “is what we’re doing here moving us closer or further from our vision of healthier and safer communities?”

Our Restorative Justice Victim Offender Meeting (VOM) program works to help young people think critically about the many ripples of harm their behavior has caused not  only victims and community, but often their families and ultimately themselves. We help them see that although they can’t “fix” what they did, they can, and do, have a responsibility to repair, as much as possible, the harm they have caused.

The Restorative Justice program at Resolutions Northwest is unique and innovative in the sense that mediation is one of, but not the only tool that we use.  In fact many of the youth who work with our program never actually meet with a victim (often because the victim was unavailable or not interested in meeting). Furthermore, in addition to a caseload of first time, low-level diverted offenders, we are also sustaining a caseload of adjudicated youth who would have traditionally been considered unworkable because of a history high-risk behavior or chronic criminality. Through our Restorative Justice program, we empower young people of all risk levels and all backgrounds to directly face and participate in repairing the harm they have caused others.

Initially a youth may not be appropriate to meet with a victim, but through their work with Resolutions Northwest, offenders can begin to change and correct their thinking about the harms they have caused, and even become ready to engage in VOM. Our commitment is to create the relationships with victims and offenders that will enable the reparation of the harm when the time is right, even if it is post- drug and alcohol treatment or incarceration.

Through our work, we strive to help young people see that they have the hope of a good life.  We want them to know that what they did yesterday and what they do today does make a difference—to themselves, to their victims, families and community.  Although facing those one has harmed takes a tremendous act of courage, young people who go through our program know that they will be well prepared by our staff, and they trust in the expertise of our mediators.

To speak with us about our Restorative Justice or Victim Offender Meeting Programs, email or call

Mark Prenovitz, Restorative Justice & Mediation Specialist, (503) 988-6130

or

Daniel Garcia, Restorative Justice School Mediation Specialist, (503) 988-5610

On Monday, April 17, 2008, The Oregonian featured articles about the City of Portland's Restorative Listening Project: Speak. Listen. Heal.

Read about the City's active role in in discussing and educating around the harms of gentrification in N/NE here.

On Monday, April 30, 2007, the topic of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” was Restorative Justice: Finding Closure through Confrontation

If you are curious about Restorative Justice and want to know more, if you want to help others learn about it, or if you just want to know what “the nation” had to say about it on that date, listen here.