Restorative Justice gives victims a voice, says High Court Judge

High Court Judge and Chair­man of the Me­di­a­tion Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Ho­n­ourable Madame Jus­tice Lisa Ram­sumair-Hinds, has re­it­er­at­ed her sup­port for restora­tive jus­tice prac­tices, say­ing they are one of the most suit­able prac­tices which al­lows vic­tims a voice”.

Madame Jus­tice was part of a Pan­el Dis­cus­sion ti­tled, “Defin­ing the Evo­lu­tion of Restora­tive Jus­tice in Trinidad and To­ba­go (Prison Ser­vice): Im­ple­men­ta­tions, Ad­vance­ments and Ex­pec­ta­tions through­out the chrono­log­i­cal sphere”, which is part of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice’s ob­ser­vance of Restora­tive Jus­tice Week 2022 (RJWeek).

The event took place on Mon­day No­vem­ber 21, 2022, at the Pris­ons Sports Club, Arou­ca.

Oth­er pan­el­lists in­clud­ed Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons (Ag) De­op­er­sad Ra­moutar; Re­search As­sis­tant, Pe­nal Re­form & Trans­for­ma­tion Unit, Wal­ter Alexan­der; Pris­ons Of­fi­cer I Dex­ter De Bel­lotte; and Chair­man of Prison Fel­low­ship of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Pas­tor Daniel Parks.

Com­mis­sion­er Ra­moutar, who is an avid ad­vo­cate for restora­tive ap­proach­es to jus­tice, spoke of de­fi­cien­cies with­in the Prison Ser­vice and high­light­ed sev­er­al ini­tia­tives—such as emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence and con­flict man­age­ment train­ing—which are be­ing un­der­tak­en to fa­cil­i­tate re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of in­mates, some of whom he be­lieves are “ready for dis­charge”.

Ac­cord­ing to Com­mis­sion­er Ra­moutar, restora­tive jus­tice is not en­tire­ly up to the pris­ons but in­volves en­gage­ment from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent fac­tions of so­ci­ety.

Commissioner of Prisons (Ag), Deopersad Ramoutar, during his presentation at the Prison Service’s Restorative Justice Week 2022 observances. [Image courtesy T&T Prison Service]

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice main­tains its com­mit­ment to seek the best ways and means to ef­fec­tive­ly prac­tice restora­tive jus­tice ap­proach­es with­in its pe­nal op­er­a­tions, for suc­cess­ful restora­tion of in­mates and even­tu­al rein­te­gra­tion in­to so­ci­ety,” he stat­ed.

Though prac­ticed for many years in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the con­cept of Restora­tive Jus­tice was for­malised in 2002, with the Fi­nal Re­port of the Cab­i­net Ap­point­ed Task Force on Prison Re­form and Trans­for­ma­tion.  

Re­search As­sis­tant in the Prison Ser­vice’s Pe­nal Re­form & Trans­for­ma­tion Unit, Wal­ter Alexan­der, ob­served that many rec­om­men­da­tions in the 2002 Task Force Re­port are un­used but still are rel­e­vant to­day, 20 years lat­er.

Pris­ons Of­fi­cer I Dex­ter De Bel­lotte high­light­ed the psy­cho­log­i­cal ef­fects and im­pacts of Restora­tive Jus­tice.

Chair­man of Prison Fel­low­ship of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Pas­tor Daniel Parks, spoke of the im­por­tant role faith-based or­ga­ni­za­tions can play in such ini­tia­tives.

Restora­tive Jus­tice Week starts every third Sun­day of No­vem­ber. It seeks to ho­n­our and prop­a­gate the ethos of jus­tice, based on the restora­tion of hu­man con­nec­tion. 

The Prison Ser­vice us­es the week to raise aware­ness of the ac­tivists and or­gan­i­sa­tions work­ing for restora­tive jus­tice, crim­i­nal jus­tice leg­is­la­tion and pe­nal me­di­a­tion. 

Restora­tive Jus­tice Week al­so pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote the ex­pan­sion of re­search for in­no­v­a­tive prac­tices; to push for poli­cies that sup­port it; and to pro­vide a fo­rum for dis­cus­sion on best prac­tice ini­tia­tives.