Restorative justice ensures better outcomes for victims, accused – Chancellor

…says justice system must not only be punitive & focused on imprisonment

Restorative justice: the practice of administering justice for crimes without jail time, is a practice that, according to acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, ensures better outcomes for both victims and accused perpetrators.

On Saturday, the Partnership of the Caribbean and the European Union (PACE) Justice Training on Restorative Justice, Criminal Mediation and Children in conflict with the law, opened at Cara Lodge. At the training exercise, the acting Chancellor lauded the fact that the European Union (EU) funded project had included Guyana among the countries benefiting from it.
“Guyana’s fortunate to be among the eight participating countries benefitting from this important regional partnership. The training focuses on restorative justice, criminal mediation and children in conflict with the law. It’s both timely and relevant. Especially when we look at the regional efforts towards criminal justice reform,” she said.
Justice Cummings-Edwards also referenced the Criminal Law Conference that was held in Guyana last year and the progress it made in advancing the Needham Declaration. The Needham Declaration is a commitment made by CARICOM states to implement 39 recommendations for the reform of the criminal justice system in the region.

“No man is an island. The judiciary is not an island. We have to work in conjunction with the police force, with the prosecutor department, with the prison system. And in some cases, or in many cases I should say, with social protection and probation and welfare. A collaboration which is necessary to ensure there are better outcomes for victims, for offenders and for everyone,” the Chancellor added.
Restorative justice is designed to ensure that victims, offenders, and community members have a more direct role to resolve disputes, particularly for lesser offences. The restorative justice system involves the use of alternative measures, such as community service or probation, to take the place of jail sentences. According to the Chancellor, this is an important form of justice to continue implementing in Guyana.
“For less serious offences, we find that it an important route to go. There is no sense sending everyone to prison for every single minor offence that might have been committed. Some of these could be dealt with effectively through processes such as restorative justice and criminal mediation,” she said.
“The criminal justice system must not only be punitive. When children come into conflict with the law, we do not have to be punitive with them. We do not have to treat them as small adult offenders, but what we have to look at, are areas and means of reform; changing their mindset.”
Restorative justice also involves using consultation between a victim, perpetrator and community member, to ensure there is justice without imprisonment for non-violent crimes. It is an alternative approach that seeks to repair harm by providing opportunities for the victim and perpetrator to discuss and address their needs in the aftermath, in a way that promotes healing, accountability, and understanding.
There are cases where some persons can end up serving longer periods on remand than they would have served if found guilty of the offence. To address this and other anomalies, the Government had passed the Restorative Justice and Bail Acts in 2022, to ensure greater consistency in the granting of bail and to provide specific guidelines for Magistrates and Judges.
One other alternative to imprisonment is probation. It has been pointed out that being placed on probation does not mean that the offenders are getting off lightly, but instead they have the opportunity to make amends and rehabilitate while remaining in their communities.
Community service is also another alternative to imprisonment that is identified by the Support for the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) programme. As a sentencing method, it makes serious demands on offenders in terms of their time, regular attendances, prompt timekeeping, and satisfactory performance of work. The introduction of structured community service will cut the prison population and make amends for the harm done to victims of crime.
These methods fall under the SCJS programme, which received funding of US$8 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The programme is aimed at addressing the overcrowding in prisons by focusing on two aspects: the overuse of pre-trial detention, and the over-reliance by the criminal justice system on custodial sentences.