The wow factor of a clever discussion: Sir Charles Pollard’s advice on the best way to communicate Restorative Justice
This is a blog by Why me? Volunteer, Printorn Kordumrong.
As one of the pioneers of Restorative Justice being an effective policing tool, Sir Charles Pollard adamantly believes that it is his duty, and the duty of anyone who is a Restorative Justice professional, to communicate how effective it is to everyone around them. But what is the best way to communicate Restorative Justice?
The Wow Factor
Speaking to Why me? about his career in the Police, Sir Charles described his first experience with Restorative Justice in Australia, organised by Terry O’Connell of the New South Wales police, and being “completely wowed by it”. At the time, Sir Charles wanted to find a way to get victims of crime more involved in the criminal justice system, and through Restorative Justice he found a way to give voices to the harmed and allowed the harmers to express their remorse.
The fact that Sir Charles saw the success of Restorative Justice in “…Changing lives big time with a clever discussion” was the reason why he introduced a Restorative Justice program to the Thames Valley Police. Sir Charles was inspired by the outcome of Restorative Justice where the harmed had “a whole weight had been lifted off them” through their confrontation with the harmers. In addition, Sir Charles recalled how many attendees of his lectures also felt “wowed” by the “genuine, heartfelt environment” between the harmer and the harmed in the same way he had felt. This ‘wow factor’ was what motivated Sir Charles to advocate for Restorative Justice to be a part of criminal justice processes.
Communicating the Wow Factor
In pursuing this goal, the greatest challenge that Sir Charles identified was the fact that “Restorative Justice is incredibly hard to communicate what it means”. As Sir Charles found that effective communication required the audience to gain a proper understanding of how Restorative Justice works, the difficulty lies in how to communicate the wow factor without the audience experiencing Restorative Justice programs first hand. This is relevant because,
without the proper context of its transformative power, Restorative Justice is just an abstract concept that most of the wider public are unaware of.
The solution that Sir Charles proposed is to provide opportunities for people who have gone through Restorative Justice to talk about it and to train participants and facilitators on how to talk about it. As the wow factor of Restorative Justice comes from seeing how it impacts the participants, the best way to communicate it is to provide meaningful accounts of how Restorative Justice changed participants’ lives for the better. One of these Restorative Justice experiences that Sir Charles referred to was that of Will Riley who was burgled by Peter Woolf, with the latter’s account in the book “Damage Done” providing colourful insight into how Restorative Justice led him down a better path.
The best way to communicate Restorative Justice is therefore to showcase its wow factor and use it as a selling point for the intended audiences. For communicating to community members as potential users of Restorative Justice, Sir Charles finds roleplaying a Restorative Justice conference to be particularly effective. This technique is commonly used to train practitioners and can be adapted to help members of the wider public to have a deeper understanding of how Restorative Justice works and discover the wow factor by participating in a re-enactment of a conference.
Another technique that has become increasingly popular with Restorative Justice training is the use of games that teach participants how Restorative Justice works in an interactive and digestible way. One of many examples of this is the ‘Restorative Justice Journey’ game designed by the Thailand Institute of Justice. This boardgame allows players to experience the process of a Restorative Justice conference through resolving a classroom conflict using skills such as empathetic listening and responsive solutions to understand and address needs.
Utilising Sir Charles’ wisdom, we can see that the challenge of effectively communicating Restorative Justice can be overcome by prioritising training to talk about it and developing interactive methods that allows the audience to experience how it works. Through these methods, the audience can see that Restorative Justice is not just an abstract concept but something real and transformative to the people that use the service; thereby effectively communicating its wow factor.