In light of such evidence, and much more
like it available on the internet, and given
our state’s own relative maturity with restorative justice in comparison to other
states, I think the time is ripe for Vermont
and the leaders of our three branches of
government from the top down to take restorative justice seriously as a state policy
of Vermont.
Is It Being Taken Seriously?
If restorative justice is already the state
policy then is it not currently being taken
seriously? The answer is no—not as a viable tool and lens that is being used in our
criminal justice system with crimes above
the level of misdemeanors. As a teacher of
inmate legal education classes in the Vermont correctional facilities, I am invariably
not surprised to discover that every new
student in my class (either a detainee or
sentenced inmate) has never heard about
restorative justice. No judge or state’s attorney or defense attorney has ever ex-
www.vtbar.org
plained the concept of restorative justice
to them or held out the possibility of a restorative justice process as a means to resolve the charges against them. I often tell
detainees to mention the restorative justice
statute to their defense attorney and have
always been told (if the inmate ever has the
chance of even having the discussion) that
the attorney, in essence, had no idea what
the inmate was referring to. An attorney
once told me bluntly the restorative justice
statute was “fluff.” Bobby Sand, the former
state’s attorney for Windsor County, while
cognizant of the statute during his time as
a prosecu ѽȰ