Restorative Justice Week 2006, takes place November 12-19. Restorative justice endeavours to build a healthier and safer society through the restoration of communities. It addresses the real needs of those impacted by harmful behaviour and empowers community groups. Ultimately, it encourages a commitment to the humanization of justice that allows victims to continue the healing process and offenders to take ownership for the consequences of their actions. Finally, restorative justice demands that the root causes of harmful behaviour be addressed.
All of these goals are realized through community-based and publicly-funded agencies. While some are trying to address the causes before the cycle of violence starts, others are attempting to respond restoratively after the harm has occurred.
The Salvation Army is very involved in restorative justice. There are 47 locations in Canada and Bermuda that provide a variety of correctional services.
In 2005, over 67 thousand people were visited in prisons, 1,171 were visited after discharge and nearly 120 thousand people were assisted with court work.
Canada’s first parole program The Salvation Army was involved in Canada’s first parole program and first juvenile detention centre.
In the early 1900s keeping track of men on “tickets of leave” (parole) was difficult and authorities relied on parolees to report every month to the police. This had its drawbacks and when The Salvation Army offered to take over parole supervision in some places, the Department of Justice was glad to accept.
From 1900 on, the department worked more and more closely with The Salvation Army and in 1901 The Salvation Army recommended to the federal government that a prisoner probation system be adopted, leading to Canada’s first parole program.
Brigadier Walter Archibald, who directed The Salvation Army’s Prison Gate ministry in Toronto was offered the newly created post of Dominion Parole Officer in 1905 and travelled across the country interviewing inmates and assessing their potential for early release.
Archibald had a heartfelt concern for convicts and would keep in touch with parolees after their release and frequently found them homes and jobs. He also advanced them money when they needed it, often out of his own pocket.
Men and women coming from prisons had to face very serious problems of readjustment and in the field of prisoner aftercare Salvation Army officers acted as Dominion Parole Officers until the position was abolished in 1931.
Today, in the Canadian criminal justice system, Salvation Army officers and lay personnel serve as prison chaplains, probation officers, parole supervisors and administrators of halfway houses.
More and more people are entrusted to the Salvation Army as an alternative to incarceration and the organization continues to provide spiritual and practical assistance to victims, offenders, ex-offenders, and their families and all people involved in the Criminal Justice System.