Criminal Justice Reform

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The criminal justice system is finding ways and doing their absolute best to prevent crime, protect their citizens, and to restore justice. Preventing crime is not an easy job, the system prevents crime by using their powers to arrest, prosecute, sentences criminals to prison. Citizens need to feel safe in their environment that they are living in. However, since we are living in a constitutional democratic society, where citizens’ rights need to be protected and have due process where the people can be innocent until proven guilty. Criminal justice reform plays a significant role in helping to foster reconciliation and peace-building in post conflict societies. In the wake of political systems both Northern Ireland and South Africa have formulated …show more content…
The restorative justice system is deployed systematically in Northern Ireland’s juvenile justice system. Aside from diversionary disposals, youth conferencing is how a large proportion of young people’s offending is dealt with, either through a diversionary youth conference directed by the prosecutor for less serious offences or through a court-ordered conference. Each year youth conferencing services receives around 1,800 referrals (15 per cent of all young offenders), of which about half come from the prosecution service. The conferences are led by a skilled facilitator who will spend time in the participants beforehand to make sure that the conference will run properly. In the conferences, the offender talks about the crime and why they did it. In Northern Ireland, they are encouraged to confront the impact behavior has had on the victim or on the community, and explore how to make …show more content…
Prior to colonization, the indigenous African population had developed its own set of laws, customs and institutions” (Monaghan,2008). “These processes emphasized the reconciliation of the disputing parties and the restoration of harmony within the community” (Monaghan,2008). In South Africa, if an offending party was found guilty, they were shamed, and then reintegrated society. “The Commission identified two challenges in the transformation process in the justice system in South Africa: a justice system that is acceptable and accessible to all and a system that incorporates the concept of restorative justice as one closer to indigenous approaches to dispute resolution” (Monaghan,2008). The Community Peace Programme’s model in South Africa for community-based conflict resolution involves the establishment of a Peace Committee comprised of local citizens. Members of the peace committee can volunteer and can be elected or recommended by other community members. The members are given training in facilitation and then offer their services to the local
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