Restorative justice: how law schools can help heal their communities.

• Author: King, Rachel

1. INTRODUCTION--THE LIMITATIONS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PARADIGM

   1. Azim Khamisa's Story (1)

      On Saturday night, January 21, 1995, nineteen-year-old Tariq Khamisa was delivering pizzas at DeMille's Italian Restaurant in San Diego, California. His pizza-delivery job helped pay some of his college expenses at San Diego State University.

      He was getting ready to leave for the evening when his boss asked him to make one last delivery. Reluctantly, Tariq agreed. Before doing so, he stopped by his girlfriend's house to bring her a soda. (2)

      Tariq drove to the address, a large housing project on Louisiana Street in San Diego's working-class North Park neighborhood. He searched in vain for Unit D. After knocking on several doors, he realized there was no Unit D--the order had been a hoax. As he walked back to his Volkswagen, a boy pointed a gun at him and said, "Pizza man, give me those pizzas." Tariq ignored him and kept walking back to his car. He tossed the pizzas inside and started to drive away. The boy fired. The nine-millimeter slug shattered the car window, ripping through Tariq's arms and chest, killing him immediately. (3)

      The police easily located the assailant, Tony Hicks, who was already in custody for stealing his grandfather's gun. Tariq's father, Azim, was devastated by his son's senseless murder. The case quickly became high-profile and political because Tony was the first fourteen-year-old to be prosecuted as an adult under California's new, tougher laws enabling juveniles to be prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. (4) The case engendered much debate--some supported the law while others opposed it. (5) Azim did not take part in the debate, which to him seemed irrelevant. No matter what happened to Tony, it would not bring his son back.

      My thoughts and emotions began to return the day after we buried Tariq. One of the first emotions I felt was anger. However, it was not directed at Tariq's assailants. The entire society was the object of my rage. I wondered how it was that in our great country children too young to have a driver's license are not too young to carry a gun. Why do we spend billions on wars on foreign soil or conquering space, when every day, in our own backyard, our defenseless children are wiped out in a frenzy of bizarre violence? Why couldn't our intelligent nation, the world's only superpower, get its priorities right? How many more children would have to be sacrificed? When did we start accepting these killings? And why did we allow them to continue? (6) Tony was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison, but the harsh punishment did nothing to ease Azim's pain:

      Sentencing Tony to prison did not make me feel whole. It did nothing to bring Tariq back. We need a justice system that is more holistic. We have to look at where violence comes from. Parents are not only responsible. All of society is responsible. I was starting to think more about the concept of restorative justice, especially for juveniles. Our system is based on retributive justice, which punishes the offender and ends there. Restorative justice seeks to make both parties whole. We need to be realistic that if we do not change offenders, we as a society will continue to suffer. (7) B. The Families Make Contact

      With the help of the district attorney, Azim contacted Tony's grandfather and guardian, Plex Ferguson, a very unusual thing to do. Through Plex, he began corresponding with Tony in prison, and eventually chose to meet Tony in person. Azim believed that Tony's ability to change was dependant on Azim's ability to forgive him:

      Unabated anger directed at the perpetrator harms us, however, because anger is a very strong emotion and can become an all consuming passion within us. It fills us with hatred and tension and blocks out love and joy. The only way to defuse that unabated anger is through forgiveness. The criminal needs the victim's forgiveness to heal. And in one of human nature's strange twists, full healing for the victim may require him or her to grant that forgiveness. There may be no other way to defuse the destructive anger one feels. (8) Azim, with Plex Ferguson's help, transformed his rage and disappointment with the criminal justice system by starting the Tariq Khamisa Foundation ("TKF"), an organization aimed at preventing gang violence. Using the TKF, Azim and Plex developed a Violence Impact Forum, which they take to public schools throughout California, sharing first-hand accounts of how violence has impacted their lives. They believe that if, at a young age, children see how harmful violence is, they will make better choices in the future. In the year 2000 alone, TKF reached 18,000 middle school children (fourth through sixth graders). (9) It targeted this age range because it is the period when most gang recruitment begins. Before and after TKF programs, children were asked to fill out questionnaires about their thoughts on violence and joining a gang. The program has had documented success in changing childrens' attitudes about gang violence. (10)

      Additionally, Azim encourages the school children to correspond with Tony, who has decided to become a child psychologist. Azim hopes that the letters of support from the school children will give Tony the encouragement he needs to stay on the straight and narrow path while he is in prison. Azim is anxious for Tony to finish his prison sentence, complete his education, and work for TKF. Azim wants Tony to make amends for Tariq's death by helping other young people turn their lives away from violence. (11)

      Azim Khamisa was able to transform the horror of losing his child into a life mission to end gang violence. His son's murder was resolved in a way that could be considered just. This justice, however, did not come from the criminal justice system--it came from his own ingenuity and strong passion to create something meaningful.

   3. The Inadequacies of the Legal System

      I have spent my nearly twenty-year legal career as an advocate, lobbyist, teacher, and researcher in the area of criminal justice and, based on these experiences, believe that our justice system insufficiently addresses the harm caused by crime. Our justice system's biggest limitation is that it does little or nothing to heal the families affected by crime.

      I have spent a decade documenting the effects that the criminal justice system, especially the death penalty, has on both the family members of murder victims and the family members of people on death row. (12) Generally, the legal system does not meet the needs of people on the periphery of the system. The legal system is concerned with the determination of guilt or innocence, and to some degree protecting the rights of the accused. What happens to the parent of a murder victim or the sister of a defendant is not a core concern of the system. Through my work, I seek to shine a light on the experiences of those who are excluded from the system, and hopefully to help them heal as well.

      In law school, we should teach students how our legal system affects real people. Although we sometimes act as though the law is something separate from society, in fact, it is a human construct. Every student who graduates from law school will enter the legal profession and become part of that construct. The good news is that every new lawyer has a chance to improve our legal system.

      I am convinced that the criminal justice paradigm, based on retributive justice, addresses only part of the crime problem. There must be an additional system of justice, perhaps parallel to the criminal justice system, that looks at the real-life effect of the criminal justice system and seeks to heal everyone who is harmed by the crime--the victim and offender, their family members, community members, and those who provide support to any of these individuals.

      The legal system needs to develop this complementary paradigm, and law schools should help to do so. This Essay proposes establishing Restorative Justice Programs in law school, where law students would gain first-hand experience working with people who are caught up in the criminal justice system. Along with learning the traditional legal tools, students would have the opportunity to employ other techniques to heal those involved in legal disputes.

2. THE NEED FOR A NEW PARADIGM

   1. What is Restorative Justice?

      Restorative justice is in some ways a new field, but in other ways a very old one. It borrows from traditional methods of dispute resolution in an attempt to bring a more balanced approach to the criminal justice system. (13) Although restorative justice principles can be applied to address any type of wrongdoing, typically they are associated with the criminal justice system.

      Restorative justice is described as: "not simply a way of reforming the criminal justice system, it is a way of transforming the entire legal system, our family lives, our conduct in the workplace, and our practice of politics. Its vision is of a holistic change in the way we do justice in the world." (14) Although no consensus exists as to what constitutes all aspects of restorative justice, many restorative justice advocates agree on three concepts: "(1) restorative justice views crime as a harm to people and...