Since 1996 Hawai‘i Friends has promoted restorative justice, which is based on democratic decision making and applies public health education principals, i.e. it is empowering, relies on active learning experiences for affecting positive behavioral, emotional, and cognitive changes for individuals and communities. Restorative justice (RJ) provides victims, and the community, opportunities to heal and strengthen their lives and relationships, after suffering an incident of crime or social injustice. RJ also offers offenders an opportunity to learn from wrongdoing. Restorative justice is based on the ancient conflict resolution practices of many indigenous cultures including Hawaiians. Most restorative justice experiences result in increased optimism of participants and observers. RJ has been studied worldwide and has been shown to reduce recidivism in a number of settings, i.e. prisons, juvenile and adult court cases, schools. Huikahi Restorative Circles:
The Huikahi Restorative Circle process, which is for imprisoned people, their families and victims to addresses the incarcerated person's needs for a successful reentry into the community (crime and drug free), and includes the need for reconciliation for all the participants, has been pioneering work. Two papers have been published that tell the story of a family that had one of the first circles in 2005 and follows up with them five years later. Research shows the circles reduce recidivism and that participants have sustained satisfaction and healing as a result of the circles even in cases where the incarcerated person has relapsed/reoffended and is re-incarcerated.
