Restorative Justice and Lived Religion

Transforming Mass Incarceration in Chicago

Jason A. Springs

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781479823789
• eBook ISBN: 9781479823796
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy
• Index: Social Sciences

Frames restorative justice as a form of moral and spiritual practice with the capacity to transform injustice

In the United States "restorative justice" typically refers to small-scale measures that divert alleged wrongdoers from a standard path through the criminal justice system by funneling them into alternative justice programs. These aim not to punish the offender, but to constructively address the harm that wrongdoing may have caused to individuals or to the community, engaging with the wrongdoer to come to a response that might heal and repair the harm.

Yet restorative justice initiatives generally fail to challenge and transform the racist system of mass incarceration. This book argues that these initiatives have the potential to do so, but that we need to better understand what restorative justice is, and how it should be implemented. It claims that restorative justice can achieve its desired effect only insofar as it provides a mode of association between people that is, at its core, moral and spiritual. The book explores the ways in which restorative justice ethics and practices exhibit moral and spiritual dynamics, and what difference such "lived religious" dynamics can make for purposes of transforming structural violence.

Looking to Chicago's restorative justice network as a model for developing these transformational and sustainable social changes, the volume showcases real-life examples of the kinds of practices and initiatives needed to shift the entrenched dynamics that fuel the prison-industrial complex across the United States.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. South Africa to South Side: What Is Restorative Justice?
• 2. Resurrection in Back of the Yards: The Past Inhabiting the Present
• 3. Pillars and Circles
• 4. The Power of a Credible Messenger
• 5. Restorative Justice and the New Jim Crow
• 6. Restorative Justice Is “Transformative Justice”: How Restorative Justice Transforms Structural and Cultural Violence
• 7. Restorative Justice with a Hammer? Beyond a “Damage-Centric” Account of Trauma and Care
• 8. What Does “Spiritual” Get You That “Trauma” Does Not? Accompaniment as Spiritual and Critical Praxis
• 9. But Is It Really “Justice”? The Power and Impact of Restorative Justice Ethics
• 10. Peacemaking Circles as Ethical Practice
• 11. Justice That Heals and Transforms: Accountability, Forgiveness, and Nondomination
• 12. #LaquanMcDonald: Resistance and Compromise in Lawndale
• 13. Can Policing Be Restorative Too? Critical Praxis and the Dilemma of “Restorative Policing”
• 14. The Price of a Powerful Slogan Is a Concrete, Constructive Alternative: Transformation beyond the “Abolition versus Reform” Dichotomy
• 15. Everyday Religion in Unexpected Places: Restorative Justice through Lenses of Lived Religion
• Conclusion: How to “Change It All”: Small but Important Steps toward a Transformational Social Movement
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author