BRUNSWICK

Maine is on the edge of a major reform to its criminal justice system that would replace the current punitive culture with “restorative justice” principles, an organizer of a daylong conference told participants Tuesday.

Sponsored by the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine based in Augusta, about 100 people, including district attorneys, jail officials, police officers, advocates, volunteers and employees with the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Human Services attended “Realizing our Vision of a Restorative State.”

“This can be the beginning of a new day in which we collectively catch a vision for a state that truly cares for its victims, focuses on prevention, is serious about rehabilitation and prepares persons for integration into society,” Richard Snyder, chairman of the institute’s board of directors, said in his opening remarks.

“This can be the beginning of a new day in which the financial costs of responding to crime are lowered, the revolving door stopped, and the waste of human lives is greatly diminished, if not ended altogether,” he continued. “This can be the beginning of a new day in which our children learn how to deal with conflict in ways that bring people together. This can be the beginning of a new day in which the culture of punishment is replaced by a culture of caring and healing.”

Exactly how that would be implemented statewide remains to be seen, but conference attendees agreed that a radically different approach to criminal justice in Maine is needed.

Snyder said he is not advocating that all those incarcerated be set free.

“There should be a place for preventing people from harming others,” he said. “But seventy-five percent of the people who are in prison shouldn’t be there. They have substance abuse issues and mental health problems that should be addressed. Many are incarcerated for minor probation violations.”

The institute is an outgrowth of the successful Restorative Justice Project of Mid-Coast Maine, established in 2004 to provide restorative justice practices in schools, juvenile justice systems and for adult males at the Maine Coastal Re-entry Center, formerly the Waldo County Jail.

Restorative justice looks at crime through a wider lens than the traditional criminal justice system does, according to Patricia Kimball, executive director of the institute. It acknowledges harm caused by crimes but poses a different method for addressing that harm.

“Instead of focusing solely on the individual that caused the harm and the best way to punish this person, (restorative justice) focuses on the victim that was harmed, the community that was impacted and the ways in which the offender can make things right,” she said.

Instead of asking: What happened? Who did it harm and how should the perpetrator be punished? — the restorative justice model asks: Who has been hurt? What are their needs? Who has the obligation to address the needs, to put right the harms, to restore relationships?

A smattering of restorative justice programs are in place around the state, primarily in programs for nonviolent juvenile offenders and in school discipline situations as an alternative to suspension. Programs have been implemented in Portland, Yarmouth, Old Orchard Beach and Belfast.

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Civil Liberties Union of Maine, said her organization is making criminal justice reform a priority.

“Maine is at a tipping point on this issue,” she said, including a willingness of stakeholders to consider an alternative, the economic necessity of reducing the costs of incarcerating nonviolent offenders and a recognition the current system is not working.

The Restorative Justice Institute of Maine conference was held Tuesday at the Inn at Brunswick Station.

FOR MORE, see the Bangor Daily News at bangordailynews.com.

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