Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds MP, has re­stat­ed this coun­try’s com­mit­ment to em­brac­ing and im­ple­ment­ing the prin­ci­ples of “restora­tive jus­tice” as the coun­try ob­serves Restora­tive Jus­tice Week this year.

“Restora­tive Jus­tice can aid in re­duc­ing the rate of re­cidi­vism through mean­ing­ful ac­count­abil­i­ty, heal­ing for vic­tims and com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by crime, and re­mains a very cost-ef­fec­tive al­ter­na­tive to tra­di­tion­al jus­tice sys­tems,” Min­is­ter Hinds not­ed, as he ad­dressed the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny and a pan­el dis­cus­sion for Restora­tive Jus­tice Week 2024, on Mon­day (No­vem­ber 18, 2024).

This year, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice—work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Pe­nal Re­form and Trans­for­ma­tion Unit in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, joined with the in­ter­na­tion­al Jus­tice com­mu­ni­ty and proud­ly launched Restora­tive Jus­tice Week 2024, un­der the theme “Crime Hurts; Jus­tice Must Heal”.

Restora­tive Jus­tice Week is ob­served an­nu­al­ly on the third Sun­day of No­vem­ber, and this year it runs from No­vem­ber 17-23.

Ac­cord­ing to the Prison Ser­vice, the Week is ob­served “to ho­n­our and prop­a­gate the ethos of jus­tice based on the restora­tion of hu­man con­nec­tion.”

“It is an al­ter­na­tive to in­car­cer­a­tion or statu­to­ry pun­ish­ment for crime, and it is about find­ing a way to es­tab­lish com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween the of­fend­er and the vic­tim,” Min­is­ter Hinds stat­ed in his fea­ture ad­dress.

“For of­fend­ers,” he ob­served, “the restora­tive jus­tice pro­gram of­fers an op­por­tu­ni­ty to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the harm they have caused. For the vic­tims, it aims to re­duce the feel­ing of anger and pow­er­less­ness.”

Dur­ing the eight days of aware­ness-rais­ing, the Prison Ser­vice says it will be high­light­ing voic­es, sto­ries, and so­lu­tions about Restora­tive Jus­tice that in­spire change, and is urg­ing the so­ci­ety to “em­brace a jus­tice sys­tem root­ed in ac­count­abil­i­ty, em­pa­thy, and hope.”

“The Prison Ser­vice will cham­pi­on the pow­er of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, heal­ing, and sec­ond chances with a se­ries of thought-pro­vok­ing videos that ex­plore how restora­tive jus­tice trans­forms lives, re­builds com­mu­ni­ties, and fos­ters un­der­stand­ing,” it said in a state­ment.

It added: “The eight days are ded­i­cat­ed to up­lift­ing sto­ries, mean­ing­ful sug­ges­tions, and ad­vo­cat­ing for leg­is­la­tion that views crime as an out­come of a failed so­ci­ety, rather than the ac­tion of a flawed in­di­vid­ual.”

The Prison Ser­vice notes that the con­cept of Restora­tive Jus­tice, though prac­ticed for many years, was for­mal­ized in this coun­try with the Fi­nal Re­port of the Cab­i­net ap­point­ed Task Force on Prison Re­form and Trans­for­ma­tion in 2002.

“At its heart, the Prison Ser­vice, and by ex­ten­sion, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, con­tin­ue to seek the best ways and means to in­tro­duce Restora­tive Jus­tice in a more mean­ing­ful way with­in T&T’s pe­nal op­er­a­tions,” the Prison Ser­vice state­ment said. “The ini­tia­tive aligns with the coun­try’s com­mit­ment to mod­ern­iz­ing the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and re­duc­ing re­cidi­vism.”

Al­so present were the Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice, Mr. Car­los Cor­raspe; Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice, Mr. Sher­win Bruce; As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice, Ms. Char­maine John­son and Mr. Wal­ter Alexan­der, Pe­nal Re­form and Trans­for­ma­tion Unit.