On June 1st 2020, HMI Probation published a short report Dr. Ian D. Marder (Lecturer in Criminology, Maynooth University, Ireland), entitled “Building Restorative Probation Services“. This report, part of the Academic Insights series, provides information about restorative justice and restorative practices that will empower probation services to support their development, both operationally and internally.

With reference to recent research and to the 2018 Council of Europe Recommendation concerning restorative justice in criminal matters, it covers:

• probation’s role in making restorative justice available, noting probation officers’ crucial role in either facilitating restorative justice or making referrals to specialist services;
• practice standards which can help ensure that restorative justice is delivered as safely and effectively as possible; and,
• how probation services can integrate restorative principles into their organisational cultures by involving stakeholders in sentence planning, rethinking the type and style of the interventions they deliver, and utilising restorative practices internally and with clients.

The paper concludes that researchers, policymakers, probation managers and practitioners, and other stakeholders, should collaborate to ensure that restorative justice is used to its full potential in the probation and criminal justice contexts.

The complete report can be downloaded here.