Summer 2025 update – Probation RJ Action Plan published, update your service profiles, RJ in the news

Restorative justice in policy and strategy

Earlier this spring, the Probation Service published a Restorative Justice Action Plan. This outlines five workstreams to be led by the Restorative Justice and Victim Services Unit: strengthening internal capacity, expanding national provision, communication and advocacy, developing the evidence base and advancing restorative justice in Ireland. You can read the Action Plan here, my analysis of the plan (focusing on its implications for accessibility, collaboration and framing) here, and an article by The Journal about it here.

Also, the Canal Communities Drug and Alcohol Taskforce published a violence prevention strategy, with several actions and recommendations relating to victim assistance, restorative justice and restorative communities. Read a Dublin Inquirer piece about it here and see the strategy here.

Update your service profiles!

In 2021, as part of our first mapping exercise, we published a map of services using restorative justice and restorative practices in Irish criminal justice: https://restorativejustice.ie/service-map/. Since then, many new organisations have become involved in this work, and many listed organisations have changed their personnel, practices or contact details. If you would like to be profiled on the restorativejustice.ie website for the first time, or if you are already profiled and would like to update your details, please get in touch.

Jobs, voluntary roles, tenders

• Restorative Justice Services are advertising for several roles, including Restorative and Community Justice Officers (here), an Operations and Finance Manager (here) and an Information and Administrative Officer (here) – all closing on July 31.
• Alternatives to Violence Project is seeking a Company Secretary for its board – check it out here (closing July 31).
• The Travellers Transforming Conflict Initiative is inviting tenders for an evaluation and impact assessment of its work – see here (closing 31 July).

Research and publications

• Our latest blog from Dr. Linnea Osterman explores the practical implications of her research on restorative justice processes with justice-involved women – see here.
• Marie Keenan’s latest books are open access – on sexual violence and restorative justice (here) and transforming justice responses to institutional abuse (here).
• Marie was also on the Having the Chats podcast to discuss restorative justice and sexual violence (on Spotify here).
• A new open access article in the British Journal of Criminology considers whether RJ for institutional sexual abuse is empowering or ‘restorative washing’ – see here.
• We published a new paper, also open access, on recent research with the Irish Prison Service about senior leaders’ uses of restorative practices – see here.
• The 2023 Garda youth diversion annual report is now out (download here), reporting that 312 restorative cautions were delivered that year.

Restorative justice in the media

Restorative justice has regularly been in the media in recent months. In one case, a Spanish tourist who was raped said that she wished to speak to her attacker in her victim impact statement, resulting in the Central Criminal Court adjourning to explore if that was possible through restorative justice (see here). This was picked up by RTÉ Radio 1, which ran a segment on restorative justice with myself and Ailbhe Griffith, with responses from a political panel (see here). Other cases in the news included:

• People who stole from the company they worked at – see here.
• A person who forged opioid prescriptions in their work as a doctor – see here.
• A person who crashed a car while under the influence of alcohol – see here.
• A person who assaulted a Garda – see here.

Restorative justice was also discussed in the context of penal abolition in an article about the Irish Network for Penl Abolition by the Dublin Inquirer here.