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Speaker 1: Look, we have spoken quite a bit on the show,

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Speaker 1: you know, we hear, I guess it is more accurate

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Speaker 1: to say quite a bit on the show about about conferencing,

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Speaker 1: this restorative justice conferencing and joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more about it here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. Right now from Jesuit Social Services,

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Speaker 1: the general manager, Peter Solly, Good morning to you, Peter.

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, Thank you so much for taking the

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Speaker 1: time to have a chat with us. Now. I know

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Speaker 1: that that you know, when we talk about victim conferencing

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Speaker 1: or restorative justice conferencing, it is something that is spoken

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Speaker 1: about in a way to try to address some of

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Speaker 1: the issues that we have in the Northern Territory when

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Speaker 1: it comes to crime, and certainly a lot of people

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Speaker 1: feel as though it is a really good answer in

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Speaker 1: terms of those who have committed crimes to understanding the.

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Speaker 3: Impact that it has had on their victims.

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Speaker 1: Peter, firstly, can you tell us or explain to our

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Speaker 1: listeners exactly what is restorative justice confident and saying.

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Speaker 2: Sure, I can do that, but let me start by saying, look,

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Speaker 2: what we all want is communities that are strong cohesis

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Speaker 2: and less crime and fewer victims. I mean, that's the

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Speaker 2: goal for all of us when we're working towards this.

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Speaker 2: So restorative justice conferencing is a protest where you bring

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Speaker 2: a group of people together, including potentially the victim and

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Speaker 2: the young person or the kid that caused the crime,

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Speaker 2: to actually work through within the background having no more

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Speaker 2: harm as a mantra, work through what's happened in that

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Speaker 2: crime and what so the young person gets to hear

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Speaker 2: what's happened for the victim, the victim gets to hear

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Speaker 2: what sits behind the young person situation, and that's that's

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Speaker 2: worked through in a really structured and cohesive way. It's

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Speaker 2: not just the victim and the young person. There's a

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Speaker 2: number of you know, that could be family involved in that.

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Speaker 2: It could be from both sides. Police could be involved,

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Speaker 2: victims of prime may be involved to support the victim,

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Speaker 2: and it's a process that allows the story to unfold

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Speaker 2: and then a plan to be put in place that

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Speaker 2: everybody participates in in terms of what might be something

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Speaker 2: that's done moving forward to cause no more crime. I

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Speaker 2: think what's really important what a lot of people don't

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Speaker 2: understand is it's really a complex process so our skilled

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Speaker 2: facilitators spend a lot of time with each and every

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Speaker 2: person that's going to be part of that conference before

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Speaker 2: the conference to hear the stories, to understand the stories,

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Speaker 2: to really prepare people to come together in that conference,

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Speaker 2: and that takes quite a bit of time. That the

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Speaker 2: overall process can take somewhere between seventy and eight hours

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Speaker 2: to get the whole thing completed. And that so the

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Speaker 2: facilitator will work with each and every one of those

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Speaker 2: people come to conference, and there could be fifteen or

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Speaker 2: more people in that conference, depending who's been impacted by

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Speaker 2: that particular crime.

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Speaker 1: So it's not just a matter of sort of rocking

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Speaker 1: up and you know, placing these people in a room

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Speaker 1: together and you know, and mediating it.

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Speaker 3: There's a bit of work that goes into it.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not, and it's not a mediation process.

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Speaker 4: That's a really important part of that. That's a really

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Speaker 4: important point to raise. It is actually a storytelling process.

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Speaker 4: It's about everybody hearing what's happened for everybody in that room.

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Speaker 4: Because obviously there's you know, a lot of people get

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Speaker 4: impacted by the crime. It's not you know, there's all

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Speaker 4: sorts of people that are involved, and so that's really

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Speaker 4: important that those stories unfold and are told in a

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Speaker 4: real way and both the victim and the young person

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Speaker 4: here is the impact of what's happened from that crime.

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Speaker 2: So yes, it is a very a long process and

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Speaker 2: a lot of preparation and then of course there's an

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Speaker 2: outcome plan and depending on the referral process, So there's

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Speaker 2: there is a referral process into the conferencing setting. So

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Speaker 2: the referrals can come from court either pre a post sentencing.

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Speaker 2: They can also comes from back on Track which is

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Speaker 2: a diverdiary program, or they come from the yarrio. But

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Speaker 2: they are all statutory processes. They're all you know, very

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Speaker 2: structured in terms of the way the referral comes into us.

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Speaker 2: We don't get paid for a conference unless we actually

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Speaker 2: do it, so that's a really important other thing. So

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Speaker 2: we maintain a skilled workforce to ensure that these conferences

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Speaker 2: can happen effectively.

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Speaker 1: And Peter like, how many have you done in the

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Speaker 1: last year, because I know that the opposition had raised

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Speaker 1: this number of eleven, how many have been done in

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Speaker 1: the last year.

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Speaker 2: Look, we've currently got there's twenty eight referrals, so there's

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Speaker 2: thirteen conferences been completed, and there's thirteen underway at the moment.

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Speaker 2: There's two conferences that we call did not proceed and

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Speaker 2: that is usually because of the court, that something happens

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Speaker 2: in the court and they don't proceed. So that's what

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Speaker 2: we've got on our books at the moment. We've seen

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Speaker 2: an uptake probably since really July August. There's a much

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Speaker 2: stronger understanding. We've been doing a lot of work with

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Speaker 2: the courts and the you know, the judiciary as well

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Speaker 2: as lawyers and others to help them understand the referral process.

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Speaker 2: So we are seeing that raise, But of course, you know,

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Speaker 2: I think there's opportunities to do many more than that.

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Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask because it is often

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Speaker 1: highlighted as being a really good program, So why do

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Speaker 1: you reckon that those Look, I know you've said it's

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Speaker 1: a lot of work, but why do you reckon those numbers?

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Speaker 1: Sound like they are on the lower side of things.

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Speaker 1: And is there scope for your for Jesseuit Social Services

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Speaker 1: to do more?

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Speaker 2: Look, we we certainly are committed to doing as many

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Speaker 2: as we can. Of course, you know there is We

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Speaker 2: do need to maintain a skilled work force that's really

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Speaker 2: really important and we're doing that, we're taking the risk

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Speaker 2: on that. Actually. Look, I think there is you know,

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Speaker 2: we need to work more with the government and also

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Speaker 2: with the courts to help understand that this is a

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Speaker 2: really good process. The evidence sits behind it. There's some

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Speaker 2: very good evidence that it actually does support young people

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Speaker 2: and reduce recidivism. I mean, there's some very good evidence

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Speaker 2: around that. So you know, I think we should be

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Speaker 2: looking at ways in which we can build a system

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Speaker 2: that actually allows more people to go through this conferencing setting.

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Speaker 1: And so talk us through with those numbers, you know,

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Speaker 1: with the number of people that have actually gone through

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Speaker 1: the victim conferencing, what is the success rate?

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Speaker 2: Like, yeah, look, and again I guess there's different notions

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Speaker 2: to that. So ninety percent of the young people that

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Speaker 2: have participated in this conference is actually successfully complete the

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Speaker 2: outcome plan. So that would tell us that there's you know,

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Speaker 2: they're reconnecting this community, recurring with spam, reconnecting with education,

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Speaker 2: a whole range of things that come out of that.

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Speaker 2: So that's a very high sort of level of success.

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Speaker 2: Around seventy four percent of those people really do reconnect

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Speaker 2: with their family. In terms of victims, you know, four

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Speaker 2: in every five victims we come in contact with would

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Speaker 2: say that they would recommend it to another victim, so

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Speaker 2: that's a very high success rate as well. There's actually

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Speaker 2: just been a report that's been produced by the Center

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Speaker 2: of Forensic and Behavioral Sciences around group conferencing. It was

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Speaker 2: a longitudinal study of a cohort of people going through

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Speaker 2: the children's called in Victoria, and that again it shows

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Speaker 2: that there's you know, amongst that. In that study, it

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Speaker 2: shows very clearly that there is a link between conferencing

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Speaker 2: and reduction in recidivism. It doesn't matter whether it's personal

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Speaker 2: based crime or property crime. It seems to have the

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Speaker 2: same sort of consistent reflection. And that is the interesting

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Speaker 2: thing there too, that conferences with victim and conferences without

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Speaker 2: victim don't show a lot of difference. But one thing

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Speaker 2: that does is really important is secondary victims, so other

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Speaker 2: people in the in the in the community that have

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Speaker 2: been harmed or affected and police informant being at president

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Speaker 2: at the conference, that's really important as well, and we

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Speaker 2: always make sure that that happens.

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Speaker 1: Peter, I am running out of time, but I do

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Speaker 1: want to ask in terms of like you know, you've

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Speaker 1: spoken about the how many kids or how many sorry, how.

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Speaker 3: Many people have taken part? Is it a like is it.

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Speaker 1: Compulsory for or for the for the offender?

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Speaker 2: No, it's not, it's not. It's and that's a really

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Speaker 2: important component of this. But yeah, we as I said,

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Speaker 2: you know, there's a ninety at least a ninety percent

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Speaker 2: up take. We very rarely have a young person that

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Speaker 2: doesn't participate happen of course, but there are. You know,

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Speaker 2: we find that young people do really want to hear

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Speaker 2: from the victim and understand the impact. And so you know,

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Speaker 2: that's what makes it so powerful and so successful.

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Speaker 1: Peter, do you reckon it could be being utilized more

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Speaker 1: than what it currently is?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do. Clearance of good I think that there

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Speaker 2: is and it can be used in other contexts as well.

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Speaker 2: So you know, internationally, we see you're a storative practice

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Speaker 2: being inside schools, we see it inside communities, that there's

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Speaker 2: a whole range of places that this sort of storative

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Speaker 2: process can work. And I think, I think and we

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Speaker 2: know it it's much more successful than detention. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's clear that the evidence is clear.

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Speaker 3: So why isn't it Why isn't it being used more?

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Speaker 2: That's a really good question, and I think that's something

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Speaker 2: we should all be as a community. We should be

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Speaker 2: coming together and saying why doesn't Well, we know that

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Speaker 2: detention doesn't work. What are the alternatives? And we should

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Speaker 2: be supporting the alternatives. We all want vibrant and communities,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we all want less crime, we all

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Speaker 2: want less victims. And this is one of the one

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Speaker 2: of the tool. It's not the panacy, it's not the simpil,

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Speaker 2: but it is one tool that we know works and

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Speaker 2: I think it should be supported in a much greater way.

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Speaker 1: Peter. I really appreciate your time this morning. I'm sorry

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Speaker 1: that I don't have more time to speak with you,

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Speaker 1: because I do think that there is you know, there

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Speaker 1: is more to discuss here, so we might have to

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Speaker 1: try and get you on again down in the future,

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Speaker 1: if that's all right. I really appreciate you taking the time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no worries at all. Thanks for your time.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Peter,