The Alberta Government showed its support for restorative justice initiates in communities across Alberta, by giving out $360,000 worth of grants.

Restorative justice focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community, which are used as an alternative or supplement to any sentence and can be imitated at any time during the criminal justice process.

One of those recipients was the John Howard Society of Red Deer, which specializes in restorative justice tools for offenders, often times in the school system, so youth have a chance to repay their debt to society by making amends for their crimes, instead of being at the mercy of the court system.

Special Projects Manager for the John Howard Society Dianna Bennett explains how their system focuses on conflict resolution rather than simple punishment.

“What is important about restorative justice is it actually addresses repairing the harm in a meaningful, so it engages the victim, the victim has a voice, they get to discuss how they were impacted by the crime, and what they believe needs to occur in order to repair the harm. The individual who has caused the harm actually has to sit and listen to that, which is difficult… I tell the youth, it’s not for sissys, this is a lot more difficult than going to court and having a third party tell you what law you broke and what punishment there is for that… They have to come up with means to actually repairs the harm in meaningful ways.”

16 other organizations across Alberta also received grant money, including the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee, and the both the Calgary and Medicine Hat chapters of the John Howard Society.