Interview with Howard Zehr

Howard Zehr is widely known as “the grandfather of restorative justice,” he began as a practitioner and theorist in restorative justice in the late 1970s at the foundational stage of the field. Zehr continues in this third decade to deepen the principles of restorative justice and grow its practice worldwide. He has led hundreds of events in more than 25 countries and 35 states, including trainings and consultations on restorative justice, victim-offender conferencing, judicial reform, and other criminal justice matters. In this interview he says that prisons in US are basically trauma factories, much of the time, prisons are just totally counterproductive from a rehabilitation stand point. He also says that forgiveness is a wonderful and powerful experience but cannot be forced on people. He challenges and deconstructs today’s predominant retributive justice system. He invites us to experience justice as a restorative process that combines the best of the indigenous traditions combined with modern human rights sensibilities. Finally he shares with us his creativity infusing art in justice work. READ MORE