According to an official statement, KINGSTON, Jamaica– A 15-member delegation from Indonesia is due in November to complete a study on Jamaica’s restorative justice program.
It said that the delegation would include some of Indonesia’s most influential leaders in politics, crime, corrections, and law. The members will visit Jamaica’s courts, the Department of Correctional Services, Parliament, and the police commissioner’s office.
The Ministry of Justice said the move stems from an initial contact made by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Indonesia in March, after Jamaica’s restorative justice program was seen in various media outlets and interviews.
“This sparked an ongoing dialogue…. We learned that Indonesia was desirous of learning from restorative justice Jamaica and is at the beginning stages of formulating a national strategy on restorative justice,” said National Restorative Justice Coordinator Andriene Lindsay-Williams.
She said that the UNODC, as a partner of the government of Indonesia, is keen to assist with developing a realistic and practical strategy for restorative justice in that country. Still, the issues of financing and politics pose challenges in achieving this.
“Indonesia recognizes that Jamaica may have faced similar challenges. In this case, they are very interested to learn how Jamaica has responded to these challenges and how the restorative justice program has been implemented amid the same challenges,” Mrs. Lindsay-Williams said.
She said that a Jamaican delegation presented virtually at an Indonesian conference titled ‘Contextualising RJ in Indonesia’, alongside various high-level members of the Indonesian government, in July.
Mrs. Lindsay-Williams said this new partnership is fitting as “when the Indonesian tour comes to Jamaica, we’d like to come around to some of the churches to speak about it… Indonesia is a strong faith-based country”.
Between 2020 and 2021, Jamaica recorded an average success rate of 93 percent in restorative justice interventions. Additionally, some 3,000 members of critical stakeholder groups have been trained in restorative justice approaches across the country over ten years.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s faith-based community is the latest group that will benefit from a restorative justice program initiated by the Ministry of Justice following the signing of a partnership between the parties on Tuesday.
The program will allow church leaders and members to participate in training sessions to promote restorative justice practices.
Restorative justice is a process whereby all parties with a stake in a particular offense come together to collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the crime. It uses forgiveness in restoring peace and de-escalating conflicts.
“This program will be transformative. This is a historical beginning to what I hope will develop into a major social integration of the State working with the churches,” said Justice Minister Delroy Chuck.
Chuck said the Ministry tried to contact all churches in Jamaica. Where this was not achieved, there are currently 20 restorative justice centers across the island with a beneficial justice officer and a liaison officer. They are trained and able to impart the program.
Chairman of the Jamaica Umbrella Groups of Churches and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston, Kenneth Richards, said that the partnership presents an opportunity “to express our innate sense of fraternity to be good Samaritans, who bear the pain of other people’s troubles.”
He said that with restorative justice, “we can identify the pain and the sense of inadequacy in resolving conflict; we will also rediscover all the goodness that God has planted in human hearts for working through difficulties that seem to be the excuse for harming each other.”
and then 
