About the Centre for Justice & Reconciliation at PFI

Last modified 2007-01-03 07:48

The Centre is the justice reform section of Prison Fellowship International, an association of faith-based NGOs active in 112 countries. It has developed internationally recognised expertise in restorative justice, focusing on building local capacity and knowledge.

In addition to the Centre's work within Prison Fellowship, it also consults directly with governments and NGOs, offering training, consultation and strategic and operational planning. While operating from within the Christian tradition, the Centre seeks common ground, dialogue and collaboration with people from all backgrounds and traditions.

The Centre's work includes:

Providing sound, authoritative information about restorative justice through its website (www.restorativejustice.org), papers, books and research assistance.
Consulting with public officials on incorporating restorative values and programmes in legal and criminal justice systems.
Aiding community-based organizations by offering programmes for adaptation and use, as well as by designing and developing new programmes.
Continuing development of restorative justice theory, principles and practices, through research and design projects.

Programmes and Services

The Centre's work includes in-prison programming, maintaining a first-class information resource on restorative justice, and assistance to those interested in restorative justice.

Present and Past Centre Activities

The Centre's work ranges from assistance in programme development for use in the Rwandan genocide prisons to lecture for the criminal justice community in Colombia.

2006 in Review

Meet the Centre Staff

Contact

PFI Centre for Justice and Reconciliation
PO Box 17434
Washington, DC 20041
Telephone: 1-703-481-0000
Fax: 1-703-481-0003
cjr@pfi.org

Vision and Mission

The mission of the Centre is to develop and promote restorative justice around the world.

The vision of the Centre is that one day restorative justice will be the normal way of responding to crime throughout the world.

Centre Notes

Continuing Support for Restorative Justice by the United Nations

The United Nations continues to promote its basic principles on the use of restorative justice programmes, which it adopted in 2002. You may recall that PFI played a major role in the development and eventual adoption of these guidelines. Now, the criminal justice reform office of the UNODC (UN Office of Drugs and Crime) plans to publish a handbook for countries preparing to use restorative justice programmes in their criminal justice systems. This will be a practical guide for starting programmes and for linking them effectively to police, prosecutors, judges or prisons.

The UNODC held an expert meeting in Vienna at the end of January 2006 to review an initial draft of the handbook. Dan Van Ness, who participated in this meeting, reports that the handbook should be of practical value to PF national ministries as well as their governments.