A new means of paramilitary control or aattempt at building trust in the law? Restorative justice is proving controversial, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
The North's security minister David Hanson this week outlined one of the most important decisions of his career by giving the green light to "restorative justice" schemes. This may mean British government backing for former paramilitaries tackling anti-social behaviour and low-level crime.
Until March, schemes were funded by almost £1 million (€1.46 million) donated by Chuck Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies. With that money no longer coming through, financial backing by the British government is controversial.
Some, including Garret FitzGerald, denounce the schemes as republican or loyalist vigilantism. Others back them enthusiastically as a replacement for paramilitary "punishment", allowing local people to address local problems.
Unsurprisingly, opinion about restorative justice is polarised, and Hanson realises that striking a balance - allowing these schemes to operate properly while also involving the police meaningfully, if discreetly - will be difficult.
His proposals will be tested in the glare of unionist and nationalist opinion - as well as scrutiny from Dublin. There is plenty of evidence already for each side to advance their cause.
Jim Auld, director of the west Belfast-based Community Restorative Justice (CRJ), states his case. "We publicly say that we won't work with the PSNI. This community clearly says that it doesn't want a relationship at this stage with the PSNI."
But he insists: "We are not an alternative police service. We don't want to be an alternative service, we don't see ourselves as an alternative and we don't deal with the vast majority of things that a police service needs to be dealing with."
Unlike the loyalist-run Northern Ireland Alternatives (NIA) schemes, CRJ does not have police officers sitting on governing bodies, although both were founded by former prisoners and are staffed by volunteers, some of whom have criminal records.
But, as Auld states, the appeal of restorative justice in republican areas relies, in part, on the absence of PSNI involvement rather than co-operation with it.
In Andersonstown, Auld cites a problem in a small cul-de-sac of just 13 houses, where children began fighting. Their parents got caught up in the problem and there was damaging fall-out. Things worsened to such a point that two of the adults were charged with assault.
CRJ decided to mediate. Some families decided to move, but others stayed and opted to talk. Individual meetings led to wider dialogue as issues were tackled. Eventually relations improved to a point where the families organised weekend excursions together.
Auld insists that CRJ advocates the option of "victim choice" over PSNI involvement in cases of crime, citing a group of teenagers who began burgling in west Belfast. In one incident, £2,500 (€3,650) was stolen from a taxi driver along with a wedding ring. The victim had the option of going to the PSNI or dealing with the situation locally. Eventually the ring was returned and the situation was defused.
However, critics of CRJ insist that it is too closely identified with Sinn Féin and the IRA and that it shields republicans from criminal justice.
Jeff Commander - a friend of Robert McCartney, who was murdered in January 2005 - believes CRJ is involved in a cover-up. Last September he was severely beaten by "past and present IRA volunteers" because, he believes, of his co-operation with the police and his opposition to what he sees as IRA control of Short Strand.
"To me personally are there to cover up - to stop people from going to the police," he says. "That's what they are for. Everybody knows that anyhow. They came to ourselves to see if we would meet the ones who attacked me and not press charges and sort it out that way. But by that time I'd already gone to the police. I wasn't going to withdraw the charges because they were totally in the wrong."
"To be honest never asked me to drop the charges, but asked me to meet the ones [involved in the beating] through Clonard Monastery. As if this is the way to deal with things."
The Commanders have now left their home in Short Strand, intimidated, they say, by the IRA.
Correspondence between them and CRJ, seen by The Irish Times, highlights their belief that justice cannot be done until those with evidence co-operate with the PSNI.
The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) also says restorative justice is being used as a cover for paramilitarism to continue in a new guise.
Last February it reported: "We believe that it delays the firm establishment of a 'culture of lawfulness'."
Also, there are allegations - such as those involving violent offences against the person and sexual offences - that the IMC believes should not be within the remit of restorative justice.
The paramilitary watchdog has reported that "improper pressure" - sometimes coming from those with known paramilitary connections - is "intended to secure the disposal of the crime without recourse to the criminal justice system, including police".
When asked if CRJ shields republicans from the police, Jim Auld is emphatic: "Absolutely not. The police do their job and we hope very soon we will have a relationship with a police service we can give allegiance to."
He adds: "I think we have a unique opportunity here to allow an organised, active community to work in partnership with an acceptable police service. To my knowledge and to anyone else's knowledge, nobody has ever been charged or questioned, and the PSNI have never been looking for anyone in CRJ."
According to Anna Eriksson of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Queen's University, restorative justice schemes can play a positive role in communities that are moving away from conflict, especially where low-level crime was formerly dealt with severely through punishment beatings.
Denis Bradley, former vice-chairman of the Policing Board, believes restorative justice has a vital role in "deprived areas which are outside the mainstream".
"Restorative justice is a good idea when it is kept away from the political forum," he says.
"It works best when there is a healthy scepticism, working within policing and justice.
"Its work should be non-criminal, with crime investigations left to the PSNI. But this is a very grey area. CRJ is an alternative to authoritarianism and ought to be complimentary to the criminal justice system."