The Restorative Justice Symposium Introduction A Restorative Justice (RJ) in Adult Criminal Courts Symposium (Symposium) was held

at the University of Missouri, Columbia on November 13, 2009. Three entities sponsored the Symposium: the Restorative Justice in Adult Courts Committee (RJ in Adult Courts Committee) of the Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition (Coalition); the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution within the University of Missouri School of Law; and the Peace Studies Program at the University of Missouri. The Symposium was the culmination of planning by the RJ in Adult Courts Committee to promote the use of restorative justice (RJ) in adult courts. The mission of the Coalition is: To create safe and peaceful communities for all Missourians by promoting the understanding and use of restorative justice principles and practices; to increase awareness, understanding of and support among Missourians for the benefits that restorative justice principles and practices offer to victims, offender, and the community; and to advocate, create opportunities for, and be a resource for restorative justice programs and projects in Missouri. The Coalition was convened as part of the implementation of the Missouri Restorative Justice Initiative, sponsored by the Center for Women in Transition, to promote awareness of, buy-in for, and programming involving restorative justice in the state. The RJ in Adult Courts Committee consists of a representative of each of the disciplines of the continuum of adult courts, including judges, prosecutors (municipal and state), defense attorneys (including Public Defenders), probation and parole personnel, law enforcement, academics, researchers, and RJ practitioners. The Committees mission

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation Fall 2011, Volume 1 Number 1

is to promote the use of restorative justice practices in this continuum of adult courts. One of the members of the Committee, Darrell Moore, who is the Greene County Prosecutor, led the way in establishing a program that provided for deferring low level property crimes to Victim Offender Dialogue, a model of restorative justice practice. Darrell has conducted several training sessions for other prosecutors in the state on how to develop such a program. However, that has not led to many jurisdictions adopting these practices. The Committee decided that the best way to promote the use of these practices in the continuum of adult criminal courts was to hold a multidisciplinary conference for practitioners in the disciplines involved in the continuum. The Committee planned the Symposium so that it would attract participants from all relevant disciplines. We also wanted teams to attend from the various judicial circuits in the state. We believed that if the circuit was committed to implementing RJ practices, it would have a better chance of coming to fruition. We had three goals: to educate all attendees about restorative justice; to educate individuals about the use of RJ within their disciplines; and to meet in interdisciplinary groups within circuits to begin planning for implementation of practices. The Missouri Bar Foundation gave us a grant for the Symposium, which covered most of the costs associated with the Symposium and kept the registration fee low. We sought articles from practitioners and researchers interested in presenting papers during the morning plenary. We received abstracts from very well known luminaries in the field, and selected six for the plenary. As it turned out, only four actually developed their abstracts into full length papers, but all six individuals gave presentations. The keynote address was given by the Honorable Janine Geske, a retired

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation Fall 2011, Volume 1 Number 1

Supreme Court Justice from Wisconsin, and Director of the Restorative Justice Initiative at Marquette University Law School. The Structure of the Symposium The one-day Symposium took place on the MU campus, beginning with a plenary session into which we inserted a tutorial unit on restorative justice (to be sure that the attendees had a good understanding of the concept and the practice). Attendees could select from 10 break-away workshops in the early afternoon. Seasoned practitioners led these workshops, which were designed to educate attendees on how they could use RJ within their discipline. The 10 workshop facilitators were: Judges and RJ Municipal Prosecutors and RJ Probation and RJ Researchers and RJ Victims and RJ State Prosecutors and RJ Defense Based Victim Outreach Law Enforcement and RJ Practitioners and RJ Domestic Violence Victim Impact Panels

Later in the afternoon, a session was devoted to multidisciplinary teams from each of the circuits that allowed them to plan, with guidance from a facilitator, how they would implement restorative justice within their circuits. A number of circuits developed plans that they began to implement when they returned home. The Participation of the University of Missouri Peace Studies Program One of the goals of the Symposium was to publish some of the presented papers in order to help disseminate knowledge about RJ. The Peace Studies Program at MU was interested in the possibility of publishing submitted papers in the International Journal of

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Conflict and Reconciliation (IJCR), an online journal attached to the Program. Meetings were therefore held with Peace Studies faculty members and the editors of the IJCR. Paper presenters were required to send their articles to the journal for peer review. The three articles that were accepted for publication appear in this special issue on the symposium. The selection included articles by Joanne Katz, professor at Missouri Western University and pioneer in restorative justice in the state and Gene Bonham, associate professor, Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Missouri; David Lerman, a lawyer and pioneer in implementing restorative justice practices in the prosecutors office in Milwaukee, WS, and Aida Hass, assistant professor and researcher at Missouri State University, who has been involved in the Division of Probation and Paroles restorative justice efforts and Jessica Corno, MA graduate, of Missouri State University. It has been a delight to work with Ibitola Pearce, professor, sociology and womens and gender studies at the University of Missouri and Richard Hessler, emeritus professor in sociology at the University of Missouri, who are the co-editors of the IJCR. Thanks also go to John Galliher, professor at the University of Missouri, sociology and director of the Peace Studies Program, for facilitating the collaboration between the Program and the Symposium. The publication of the symposium papers is an important dimension of the effort to make restorative justice better known throughout the world. Nina Balsam, JD Administrator Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition Co-Chair Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation Fall 2011, Volume 1 Number 1