This is what justice looks like.
Veronica (not her real name) is a 17 year old from a solid working class Mexican-American family. She has never been in trouble with the law. The very idea that she would be in trouble with the law is foreign to her parents. In her senior year in high-school, Veronica finds out that she is failing a class that she needs to graduate. When she gets the notice, Veronica fears that her life is ruined. If she doesn't graduate she will not be able to go to college. If she doesn't go to college she won't be able to get a job and on. She hides the notice in her room and doesn't tell her parents.
The next morning on her way to school Veronica passes one of the department stores in the neighborhood. She wanders into the store and then she walks from department to department aimlessly. As she moves through the store she begins putting items in her shoulder bag. A music CD; a bottle of inexpensive perfume; tissues; a t-shirt. It is not clear if there was a specific moment when she formulated the intention to steal these items, and yet there she was leaving the store without paying. As she leaves the store she is stopped by security. Her bag is opened, the stolen items are found, she is arrested and her parents are called to take her home.
I am now, months later, sitting with Veronica, her parents and the loss-prevention officer for the department store chain in an upstairs office at the store. Under California law certain juvenile offenses can be resolved under "diversion programs." I am a mediator for one such program-The Jewish Community Justice Program.
Over the next two hours I facilitate a conversation between Veronica and Frank (not his real name), the loss prevention officer. Veronica tells her story first, starting with failing her course and ending with her parents picking her up. I prompt her with "And then what happened?" and "And how did that feel?" When she describes her arrest and her mother having to take off from work to retrieve her at the police station, her embarrassment and regret are palpable and her tears flow.
When she is done, Frank tells his story. He talks about the responsibility of being a loss-prevention officer. He tells of the hardship that a wave of shoplifting could potentially cause to a community if a store is convinced that it is losing too much money. He talks about the potential of lost jobs, and lost opportunities.
When Frank finishes I ask Veronica if she wants to make the situation right, and what she is prepared to do to facilitate that. Veronica suggests that she could perhaps do some community service, perhaps write a letter of apology. I ask Frank if this sounds appropriate or if he has something else in mind. Frank says that he wants three things. He wants a letter from Veronica telling him that she has enrolled in a Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED) course. He wants another letter telling him that she has reached the half-way mark in the course, and finally he wants a letter from Veronica when she completes her GED.
The room is silent. Finally, Veronica-crying-agrees and says thank you. I draw up a contract which Veronica, her parents and Frank sign. Veronica walked into the room thinking her life was over and walks out feeling that she is a member of a community that actually cares about her and is interested in enabling her to further her ambitions. In turn, I am sure, she walks away with a feeling of love for and commitment to the community.
That is what justice looks like.
It is what, in Jewish tradition, is called teshuvah–turning away. Maimonides, the great medieval jurist and philosopher who composed the first major codification of Jewish law, has a detailed description of tsehuvah. First there is admission of guilt, then there is regret, finally there is a resolution not to do the wrong again. Teshuvah is part of the criminal justice process in Jewish law, and its goal. If an item is stolen, the item must be returned or the owner compensated and then the thief must speak to the owner, requite him and ask forgiveness. The owner must listen and ultimately forgive. An integral part of the legal process is the repair of relationship between the one who did wrong and the one wronged. This repairs the tear in the fabric of the community that was the theft or the vandalism or the assault. Once compensation is given, the community must be restored to wholeness. This is done through teshuvah. This is what some call restorative justice.
Veronica did teshuvah. The community was restored that day in the office of a loss prevention officer in Long Beach, California.
Let's take another look at this remarkable scene. What was it that enabled the interaction between Veronica and Frank to end as it did? What can we extrapolate from this scene? What are the words that we can use to describe what happened so that we make an argument for a more just society out of this incident?
First, there was an assumption of righteousness. An assumption of righteousness is the stance one takes when one person approaches another openly, expecting that the other person is honest and has integrity. Frank did not operate from the assumption that Veronica was out to "beat the system". He did not think that the reason Veronica was in that room was because she did not want to face a judge and risk a harsher penalty. He assumed that Veronica was a righteous person who had made a mistake and was interested in making it right and not repeating her mistake, ever again.
Second, there was an understanding that one was obligated to care for those in one's community whom one did not know. Frank did not "let Veronica off easy" because he knew her. Frank had never met Veronica. He was however a part of her community and he understood that he had an obligation toward her: This consisted both in listening to her and accepting her honest regret and resolve not to make this mistake again.
Finally, there was an understanding that the purpose of justice is healing the tear in the fabric of the community that is caused by a crime. The goal of justice is restoring the community to its original wholeness. When Veronica left the room, this specific tear in the fabric of the community was well on its way to being healed.
As I think this year of the social implications of teshuvah, of the possibilities that a community of righteousness open up for us all, I can picture no better guide than the Rambam as practiced by Frank and Veronica.