In one model of Restorative Justice from the 1960s, C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader at the time, and Ann Atwater, a Black civil rights organizer, worked together to plan a community discussion about school desegregation in North Carolina. They later became very good friends. Facing History 2016
Fatimeh Khan, co-director of AFSC’s California Healing Justice Program, announces the release of a new Restorative Justice Toolkit. In this interview, she discusses what the toolkit includes, why it was created, and how it can support people and communities seeking a deeper understanding of restorative justice.
What is restorative justice?
Restorative justice asks us to respond to harm with accountability, repair, and care, not punishment alone. It invites us to slow down, name what happened, understand who was affected, and work together to determine what is needed to make things as right as possible. Rather than focusing only on the person who caused harm or the rule that was broken, restorative justice recognizes that harm affects people, relationships, and communities.
Restorative justice is not a single program, script, or quick fix. It is a values-based approach rooted in dignity, accountability, relationship, repair, and community care. It does not mean excusing harm, avoiding consequences, or forcing forgiveness. At its best, restorative justice creates conditions for truth-telling, meaningful accountability, healing, and changed behavior.
Why did AFSC create the Restorative Justice (RJ) Toolkit?
The RJ Toolkit was created in response to the needs expressed by our communities, as well as several significant developments and challenges that have emerged in the restorative justice field over the last few years.
One of the developments that made the need for this toolkit especially clear was the passage of AB 60 in California in 2023. The law requires that survivors of crime be informed that restorative justice programs may be available to them. This is significant because the criminal legal system often focuses on what law was broken and what punishment should follow, while restorative justice creates space for survivors to be heard in a fuller way—to describe how the harm affected their lives, ask questions, name what they need to feel safer, and help shape what accountability should look like.
That might include receiving honest answers, hearing the person who caused harm take responsibility, putting safety agreements in place, exploring other forms of repair, and creating clear commitments to prevent the harm from happening again. For some survivors, this can feel more validating and empowering because they have a more active role in the process and greater agency in deciding what they need, what questions they want answered, and what meaningful accountability should involve. This offers something different from a process in which lawyers, courts, and prosecutors largely determine how a case moves forward, what information matters, and what outcome is pursued.
But simply notifying someone that RJ exists is not enough. Although the California Attorney General has a website with some information about restorative justice, survivors need a fuller and more accessible understanding of what RJ is, how it works, and what it could offer before they can say, “This is something I want to ask for.”
Over the past few years, our work on several restorative justice–centered bills revealed another significant gap: many legislators do not fully understand what RJ is or how it works. That lack of understanding made it extremely difficult to advance meaningful policy. Bills were often changed in drastic ways that weakened their original purpose and, in some cases, ultimately prevented them from moving forward. This experience further demonstrated the need for a resource that could build a clearer and more grounded understanding of restorative justice among policymakers and others engaging with RJ.
What is the current state of RJ?
There is much more attention on restorative justice today than there was even a few years ago. More people are hearing the term “restorative justice” and developing at least some familiarity with the concept. For example, when AFSC and its partners gave a presentation on RJ to the Prosecutors Alliance last year, many of the district attorneys were already familiar with the term, and a significant number responded positively to the ideas and possibilities behind restorative justice.
That growing awareness is encouraging. We are seeing a broader shift in people’s exposure to RJ, their understanding of it, and their openness to considering how it can be used.
How will the toolkit help?
Our toolkit gives people an opportunity to engage with restorative justice in a deeper and more expansive way. It explores where restorative practices come from and what makes an approach truly restorative, rather than focusing only on practices that have been adapted within certain institutions and labeled as “RJ.”
The toolkit also explains the core elements and values of restorative justice while recognizing that RJ is not a single, fixed model. Restorative practices can and should be shaped around the needs, culture, and circumstances of the communities using them, while remaining grounded in key restorative values.
For example, the toolkit examines South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We would not describe the commission as a complete restorative justice model, but it incorporated important restorative elements and was developed in response to the specific history and needs of that society.
We place that example alongside the approaches used in Rwanda following the genocide, as well as community responses to racial segregation and civil rights conflicts in the United States. By examining these different examples, the toolkit shows that restorative justice can take many forms and can be used by communities responding to very different kinds of harm, conflict, and injustice.
What else does the toolkit include?
The toolkit also includes a wide range of engaging resources, including books, podcasts, films, television shows, and other forms of visual media. These resources offer people different ways to learn about and connect with restorative justice beyond more traditional entry points, such as attending a workshop, knowing an RJ practitioner, or already being involved in the work.
By bringing together different types of media and learning tools, the toolkit opens up multiple pathways for people to explore RJ in ways that feel accessible, relevant, and meaningful to them.
For more about AFSC’s work for Restorative Justice in California, please check out this earlier interview with Fatimeh.