Restorative Justice: a Roadmap to Healing
by Melissa Centeno
I have always been the kind of person who has had an easier time moving away from what doesn’t work for me instead of moving toward what does, especially when it comes to answering the big questions. Too many options overwhelm me, and I start to doubt myself. What if I make the wrong decision, change my mind, or don’t have the clarity to know what I really want? It is much easier to lean into a process of elimination–to focus on keeping myself safe from the hard no’s–than to lean into the possibility and uncertainty of yes’s.
When I was organizing with the NYC Chapter of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) in the mid two thousand tens, as a part of the larger Movement for Black Lives, I noticed that we were facing a similar crisis organizationally. While we were building campaigns and planning actions to address police brutality, unfair housing practices, and more, many of our meetings were challenging to participate in because of how dense the interpersonal tension was. All of us were drawn to the work because of our personal experiences and that meant that we were carrying a lot of unresolved trauma and pain. I remembered marveling at how we were trying so hard to shift the conditions of the city and the world at large, while not being able to engage each other in generative conflict. We struggled not to reproduce the dynamics we wanted to transform, because they were all we had ever had a chance to practice.
It was there that I was introduced to the work of Mariame Kaba and the transformative justice movement. It was the first time I witnessed a community respond to complicated harm with attention and care and a commitment to move through it rather than to exclude or punish.
When I joined S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective (SSLC) in 2017, I was intentional about acquiring the appropriate tools in order to strengthen my capacity to work directly with systems-impacted youth. I sought out training that would help me hold space with and for youth, without doing further harm. Once trained as a restorative circle keeper to be able to facilitate in accordance with SSLC’s model, I developed a particular interest in different healing justice frameworks. As an abolitionist, I felt I had a clear understanding of how existing systems and institutions, as well as cultural dynamics, are weaponized to further marginalize communities for whom violence is already an inextricable part of daily life. I struggled, however, to envision the practices we could turn to as we shifted away from punitive justice.
Diving into restorative justice gave me an avenue to address–and attempt to dismantle–the harmful practices I regularly witnessed, while also offering a roadmap to start building the kind of world I believe young people (and all of us) deserve: one that is centered on healing, community, and love. I sought opportunities to learn directly from leaders in the field such as Kay Pranis and sujatha baliga, and Mariame Kaba in the transformative justice and abolition movements, and I was able to participate in fellowships and opportunities that exposed me to work happening across the country in hyper-local communities (La Plazita in New Mexico, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth in California, and more).
My work with systems-impacted young people, experience with youth work, and my own experience of punishment when I was younger all deeply inform the way I have integrated restorative practices, not just into my career, but into my life. Being connected and in community with brilliant young people and seeing what is possible when we offer them support rather than control, reminds me that a different way of being is not only possible but that we can practice the skills we need to get there together.
As part of NYC’s community of restorative practitioners and supporters through Restorative Justice Initiative and beyond, I have had the chance to build my own network and personal relationships across the city and to learn about what this work looks like across sectors. This informs my personal work and how I envision my role in the larger movement. I have also seen a significant impact on my own work style and relationship with self, as I remember to apply RJ principles internally as I preach them:
- to reconnect with my values
- to honor the knowledge and labor that I am building on
- to recognize the wisdom that exists in all of us
- to model vulnerability
- to celebrate the amazing work that is already happening (rather than just lamenting what I couldn’t control).
Photo of Melissa Centeno by Gerard H. Gaskin