Restorative Justice: Insights and Stories from My Journey

Howard Zehr’s dedication to peace and Restorative Justice cannot be overstated. He has been a critical voice and intellect on the issue. His teaching, mentorship, and guidance have indelibly marked my work and my journey as a war survivor of one of Africa’s most brutal civil wars.

I was privileged to spend four days with Howard at the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary as part of our course work in 2007. I saw his compassion and respect for incarcerated men and their opinion on justice issues.

Our world, our journey as peacebuilders, and the global community are a better place because of this great man’s service to ­humanity!

Inside a 30-foot-high concrete wall is where I met Howard. That was in 2009. I was fighting a death by incarceration sentence and had just cofounded an RJ project based largely on his writings. 

Through the years we would become colleagues, friends, and brothers. And while his impact on the movement is clear, it’s his humility and quiet wisdom that continue to infect me most.

That’s as true today as in that prison classroom thirteen years ago.

Howard has long resisted talking about himself, despite proddings from those of us who cherish what he personally brings to the field of Restorative Justice: his loving, open, principled heart, his vast experiences with amazing people, and his dance between deep reverence for the human condition and playful irreverence for its foibles.

I’m thrilled that he’s finally written something that shares his very human journey to his profound contributions to our field.

This memoir of Howard’s life lifts the curtain on a humble, faithful prophet who has given the next generation one of the greatest gifts: A justice that heals and transforms!

Howard has always been both extraordinary—and extraordinarily humble. 

He has taught so many of us—directly or indirectly—but so much of what distinguishes his brilliance is that he has also learned from so many people in the movement for so long.  This continuous learning, rooted in his unending regard for the value of other people, is as much the spirit of Restorative Justice as all the other work he has developed and led through his lastingly impactful career.

In a prison cell, I first read The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr. 

At the time, I was unaware of the impact of that moment.

In class, at EMU a decade later, I listened as Dr. Zehr expounded the history and theory of RJ. In a series of meetings and engagements that semester, he became a mentor and a friend.

In 2017, Howard was the commencement speaker when I became the first graduate with a Master’s Degree in Restorative Justice.  Like others who follow in Howard’s footsteps, mine is a story of transformation and the healing power of Restorative Justice.

The book is equally instructive and enjoyable for both the RJ novice and the seasoned practitioner. Howard’s reflections on his decades of experience remind us of the humanity in our work and guide how we may maintain hope when facing the challenges of integrating love into our most powerful judicial institutions.

I knew that I was “stepping into the unknown” by adapting Restorative Justice principles in federal death penalty cases. 

One of Howard’s incredible gifts is that he encourages the path unseen in both his students and in society, with a wink to what is possible. The principles that Howard honed remain a beacon for those working in the field.

His contributions to creating a more healing legal system are profound and enduring.

We are grateful to Howard for the way he helped us see and understand how to build our practice on a bedrock of values and principles.

This personalized account of the creation and development of the Restorative Justice movement offers fresh and illuminating insights.

This is indispensable for anybody interested in the history of contemporary Restorative Justice, or indeed for anybody curious about crime and how we might handle it better.

When I first read one of Prof. Howard’s books, I found many similarities with my indigenous system Jirga.

The next day I went straight to his office to discuss. Prof. Howard encouraged me to take his RJ class, and the journey started.

I loved this book, a summation of Howard Zehr’s life’s work, developing a truly revolutionary movement. It has given me a vision as a lawyer/mediator about how to practice justice—but also, as a human being, how to live restoratively.

Howard is the “Real Deal”—he returns phone calls from a campsite in Canada, is always open to critique, and wary of unintended consequences; he lives as a photographer with wonder and awe, with an earthy sense of humor (which got me through Covid), and he drinks espresso while communicating with Morse Code!

In 2008, Howard generously agreed to travel to Denmark to speak at a hearing on victim offender mediation at The Danish Parliament.

Many were new to the ideas of Restorative Justice, and Howard spoke to the large, inquisitive audience in his always gentle, inspiring, and encouraging way.

To this day, almost 15 years later, I still meet people who tell me that it was then that the notion of Restorative Justice became comprehensible to them.

Nearly 40 years ago, as a young Black man growing up in the shadow of Rikers Island, I first encountered Howard Zehr when I was a college transfer student. All these years later, I am now a professor of religion and African & African American Studies.

I found this book inspiring. But the thing that truly enlivens it are the narratives of human striving toward justice to which Zehr testifies by way of the all-too-human stories he tells and the living portraits often accompanying them.

Howard has a scientific and artful heart, deeply determined to imagine the human condition beyond retribution—indeed, striving (as much as possible) to “put things right” for victims, holding offenders accountable within inclusive communities of restorative care for all persons impacted by wrongdoing.

I was privileged to be one of Howard’s students and to get to know him and work with him closely.

He’s an amazing scholar with beautiful human qualities (humility, a sense of humor, respect, a great listener, community connector, etc.)

I define myself as a Restorative Justice practitioner.

One of Howard’s strengths, in spite of his world-renowned work, is to not make the story of Restorative Justice about himself.

So, I find it exciting to see some of the “story of Howard” in this book—how his generosity, kindness, critical thinking, clear communication, and willingness to be accountable have shaped the movement known as Restorative Justice.

Worth reading!

Within these pages, readers everywhere can benefit from Howard’s lifetime of experiences, living and teaching Restorative Justice.

Thank you, Howard.

Howard generously shares of his personal life, offering a glimpse into his hobbies, friendships, and family. It is the lessons from when Howard is not being the “grandfather of Restorative Justice” that stand out to me: embrace your inner geek, savor a good cup of coffee, and return emails promptly. 

Little did I know that that experience would begin to define a good deal of the rest of my professional life. Profound thanks, ­Howard!

For Howard, the word humility means having an understanding of what you don’t know and listening to the wisdom of others. And, he, more than anyone I know has lived that out.

I remember as we started talking about the values of Restorative Justice being something we also needed to practice in our own lives…and are still figuring out and practicing…that he would sometimes say to me, “If I haven’t told you lately, I really do appreciate working with you.”

That’s Howard.

Changing Lenses, Howard Zehr’s seminal work, is a revelation.

The idea that we are witnessing a paradigm shift from a justice that reproduces harm to one that heals harm was — and still is — startling, welcome and generative.

Today, the need to re-imagine justice is ever more urgent.  Indeed, in the aftermath of the public lynching of George Floyd, we live in a time of reimagining new justice futures.

My friendship with Howard formed over art and photography.

He helped me design and set up my first darkroom and talked me into buying a couple of very sketchy Russian-made cameras. He’s accompanied me on projects, and we’ve done plenty of catch-and-release photography together.

After photographing, sometimes, we share an espresso right there in the field that he’s made using his customized portable espresso kit and served with an Andes mint.

Everything Howard tells us about himself in this book comes together in those small steaming cups: an expression of communion shared over the hood of a pickup.

He validated our belief that all people have a right to be heard, to be seen and respected; that people need to leave traces of themselves and the meanings they generate in their lives. They need to give expression to all that has happened to them, to say “We are here,” and to create beauty.

I am grateful to Howard for underscoring the importance of recovering meaning and finding justice through art.