Maria Arpa
This week
What is justice?
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
I cannot find it in mainstream society.
A few examples:
- A man in solitary confinement for over 40 years in a glass box underneath a UK prison
- Tyre Nichols killed by police in the USA
- Developers in the UK still not fixing tower blocks with deadly cladding affecting almost 3 million people
- Frontline workers not paid enough to live on.
So what is justice?
In mainstream society the ‘justice’ system uses enforcement to control actions that breaks laws, in order to stamp out the harmful or deviant behaviour. The emphasis is on the punishment of the ‘deviant’ to get conformity and obedience in the hope that it is protecting other members of society.
An alternative ‘restorative’ justice system seeks to restore harmony and safety within the community, and to reconcile us with our own conscience and intuitive sense of what will repair the situation. The emphasis is on education, dialogue, trust and transformation.
What’s the point of having law?
Laws are meant to be a set of common agreements that we agree to, so we understand what is necessary to participate in society. It is meant to help us avoid or repair from injury, loss or harm. Therefore laws are meant to be in service of people living in a society. When people are in service of the law, and the few can determine outcomes for the many, expect problems.
And when some of those few who are appointed into positions of power with little regard for any unhealed trauma that may be played out in the course of their duties, expect corruption, brutality and more force than is necessary.
When we stop ‘criminalising’ and start ‘contextualising’ we will have better outcomes for everyone because responsibility taking and accountability will be the priority as opposed to game of testing the limits of the law and seeing who gets caught.
Maria’s Mindfulness Moment
No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness, no forgiveness without mercy, no mercy without love.
The Wednesday Whisper
Where and how does justice fit into your life? Who metes out justice to you? Who do you mete out justice to? Is there a better way?