THE Ministry of Justice, through the Restorative Justice (RJ) Branch of the Social Justice Division, on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education and Youth — through its Safety and Security in Schools Unit — to facilitate continued delivery of restorative practice (RP) training in schools across the Island.

The MOU was first signed on May 3, 2022.

RP training equips staff, students and parents with conflict resolution skills by using a set of principles which work from a preventative perspective, showing how to repair and build trusting and respectful relationships among students, staff and parents.

Since 2022 more than 12,000 participants have benefited from restorative practice training.

“We have a strong and powerful tool to resolve conflict. Over the last eight years we have been able to not only train 400 facilitators but we have sensitised thousands of persons on restorative justice,” Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck said at the signing ceremony,

He also indicated that court referrals to the RJ programme have maintained a high success rate.

“All the courts now refer matters to restorative justice. When a matter comes from the court, there is a 90 per cent success rate, and when a matter is referred from the community there is [an] over 80 per cent success rate,” he said.

“We want to sensitise as many of the classrooms in restorative justice, and to urge the children who know of any conflict among the students to inform an RJ facilitator to get the pending disputes resolved,” Chuck added.

Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams said more than 500 public schools will be targeted under the upcoming programme scheduled for April 2024 to March 2026. This number will account for approximately 50 per cent of the public schools across Jamaica.

Williams added: “We hope to see more stakeholders — including our deans of discipline, guidance counsellors, school nurses, health and family life educators, parents, students, and the wider community — come together to provide the support needed. The importance of restorative justice cannot be overstated and the programme remains necessary, given the spate of conflicts among students.”

The RP training includes two-day workshops delivered by restorative justice professionals, with corresponding materials shared with participants who are subsequently certified.