The hypotheses and concerns

The hypothesis of Restorative Technology:

The status quo ante, or assumed pre-existing situation:
That restorative practitioners working in Youth Offending Teams offer opportunities for victims and offenders to communicate by face-to-face meetings or by letters (or verbal messages) that are delivered by the practitioner, usually in person and sometimes over the phone.
(Examples are known from earlier times of VHS video cassettes of an "offender" being recorded for the "victim" and shown to them). The idea isn't new; just the technogical opportunities and comfort of people using the technology changes.

My  hypothesis is that restorative practitioners who have confidence in (& commitment to) offering a wider range of ways for victims and offenders to communicate than this i.e. through mediated video-messaging or through opening a channel of mediated text-based messaging will achieve a higher rate of take-up of restorative communication.

Secondly, a number of individuals (victims and offenders) through video and text messaging will then want a meeting facilitated by a restorative practitioner.

If the time taken by staff in learning how to offer this wider range of services and the cost of providing the technology of video and text messaging amounts to less than the benefits to Youth Offending Teams, it would be logical for YOTs to encourage staff to use video and text-based messaging. 

A website systematically showing the experience of other users of restorative processes (eg. by offence type) could enable informed client choice in a way that saves YOT staff time.

However, the funding arrangments of YOTs do not reward higher levels of engagement with Restorative Processes, so the YOTs that will engage with this will be doing so for some combination of the following reasons:
1) believe in the intrinsic benefits of increasing the clients range of choices about participating in restorative communication
2)  a way to reduce the staff time allocated to Restorative Justice, by offering ways of communicating that require less staff time.
 
Restorative Technology Ltd supports restorative practitioners to offer mediated video-messaging and mediated text-messaging in the expectation that these will lead to more people engaging in restorative processes and more people wanting facilitated face-to-face meetings.

If YOTs do not offer to facilitate more face-to-face meetings, many clients will still have gained some clarity (answers to questions around the event), some reassurance, some personal growth, some knowledge which will help their future safety, some closure (or whatever other needs arose from the crime), and other benefits of communication.

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More widely, the hypothesis adopts and amends the following equation: I=PxAxT, which is about sustainability and population:
The Impact (I) on the world's sustainability system is equal to the population (P) multiplied by the affluence (A) multiplied by the type of technology (T) that the population is using. 
called The Population Explosion.
If I have the mindfulness to successfully link the technology and the values together I'll have an impact on the safety of society which is my goal is a restorative practitioner. So the equation now runs as follows: The Impact of Restorative Work = The value base of individuals, interacting with Restorative Mindfulness, interacting with the technology chosen by each to enable the communication.
The above equation discussion is taken from a discussion between two restorative practitioners here.

In the wake of winning the Social Innovation Camp 2010, Restorative Technology Ltd was founded

Here's the winning presentation, with the founding ideas of Restorative Technology Ltd:

A sideways look at communication between 'victims', 'offenders' & 'communities'

Discussions with Restorative Justice Practitioners about Restorative Technology

SafeGround is a "Reboot Britain" project funded by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

SafeGround provides a platform to support a facilitated mediation process between victim and offender, and was the winning project at the 2010 Social Innovation Camp (www.jailbrake.org). The judges who awarded the SafeGround team top prize were from the Youth Justice Board, the Prison Reform Trust, the Police Improvement Agency and the Foyer Housing Foundation.

(The full transcript of the above discussion is here)

(The full transcript of the above discussion is here)

Restorative Technology Ltd's initial funding is from NESTA; leading in innovation

The National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts are funding a pilot project being provided by Restorative Technology Ltd , whose director and CEO is Paul Crosland, whose work in Restorative Justice has been seen as ahead of its time, yet is fast becoming timely.
At the 2010 Social Innovation Camp, (called Jailbrake) SafeGround won first prize:
www.jailbrake.org
& http://vimeo.com/12484271

"The Restorative Technology Ltd wider vision is both to enable increased understanding between those involved in and affected by crimes and also to encourage responsibility being taken by all who can contribute to generating safer societies."                (Director and CEO -Paul Crosland)

The Restorative Technology Ltd (draft) business plan is here, and you can offer to support the development of this work by emailing Paul Crosland via the Mediation Support Ltd email contact form here.
If you are from a Youth Offending Team with a demonstrable record of high quality victim contact work (and/or a high victim participation rate), Restorative Technology Ltd may be able to offer in 2011 low-cost-to-user sessions in which the SafeGround software can be used for Restorative Justice staff to role play cases, communicating via video-messaging and text messaging.
For more about NESTA's Reboot Britain work; of which Restorative Technology Ltd's SafeGround project is one of the 12 innovations in delivery of public services, see here.

NESTA, funding our work through "Restorative Technology Ltd", has also produced the 'Radical Efficiency' report  in which they acknowledge the work of a friend in Brazil who is innovating, clarifying and offering  Restorative Justice to great effect:

'A great example of a new entrant to an issue bringing passion, naive intelligence and insights from elsewhere is Dominic Barter, who founded restorative circles,"

(I have paraphrased p11 of the report here; see p42-43 for much more about RJ in Brazil)

To see any of the Interviews 1-6 with Dominic about his Restorative Justice work, about Radical Efficiency and SafeGround, please go to my YouTube Channel:

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