Many kids returning to school this year aren’t looking forward to reconnecting with teachers or students. Instead, they’re dreading new encounters with school resource officers, zero tolerance policies, and state laws that criminalize youthful misbehavior.
This punitive infrastructure, collectively known as retributive justice, turns routine school disciplinary issues into matters for the criminal justice system. It often leads to youth incarceration and shocking displays of violence against children.
Institutions need to look to alternatives. I got a glimpse of one potential brighter future for kids recently while watching a 2013 discussion between community members in Oakland.
A group of nearly 20 school administrators, mental health experts, and family members packed into an Oakland high school classroom and gathered in a circle. Facilitated by Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, they were there to have a roundtable conversation with a student named Cedric, who’d been recently incarcerated.
Cedric was hesitant to share at first — he was worried everyone was there to “stereotype him.” As the room began to swell with love, admiration, and respect for Cedric, his worries dissipated.
“You made me blush,” he told then Bunche High Principal Betsye Steele after she said she was going to make sure Cedric earned his high school diploma. Another student told Cedric he was “a person who you can relate to in school” and encouraged Cedric to reach out for help.
Fostering this level of support is restorative justice’s whole purpose. It is a collaborative process to address wrongdoing, hold people accountable, and help people reintegrate into their communities. Unlike retributive justice, restorative justice positions community as a critical tool for helping kids and keeping them on a path toward future success.
The passage of time did not reduce the circle’s emotional resonance. Just watching the video 13 years later, I cried alongside those in the circle, including Cedric and his mother, because I felt the impact their words had on him.
Cedric shouldered a heavy burden. He was worried about his mother and their ability to pay rent. Those concerns impacted his decision making, leading to his incarceration. His uncle told him the circle was about helping Cedric “lighten that load.”
American children, especially Black kids like me and Cedric, don’t receive this kind of support nearly as often as they should. Instead, kids who misbehave are removed from school and placed in juvenile detention centers. Once they’re incarcerated, their chances of graduating high school plummet.
Restorative justice, which humanizes kids instead of demonizing them, is a beautiful and necessary alternative.
An estimated 150 restorative justice programs exist across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Maine, Connecticut, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, and Vermont. Studies show children who participate in restorative justice are much less prone to re-offend than those who were traditionally processed through the court system.
Participants constantly sing the praises of restorative justice — including not only students with disciplinary issues but also those who experienced harm. They report higher rates of satisfaction with restorative justice programs than with the criminal legal system, and these programs have reportedly led to significant reductions in PTSD, a desire for revenge, and negative emotions.
These results reaffirm the profound nature of community and solidarity. Perhaps we need restorative justice even more now — while youth incarceration overall has dropped, Black youth incarceration increased from 38 percent in 2003 to 46 percent in 2023.
Several stories from the last few years illustrate the danger of school resource officers — such as one from North Carolina who body slammed a student and caused her to suffer from a seizure, or another from California who was filmed yanking a student around and preventing her from getting up.
The violence of the criminal legal system is intolerable, especially when there is a proven alternative. We should begin the work now so future children won’t have their lives disrupted by incarceration anymore.
