Abstract:
The criminal justice system in New Zealand is both a failure and a success. It has failed to respond to social harm in such a way that addresses the complex problems that cause harmful behaviour and corrals the flow of this harm, but has been incredibly successful in hiding away these problems behind prison walls. The New Zealand criminal justice system is built upon a legacy of reproducing and embedding social harm within communities as an ongoing tool of colonial violence. Alternative means of addressing interpersonal harm have been sought in response, both within community and policy settings. Restorative justice is claimed as one such alternative. However, many of the theoretical objectives of restorative justice have yet to be met in the contemporary justice mechanisms mandated by the State. In practice, the liberatory claims of restorative justice within the criminal justice system can obscure the reality of restorative processes as a part of the neoliberal project to outsource welfare needs to voluntary labour. The recognition and co-option of community justice mechanisms has also occurred in tandem with the recognition and co-option of Indigenous cultural practices and processes as part of the neo-colonial project. Through policy analysis, engagement with Indigenous critiques of policy, and interviews with Indigenous experts on justice and rehabilitative frameworks, this thesis makes the argument that it is possible to move past the contradictions of restorative justice. In order to do this, the monopoly over justice held by the colonial state must be challenged. To make meaningful, sustainable, and transformative change to the criminal justice system and stem the flow of harm that emanates from it, simply operating within the sphere of policy is not sufficient. Implementing a system of responding to harm that truly seeks to restore people to a place of balance necessitates constitutional transformation. In determining what this transformation might look like, it is necessary to acknowledge the frameworks for addressing interpersonal harm that already exist, and have served this land for generations.