The criminal justice system in the United States is overburdened: more than 2M people were incarcerated as of 2019. Within three years of their release, two-thirds are rearrested, and 50% will be sent back to prison. Additionally, 1 in every 3 adults in the U.S. has a criminal record, and the American prison industry spends over $80 billion dollars per year. The question is how we can bring these numbers down. Can we do anything to increase the successful reentries of former inmates into American society? Mitch Cozad, who became a criminal defense attorney after serving nearly three years for second-degree assault, believes that one factor preventing progress is the fact that the American justice system relies on retributive justice. Restorative justice, he says, may provide some of the solutions we are seeking.
Mitch Cozad first encountered the issue while an inmate in Colorado’s Department of Corrections. In getting to know other prisoners, he heard their stories and saw that many of them were products of cycles of poverty, addiction, violence, and lack of opportunities.
“It made me understand that our criminal justice system is retributive: it is about punishing the offender. That makes perfect sense until you realize that it just isn’t working,” Mitch Cozad says. “The numbers prove that our current justice system needs a different approach in order to be effective. I believe restorative justice principles are key to reforming the criminal justice system, so I decided to become an attorney and try to help solve the problem.”
While Mitch Cozad was in law school, he conducted extensive research for Restorative Justice Colorado, which works to integrate restorative values and practices across systems and communities in the state.
“Restorative justice is a more promising solution,” Mitch Cozad says. “By definition, it is ‘a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large.’ It may provide the answers we are looking for as we search for ways to lower the number of people who are incarcerated.”
Restorative justice, Mitch Cozad continues, is built on the 5 R’s: Relationships, Respect, Responsibility, Repair, and Reintegration. They are elements that keep the process safe while building a positive rapport between the offender and their community. The goals of restorative justice are threefold: first, the people who committed the harm must take responsibility for their actions and repair what they did. Second, the victim is allowed to ask questions, understand what happened and look for more of a narrative, and also explain how the crime has affected them. Third, the community is put in a better position to help both parties.
Mitch Cozad emphasizes that in the process, the goal is to not re-victimize the victim. By the same token, the offender should also not be victimized in the restorative approach process. “Instead of pointing fingers of fault at them, the community learns to understand the who, what, where, when, why, and how behind the development of this problem,” he says.
While apology letters and community service have their value, they are not actually restorative justice. They do not get to the heart of the disconnects, which means offenders still carry a lot of weight and transformations are not achieved, says Mitch Cozad.
With restorative justice, offenders really learn to connect with other people and understand them, he explains. Victims and offenders are brought together and are able to get to the root of the problem. In his personal view, the most valuable experience for him is the stories, including what restorative justice means to each individual. Victims do not always feel a part of the retributive process or understand what exactly went wrong and are many times re-victimized. The victim is given the opportunity to ask questions and make clear how the crime has impacted them.
As more people work to overhaul the American criminal justice system, deeper issues that impact how formerly incarcerated people are received by communities may need to be examined. Mitch Cozad believes that hearsay, bias, and the spread of misleading information are problems they may likely face. This can impact their attempts to reintegrate with society and start contributing to it on a meaningful level.
Mitch Cozad remembers hearing a speaker give this analogy: the way American society handles discipline in schools, prisons, and our homes is like throwing water on smoke. We see the smoke, we attack the smoke, and we ignore the fire consuming everything around us.
“Through restorative justice, we can address the fire instead of the smoke,” Mitch Cozad says. “That, I believe, will be one of the most effective ways to transform our criminal justice system in the United States.”
