Reimagining Justice: Place-Based Approaches to Healing and Community Power

Professor Andrea Hagan

Hello and welcome back. This week, we're diving into a topic that sits at the very heart of how we organize our communities and respond to harm. I'm speaking about justice, but not in the abstract sense we often encounter in textbooks or political discourse. Instead, we're exploring how justice can be reimagined through restorative, abolitionist, and community-rooted practices that are deeply tied to the geography of our communities. These approaches represent a fundamental shift away from punitive responses toward healing and empowerment. Think of justice not as a distant courthouse or a set of universal laws applied uniformly, but as something that grows from the soil of our neighborhoods, shaped by the specific histories, relationships, and physical spaces where we live. This is the lens through which we'll examine our topic today.

Professor Andrea Hagan

Let me begin with a story about possibility. Imagine a community where, over five years, only one out of every hundred people who participated in a justice program returned to harmful behavior. That's not a hypothetical. That's what happened in Santa Cruz County, California, where the Neighborhood Justice Program achieved a remarkable 1% recidivism rate. How? By rooting restorative justice in the local community itself. Restorative justice is most effective when it remains anchored in the local community, rather than being co-opted by court or state systems. This is a crucial distinction, and history teaches us why. When programs become embedded in the criminal justice system, they risk losing their transformative potential and may even expand state power rather than diminish it. The most valid form of restorative justice is the community-based model, which operates independently of state systems and focuses on voluntary participation, collective wisdom, and addressing deeper conflicts that often lie beneath the surface of individual incidents.

Professor Andrea Hagan

The success of programs like the one in Santa Cruz County stems from a simple but profound reality: local communities become active participants, serving as both facilitators and beneficiaries of the healing process. By proactively building community capacity, restorative justice can prevent harm before it occurs and draw on local values and histories that lend meaning and legitimacy to the process. The literature consistently warns us that when restorative justice prioritizes court efficiency over community healing, it loses its capacity to create meaningful change.

Professor Andrea Hagan

There's a concept I want to reintroduce here that has helped us understand why place-based restorative justice works so powerfully. Does anyone remember the idea of collective efficacy, which refers to a community's shared belief in its ability to organize and solve problems collectively? Restorative justice fosters collective efficacy through processes such as community conferences and healing circles, which bring residents together to address harm, promote healing, and facilitate reconciliation. I recently read a book called "Getting Played" by Jody Miller. If you are interested in learning more about the positive effects of collective efficacy and restorative justice on communities that face significant challenges, add this masterpiece to your personal library.

Professor Andrea Hagan

When people work together to repair harm, something remarkable happens. They strengthen social ties and trust among neighbors. The shared experience of addressing conflict and finding solutions enhances a community's sense of control over its environment, increasing resident engagement in public life. In other words, restorative justice not only resolves individual conflicts but also addresses systemic issues. It weaves the social fabric of communities, creating networks of mutual support and shared responsibility.

Professor Andrea Hagan

Now, let's turn to abolitionist movements, which ask us to think even more expansively about transformation. Abolitionist movements are about more than just dismantling carceral systems, though that is undoubtedly part of the work. They represent a profound reimagining of justice that confronts how geography, land, and place are used to perpetuate harm and exclusion. Scholars have developed the concept of "abolition ecologies" to highlight how settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and white supremacy structure our relationship with the land itself. This is not abstract theory. It's about understanding how the places where prisons are built, where communities are surveilled, and where resources are withheld are not accidents of geography but products of deliberate systems of power.

Professor Andrea Hagan

Let's discuss abolitionist praxis, which entails developing new, community-centered systems and redirecting investments from punishment and surveillance toward education, health, and overall well-being. A compelling example of this work can be found in campaigns against prisons located on toxic land. These movements connect the goals of abolition and environmental justice by mobilizing residents around both carceral harm and place-based toxicity. They help us understand public safety as something locally defined, built on a deep understanding of historical marginalization and struggle.

Professor Andrea Hagan

Evidence from cities like New York, Chicago, and Vancouver demonstrates that community-based alternatives, including restorative practices and violence prevention programs, are most effective when they're tailored to local social, cultural, and physical geographies. This is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Take New York City's Community-Based Restorative Justice Initiative, which partners with local organizations to integrate place-specific traditions and resources. This ensures accountability while addressing the root causes of harm. However, what works in a close-knit rural area might need significant adaptation in a diverse urban context. The genius of effective programs lies in their ability to be both principled and flexible.

Professor Andrea Hagan

The Department of Justice has funded Community Violence Intervention programs that employ residents as "credible messengers" to mediate conflicts and provide support. This strategy is both evidence-based and tailored to specific local needs. Studies consistently find that these place-attentive models lower recidivism and build community trust more effectively than standardized policies that overlook the unique characteristics of a particular place.

Professor Andrea Hagan

So how do we design effective interventions? It begins with mapping the geography of harm and resource deprivation, and then engaging local people across various community sectors, including neighborhoods, schools, and faith groups. Successful interventions might include community conferences or healing circles led by local volunteers. They might involve partnerships with cultural organizations to revive traditional peacemaking practices rooted in a community's specific cultural heritage. Some communities have found success in mapping "harm hotspots" and combining environmental improvements, such as green spaces and improved lighting, with conflict resolution efforts.

Professor Andrea Hagan

Engaging "credible messengers" who have an intimate understanding of neighborhood histories to mediate and support at-risk youth has proven particularly effective. And fundamentally, this work requires redirecting public funds from punitive systems to local education, mental health, and recreational resources. These interventions must be co-designed with residents to ensure they are culturally relevant and respectful of local experiences and perspectives. Top-down solutions, however well-intentioned, often miss the nuances that make the difference between a program that transforms and one that merely processes.

Professor Andrea Hagan

True transformation requires weaving together these restorative, abolitionist, and community-based approaches, all of which are deeply attentive to the unique geographies of harm and care. The key takeaway from all the research is this: place matters. Justice flourishes when communities, especially those most harmed by existing systems, are empowered to lead the work of repair and liberation. We stand at a moment in history where we can choose to continue replicating systems that have failed so many, or we can embrace approaches that recognize the wisdom and capacity within our own communities. The evidence is clear. The stories of success are real. The question is whether we dare to reimagine what justice can be when it is genuinely rooted in place and grounded in our shared humanity. Thank you for joining me today. I hope this lecture inspires you to view your own community with fresh eyes and to consider the role you might play in this ongoing work of transformation. Blessings!