| I love restorative
justice, by US judge
By OLA AGBAJE
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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•Justice
Janine Geske
Photo: SunNews Publishing
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Justice Janine Geske, retired Justice of Wisconsin Supreme
Court, United State of America (USA), is a Professor of Law,
who has traversed virtually all the aspects of legal profession.
She was a distinguished lecturer, where she rose to become
a Professor of Law. Following her exceptional performance
as a legal practitioner, she was appointed a judge and later
Justice of the Supreme Court.
She was in Nigeria recently to participate in the Negotiation
and Conflict Management Group (NCMG) summit held in Lagos
under the theme Restorative Justice, Peace-Building and Economic
Development in Africa: The Role of ADR.
She shared her experience in the quest for fulfillment and
her encounter with restorative justice.
Background
After graduating from Marquette Law School in 1975, I started
my legal career by serving as a staff attorney for the Legal
Aid Society of Milwaukee. During my three years as a lawyer
for the poor, those without a powerful voice in our community
showed me their critical need for a just forum. Just as importantly,
I also saw how our formal system frequently failed to provide
an environment in which the disadvantaged were treated respectfully.
At 32, I was appointed a Milwaukee Country Circuit Courts
judge, a position I held for 12 years. I was appointed into
the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1993.
Creating a fair environment
As a trial court judge, I attempted to provide a meaningful
and considerate judicial process to all who entered my courtroom.
Within the limits of what can be accomplished in our legal
system, I believe I succeeded in creating an environment in
which all who came to my court felt that they were heard and
treated fearly. However, I always knew that there was only
so much that the structured legal process could provide to
those who truly needed to be listened to and who needed to
find solutions for the difficult problems that they faced.
Following my heart
I knew I wanted to work in the community and be a peacemaker.
I wanted to use my legal, and judicial experience in a helpful
way. I wanted to make a difference in peoples lives, and I
wanted to mentor law students and young lawyers on their personal
vocational journeys.
Shortly after my announcement, Marquette had Dean Eisenberg
asked me to return to teach at the law school where I had
taught earlier in my career. I told him, “sorry, but
I have been there and done that. I love teaching, but I want
to work one-on-one with others. I do not want to spend time
in faculty meetings, and I do not want to worry about tenure.”
He said, “Tell me what you need, and we will make it
work.” I agreed to return to the faculty to teach and
to further involve the law school in the life of the community.
Dean Eisenberg was true to his words. He made sure that I
neither went to meetings nor be assigned to committee work.
In my view, I had landed the best law teaching position in
the country. I could work with people in the community and
I could help transform future lawyers by exposing them to
issues of poverty and violence and teaching them how to become
servant leaders in their legal careers.
Mediation clinic
Ironically, my first place of work as a retired Supreme Court
Justice turned out to be the Milwaukee Smale Claring Court,
where I set up mediation clinic. The clinic enabled eight
law students to have the privilege of listening to small claims
litigants talk about heir difficult lives, and their anger
and sadness. Thus, the students learned to good listeners,
a skill too often ignored in law schools. They then provide
a safe forum in which the parties could listen to each other
and work towards solving their dispute. The students did not
act as evaluative mediators and they did not dispense legal
advice. Instead, the cases required them to use their human
skills to listen to the parties, and draw on their creative
problem-solving abilities in order to help the parties find
a way to settle their cases.
These future lawyers are exposed to the true human nature
underlying conflict, and they learn that an attorney’s
greatest service is to help people establish peace in their
lives. I also mediate civil disputes. Although, I enjoy working
on variety of cases, I am most effective when the parties
emotions are running high.
Encountering restorative justice
For over 20-years, one of my probono activities has been to
spend time in Wisconsin prisons teaching inmates about various
aspects of the judicial system. I learned about the places
to which I was sentencing offenders. During that time, I frequently
attended victims’ and neighbourhood group’s gatherings
so I could also hear about their perceptions of the courts.
While I was still on the Supreme Court, I had been exposed
to the concept of restorative justice. When I met Bruce Kittle,
a lawyer, a United Church of Christ Seminarian, he was conducting
a three-day restorative justice process in one of Wisconsin’s
maximum-security prisons that included victims of violent
crimes, members of the public and inmates. When he moved to
another state in the early 1990s, I took over the prison programme,
and I still direct it today.
I have frequently asked myself what it is about sitting in
this restorative circle with murderers, rapists armed robbers,
and drug dealers that helps family members of homicide victims
and sexual assault survivors begin to heal and to find peace.
What is it about the restorative circle that causes offenders
to begin seeing their actions in new ways after hearing the
intimate details of a crime victim’s life before, during
and after their crimes? What is it about bringing in elected
officials, clergy, law students, media teachers and other
members of the public that gives strength to the process?
Although, I have spent years reflecting on these questions,
I have no short answers. I have concluded that what happens
in that prison classroom is close to a mystical experience.
Despite my discounting the notion of restorative justice back
when I was a criminal court judge I now see it as a means
to help victims while truly holding offenders accountable.
Not just accountable because they spend years behind bars,
but emotionally accountable for the harm that they have caused.
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