Restorative justice works according to the premise that crime and conflict inflict harm and that individuals must accept responsibility for repairing that harm. When compared with our existing models of punishment, whether it is in the justice system or discipline in schools, restorative justice requires a paradigm shift in thinking about reactions to harm.

The current justice system in the United States emphasizes punishment and retribution, and the offender internalizes the label that has been placed on him by society, returning to jail and keeping alive the revolving door within our nation's jails and prisons. Restorative Justice returns the offender to an empowered, free-thinking, responsible individual who contributes to his rehabilitation by examining the misguided ideology behind it. The offender learns to identify himself as victim to his own offense and must take responsibility for it. Conflict is viewed as an opportunity for a community to learn and grow and for those involved to have their needs addressed. For this reason, the needs of all those affected by the harm are central in any restorative process. For more information view R.S.V.P.

Restorative justice is the backbone of The Five Keys Program. When a person commits a crime, he not only impacts another individual, but also the neighborhood and community of both the victim and the offender. The goal of restorative justice, therefore, is for everybody to be on the same page throughout the process of rehabilitating the offender back to his community- the district attorney, the staff, the inmate, the victim, the families, and their community. Once this part of the process has been completed, the individual begins to take the logical and necessary steps toward responsible independence with the help of a support network or transition team. It is the elixir society will need if it is to rehabilitate the "incarceration nation" to a state of productive, confident, moralistic individuals who contribute to society's success rather than to its demise. If we are to transform and restructure the criminal thinking behind the criminal behavior and change the disastrous state of inequality and injustice within the prison system, society must begin to deal with its offenders using multiple approaches and on a more holistic level, examining the many strata within it that contribute to its downfall.

A major objective in this curriculum is for teachers to educate students on the ways they can effectively return to society and leave the incarcerated environment forever. A formal curriculum focused on restorative justice makes up an integral piece of the Five Keys Charter School's mission to teach restorative justice as a key component in the holistic education of the individual.

The purpose of a formalized Five Keys Restorative Justice curriculum is to provide a structured, 5-week semester set of lesson plans to the Five Keys teachers. The curriculum can be taught as a specific class or incorporated within the study of another subject to serve as fulfillment of our mission: education, employment, family, community, and recovery. Five Keys teachers use the curriculum in various ways: 1) as a course taught in and of itself, or 2) as a supplementary curriculum that fulfills the Five Keys requirements which teachers can manipulate in order to fit their own curriculum. Which ever way it is used, the restorative justice curriculum acts as a dynamic teaching guide for students and teachers alike.

The primary goal of this proposed curriculum is to have a tangible, bound curriculum comprised by the Five Keys Charter School for the Five Keys teachers and assistants. It will also integrate ideas and previous lesson from the Five Keys community, making it a unique and specific model.

Restorative justice makes a difference, Sunny says, because it's about people. "Traditional criminal justice is about when violence or other crime is committed against the state. Restorative justice is against a human being and relationship," Sunny says. "Traditional criminal justice, when you violate, they're looking for punishment. Restorative justice is looking for obligation and repair."

- Sunny Schwartz on The Oprah Winfrey Show