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Restorative Justice

The NSW Department of Corrective Services Restorative Justice Unit

Working with Victims of Crime, Offenders and the Community for Reconciliation and Healing

The Restorative Justice Unit is the key departmental point of contact for victims of crime, providing information, support, advice and a range of programs and services to address and deal with the conflict or issues between victims and offenders.

The Restorative Justice Unit is located in the Head Office of the Department and provides the following statewide services:

Restorative Justice Interventions which aim to give victims of crime a chance to ask questions about the offence and say how they've been affected and for offenders to hear how others have been affected, accept responsibility and make amends
Victims' services in line with the Charter of Victims Rights - Victims Rights Act 1996 (pdf) such as the Victims Register, established under the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999, and a support service for victims wishing to make submissions to the Department.

We invite you to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Email: restorative.justice@dcs.nsw.gov.au
NSW Department of Corrective Services
Level 7, Henry Deane Building
20 Lee Street
(GPO Box 31)
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 8346 1054 Fax: (02) 8346 1141

Programs and Services

The Unit provides conferencing and mediation services, including Victim-Offender Conferencing, Victim-Offender Mediation and Family Group Conferencing. The Unit also conducts Victim Awareness courses for offenders in gaol or on parole.

Victim-Offender Conferencing, Family Group Conferencing, and Victim-Offender mediation, are post-sentence programs; therefore offenders have been sentenced prior to participating in the programs. They are conducted by trained facilitators. Referrals come from victims, people working with victims, offenders, and people working with offenders.

Please link to the following documents to find out more about Restorative Justice:

The Victims Register records details of victims who have requested registration of their interests. The Register is strictly controlled and access is limited to staff with a genuine and essential need to have such access.

The purpose of the Victims Register is to enable the Department to keep victims informed if the offender:

is to be considered for a change in security classification which may result in the offender being eligible to apply for unescorted pre-release leave
is due for parole consideration
is due for release
has escaped from custody

Please link to the following documents to find out more about the Victims Register: