"Justice That Restores:  Why our justice system doesn't work and the only method of true reform"

Our criminal justice system urgently needs reform.

Rehabilitation hasn't worked.

Deterrence methods haven't worked.

It's time for justice that restores - restores both the offender and the community shattered by crime.

In his legacy statement about criminal justice, Chuck Colson - ex-offender and founder of the international Prison Fellowship Ministries - proposes a radical new paradigm for looking at the crisis in our criminal justice system.

His remedy goes far beyond building more prisons, hiring more police, or writing tougher penalties into the law.  Such measures, he says, will have no effect on consciences or on the culture that trains consciences.

Colson contends that a system of true justice can be built only if it is based on the foundation of a sound worldview.  What we believe as individuals about the value of life, the essence of human nature, and the possibility of redemption is the critical issue that determines an effective approach to justice and reform.

The key is changing the human heart, opening the way for forgiveness, reconciliation, and a new view of life.  Not justice that rehabilitates, but justice that restores the soul