While the restorative justice movement has risen in recent years, the idea of circle sentencing, or peacemaking circles has been practiced in indigenous cultures for quite some time. As we look at implementing traditional indigenous culture practices as alternative dispute resolutions, we need to realize the effectiveness and also whether we are ready to use them. The Yukon and other communities reintroduced circles in 1991 as a practice of the restorative justice movement (Bazemore, 1997, p.27). Around that same time, Minnesota made the breakthrough in borrowing the practices with each band of Native Americans having their own political communications. Because Minnesota has seven Anishinaabe tribes and four Dakota communities, it has been one of the first states to lead the way for this new program. A circle sentencing program has also been implemented in North Minneapolis for African-American juvenile problems (Ulrich, 1999, p. 425). Throughout this paper, criticisms and praises will be mentioned in the borrowing of these ingenious practices, along with arriving to a conclusion of whether we are ready to deal with offenders in the restorative justice aspect. This is an important issue because, with a newly arrived program, we need to realize whether or not we are rushing into something that the criminal justice system is not ready for and also whether they are effective. What exactly are circles?The text describes peacemaking circles as, a process that is used to resolve problems, build better relationships, or just flat out prevent these matters from occurring (Bazemore & Schiff, 2000, p. 219). Circles can be further explained as a process concerned with the victim, their rights, and hearing their story and acting upon it. The most important act is the victim telling their story, for the benefit of the community, offender, and the victim (Bazemore, 1997,p. 33). In the process of circles the setting is very relaxed, it tak...
