Christina Hines thinks she’s pioneering something noble in Washtenaw County, Michigan. As the county’s first assistant prosecutor, she championed a restorative justice program that gives people accused of serious felonies a shot at avoiding jail entirely. We’re not talking about shoplifting here. This program explicitly considers cases involving home invasion and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Let that sink in for a moment.
The pitch sounds reasonable enough on paper. Offenders acknowledge the harm they caused, work voluntarily with their victims to make amends, and everyone holds hands while figuring out the root causes of criminal behavior. It’s the sort of therapeutic approach that makes progressive prosecutors feel innovative and enlightened. But reality has this annoying habit of crashing into idealistic theories, and the results aren’t pretty.
Here’s what bothers me most about this whole setup. The program specifically excludes sexual assault, crimes against children, and intimate partner violence. That’s good, I suppose. But everything else? Fair game for evaluation on a “case by case basis.” Someone breaks into your home while you’re sleeping, terrorizes your family, maybe threatens you with a weapon? Well, if the prosecutor decides they don’t pose a public safety risk, they might just get diverted into this healing circle instead of facing real consequences.
You know what’s fascinating? Hines herself wrote about this program for the Michigan Bar Journal, describing it as the first of its kind in Michigan. She’s proud of it. The whole thing emphasizes “healing rather than punishment” and “accountability over exclusion.” Those words sound compassionate until you’re the person who got assaulted or had your home invaded. Then suddenly healing feels like a luxury afforded to the person who destroyed your sense of safety.
The program draws inspiration from New York City’s Common Justice initiative, which handles serious violent felonies. That should tell you something about where criminal justice reform has drifted in certain circles. We’ve moved from sensible alternatives for non-violent offenders to experimenting with get-out-of-jail options for people who commit acts of violence.
Research on these programs reveals problems that advocates conveniently downplay. A 2012 study found victims experiencing marginalization, intimidation, and pressure during mediation proceedings. Some victims felt threatened by offenders or their families during the process. Mediators sometimes encouraged victims to “keep things positive” rather than express the full impact of the crime on their lives. Think about that. The victim gets pressured to minimize their trauma so the offender can have a better shot at avoiding consequences.
This represents everything wrong with modern progressive criminal justice reform. It prioritizes the comfort and rehabilitation of criminals over the rights and safety of victims. It assumes that serious felons just need understanding and dialogue rather than accountability through incarceration. It treats violent crime like a conflict that needs mediation rather than a violation that demands justice.
Limited government doesn’t mean ineffective government. Conservatives understand that one of government’s core legitimate functions is protecting citizens from violence and property crimes. When prosecutors start treating home invasion as an opportunity for healing circles, they’ve abandoned that fundamental responsibility. They’re conducting social experiments with other people’s safety.
The court order establishing this program actually encourages county residents to employ restorative justice practices “in all aspects of life and law.” That’s not criminal justice reform. That’s ideological activism dressed up as policy innovation. It reflects a worldview that sees criminals primarily as victims themselves, deserving of second chances before they’ve earned first consequences.
Individual liberty means nothing if you can’t feel safe in your own home. Free markets can’t flourish when property rights aren’t vigorously defended. Traditional values recognize that actions have consequences, especially actions that harm innocent people. Washtenaw County’s experiment undermines all of these principles.
Christina Hines might believe she’s being compassionate and forward-thinking. But compassion misdirected becomes injustice. When you prioritize the rehabilitation of violent offenders over the protection of their victims, you’ve lost the plot entirely. Michigan voters deserve prosecutors who understand that some people need to be held accountable, not hugged.
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