Handbook on Restorative justice programmes

participate and become involved in the programme will go a long way in
creating a broad basis of support for it. Keeping up a line of communica-
tion through regular consultations and the sharing of information will also
help maintain a positive community disposition towards the programme. 
In most situations, however, communication with the community is done
through the intermediary of the mass media. The importance of working
with the media to explain a programme to the community and keep it
informed of new developments cannot be overestimated. Negative and
fear-mongering stories can lead to bad press, which can lead to poor pub-
lic perceptions, which in turn can lead other agencies to progressively turn
off the tap on referrals to the programme. 
Successful programmes are likely to have solid communication plans
based on honesty and transparency, even if the latter may be limited at
times by the need to protect the privacy of programme participants.
Hyperbolic public statements, unnecessary or unjustified criticisms of
other agencies or other components of the justice system, as well as exag-
gerated claims about the merits and success of the programmes must be
avoided and replaced by sober presentations of the facts and honest
human stories to which the public can relate. Various opinion leaders in the
community and spokespersons for other justice agencies can also be mobi-
lized to ensure that they publicly express their support for the programme. 
Finally, every programme should have a contingency communication
plan ready to be unrolled in the event that one of its cases goes wrong or
one of the offenders involved somehow draws negative attention unto the
programme. In fact, every programme should take it for granted that there
will be at least one case, sooner or later, which is going to be very problem-
atic for either the victim or the community. Failure to prepare for such
instances has spelled out the demise of many a fledgling new programme.
chapter 6