Is it time to consider "restorative justice" and/or prison abolition?

“Restorative justice is an approach to justice in which one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community. The goal is for them to share their experience of what happened, to discuss who was harmed by the crime and how, and to create a consensus for what the offender can do to repair the harm from the offense.”

Some advocates believe that restorative justice could eventually replace prison and jail and the “punishment” model of the legal system. We all seem to agree that the American legal system is broken. Maybe it’s time to consider some alternatives to the status quo.

Restorative justice has become a topic du jour in some news circles and while no [Democratic] presidential candidates seem to be considering it at the moment, it’s conceivable that it will become a normal part of policy platforms in the future.

Could it ever work? Could it only work for non-violent crimes or could it be applied to all crimes?