Restorative Justice and Steroids

Today's Los Angeles Times has an article in the sports section
that suggests the use of restorative justice for athletes
who have used and been revealed as having used drugs.

Before you raise your eyebrows and question my sanity in
bringing this to your attention, the writer suggests that
these athletes need to see the harm that they did and
take responsibility for their actions.

What caught my attention was the reference to the
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
which brought the true picture of the apartheid into
focus and caused victims and victimizers to work
together to find a solution so that it could not
happen again. As the author says, without it we
would not have the World Cup Soccer Event in
South Africa next year.

Since everything else we have tried does not
appear to have worked, why not give this a
chance? It would simply be an option to
more conventional types of punishment.