- The Observer,
- Sunday December 14 2003
All of the tattoos serve a purpose. They camouflage others of a more militaristic variety which he once brandished on behalf of the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Today McKinley, 49, is working as the co-ordinator of the fledgling East Belfast Alternatives project, a community-based restorative justice scheme which has received the backing of both the loyalist paramilitaries and the police.
It is the latest of five related projects in loyalist areas across Northern Ireland. The largest and most successful is based on the Shankill Road. Similar schemes have been run by the Community Restorative Justice Ireland organisation in republican areas since 1999.
CRJI has 13 programmes running in Northern Ireland and two others are starting in Co Monaghan in the Irish Republic. It maintains informal contact with the IRA but is wary of any connection with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The programmes in both communities started largely as an effort to find an alternative to so-called punishment attacks. Neither organisation gets any direct government funding but relies for funding on Atlantic Philanthropies, the American charity foundation run by millionaire Charles 'Chuck' Feeney.
A spokesman for the foundation wouldn't comment on the extent of its support but it is understood to run close to £500,000.
Jimmy McKinley has served a life sentence for murder but has been working in youth outreach work for several years now. He is convinced that the restorative justice scheme is the way forward in his community.
He says: 'We are trying to re-establish relationships between the offenders and the community at large. We need them to see the impact of their behaviour whether it is just anti-social or breaking into houses and stealing.'
In the two months the scheme has been operational in east Belfast it has dealt with eight youths. Some of them have been brought by their parents; others have been recommended to go by the paramilitaries.
McKinley says: 'If someone comes in and admits their role in whatever it is, we use our contacts with the paramilitaries and the threat against the individual is lifted.
'We meet with the person and work to agreeing a contract which involves the offender making restitution to the victim and committing to a programme which could last months.
'They might be involved in cleaning graffiti or sweeping the streets. We might get them work in shops which maybe they had previously stolen from. The goal is establishing new relationships with their victim and the community generally.'
Representatives of the three main loyalist paramilitaries in east Belfast committed their organisations to working with the Alternatives scheme at a meeting last week. They insisted that they have no interest in carrying out punishment attacks. One said: 'Why would we want to put armed men on the streets, risking men and weapons for a punishment attack? It is a last resort.'
All three men, who were speaking in the back office of a community house in the city, said they were't asked by the community' to carry out the attacks. One said that people were calling for more drastic action than shooting alleged offenders in the legs.
'They say it doesn't work. They see them kicking a football around a few days later. They want much tougher treatment handed out.'
Another claimed that a major business in the east of city called his organisation for help to deal with petty criminals. There was no way of corroborating this story but even the PSNI acknowledges the pressure that the community exerts.
Chief Inspector Nigel Grimshaw said: 'I can understand the frustrations and concerns of the community. At the end of the day the justice system can be slow and complicated and they want action and they want it now.
'But clearly we couldn't support any community going to an illegal organisation for them to take unilateral action. That is a downwards spiral.'
Grimshaw has accepted a place on the board of the Alternatives project. Notwithstanding the influence of paramilitaries he has a generally positive view of the two community-based schemes.
He says: 'Our approach is that we want to work with them and other agencies on a partnership basis. The PSNI is the only organisation that has the legislative mandate to investigate crime and offending behaviour, therefore we must be involved in an inclusive partnership.'
If the Alternatives schemes are happy to work with the PSNI, the largely republican-based Community Restorative Justice Ireland scheme is not.
CRJI Director Jim Auld was a republican internee and admits to being an activist in the past. He says that more than 130 individuals have been spared punishment beatings in the last year because of their involvement with his organisation. Auld stresses that the CRJI has moved past the point of just dealing with anti-social behaviour such as joyriding but is now dealing with a range of issues, from family disputes to rowing neighbours.
He can envisage a time when they are prepared to work with the PSNI but says that it is some time off. He says: 'There are many unresolved issues between people in the community and the police, and just because Sinn Fein say the PSNI were OK would never resolve the issue. There's a generation's worth of work to be done.'
Meanwhile the level of punishment attacks has shown a slight decline over the last three years, down from 332 in 2001 to 289 this year. According to the police figures, loyalists are twice as likely to carry out the attacks, which may reflect the greater reach of the CRJI scheme.
The PSNI acknowledges that the figures don't represent a huge reduction. Chief Inspector Grimshaw says: 'There hasn't been a significant drop but that's not to say that the schemes haven't had an impact.'
