Colorado Victim chooses restorative justice and meets with offender

by Lisa Rea

This is an excellent article, well written with the right emphasis and explanation of restorative justice, telling the story of Sharletta Evans. She chose to meet the man who killed her young son. This was made possible after the passage of legislation carried by Representative Pete Lee.

Aug 04, 2012 Dialogue, Victim, Offender, Practice, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA

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Denver woman feels the power of restorative justice after son murdered

from the article by Kevin Simpson in the Denver Post:

....When legislation last year cleared the way for a pilot program in restorative justice with the Colorado Department of Corrections, Evans — who had testified on behalf of the measure — embraced the opportunity to go first. She and her older son Calvin Hurd, who was 6 when gunshots peppered the car where he sat sleeping with his brother, began more than six months of preparation for a direct dialogue with Johnson.

Part of that involved revisiting the crime. Evans had driven with her two children to a northeast Denver duplex to pick up her grandniece because there had been a drive-by there the previous night. She left her sons in the car.

Aug 03, 2012 Dialogue, Victim, Offender, Practice, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Prison, Country:USA

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After the crime: the power of restorative justice. Dialogues between victims and violent offenders

by Martin Wright

Violence, rape, murder and other abusive crimes:  not usually pleasant subjects to read about, yet Susan Miller's book left this reader with a positive feeling.  This is largely due to Miller herself, who presents the information in a straightforward, sympathetic but non-judgemental way;  to Kim Book, who started the organization Victims' Voices Heard after her daughter was murdered; and to the participants themselves.  Not all victims felt able to forgive, and this should not be a criterion for 'success';   but they followed the Amish precept:  don't balance hurt with hate.  Not all offenders accepted full responsibility.  Miller divides restorative justice into diversion, taking the place of the criminal justice process for relatively minor cases, and 'therapeutic' RJ, where the offender is already in custody or has served a prison term.  These cases are all in the latter category.

Jul 29, 2011 Dialogue, Prison, Book Review, Offender, Practice, Case:Violence, Victim, Case:Sexual, Case:Homicide, Forgiveness

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Muhammad and the 'closure' myth

from Naseem Rakha's column in the Washington Post:

....In the past decade, 24 U.S. prisons have begun victim-offender dialogue programs. These programs give victims' survivors opportunities to meet with, talk to and ask questions of the offenders, often questions only the offender can answer. According to John Wilson, director of Just Alternatives, a group that trains prison personnel in the dialogue program, this victim-led initiative has brought a sense of power and renewal to the lives of survivors. "Survivors can go through years of therapy, but until they have the opportunity to talk with their offenders, their healing often feels unfinished," he said.

Nov 11, 2009 Dialogue, Offender, Support, Practice, Victim, Prison

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