Limiting DNA testing and denying justice to victims

from Lisa Rea, writing at Change.org:

But for God’s sake, if we know we have hundreds or thousands of innocents behind bars must we not do everything in our power to set them free if we live in a civilized society? Absolutely. This court ruling will now make this work harder and slower.

As I said earlier, crime victims are hurt - not helped - by this ruling. The challenge on top of this urgent need to free those who are wrongfully convicted is to remember then that someone who is actually guilty of that crime is free at large. Ask a crime victim how they would view that fact. Having worked in the restorative justice field for 15 years I can tell you that crime victims want the system to get it right. There can be no restoration of crime victims, nor can there be offender accountability - two key elements of restorative justice, if the real perpetrator is not caught.

Jul 23, 2009 Retribution, Theory, Country:USA, Correspondent:Lisa Rea

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Wall Street Financier Bernard Madoff sentenced to 150 years in prison: restorative justice would think of the victims first

by Lisa Rea

I am often asked to give an example of how restorative justice would work in the real world. The Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, one of the largest corporate fraud schemes in U.S. history, is a great case in point. Bernard Madoff was sentenced on June 29 to 150 years in prison leaving thousands of victims behind.

What will become of them? If restorative justice were applied to Madoff case what would it look like? Complicated? Absolutely. But that should never prohibit the application of restorative justice to any crime.

Jul 09, 2009 Case:White Collar, Other, Correspondent:Lisa Rea

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It's not okay

By Lisa Rea

I have worked as an advocate for restorative justice and criminal justice reform working with both offenders, and their families, through Justice Fellowship as its state director in California in the 1990's, and then working with victims of violent of crime through the creation of The Justice & Reconciliation Project (JRP), a national nonprofit seeking to provide a forum for victims to tell their stories.  I can tell you I have seen crime from both perspectives. Advocates who represent victims and advocates who represent prisoners would both agree on one thing: prison rape is never okay. That is why the actions of a federal prison rape commission are so important.

Jul 02, 2009 Human Rights, Correspondent:Lisa Rea

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