At this prison graduation, the focus is on knowing the effects of their crimes

from Doug Erickson's article in Wisconsin State Journal:

....During this season of high school and college graduations, 16 men received a very different kind of diploma Monday at Columbia Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison.

Over three months, the inmates voluntarily completed a 30-session course on restorative justice, a curriculum meant to help them understand how much they'd harmed their victims, the community and themselves. For some of them, Monday's graduation ceremony was the first time they'd done anything worthy of even minimal praise.

"I've been in all sorts of programs and always been kicked out," said Darren Morris, 33, whose peers voted him class speaker.

May 28, 2010 Region: North America and Caribbean, Other, Victim, Prison, Country:USA

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