Sycamore Tree: Week 3

from Penny Parker's blog entry on Penny and Prison:

A week with huge expectations: we have three visitors coming with us.  Ann (not her real name) a young lady, victim of a robbery, whose car was violently attacked while she was in it and whose bags were stolen and Ray and Vi, whose son Christopher was murdered by a gang of violent youths high on alcohol and drugs. Ann and Ray and Vi are effectively surrogate victims for the men - a taster, in a group, of the experience of a victim – offender conference or mediation.

May 18, 2011 Country:England&Wales, Other, Victim, Prison, Transformation

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Give prisoners the chance to help the community

from Erwin James'commentary in the Guardian:

"I want to be out there, helping people," says one prisoner in the report, who could have been speaking for many of those I met while serving my own 20 years of prison time.

....Probably the best such experience was when I joined the Braille Unit in my first long-term high security prison. The 12 of us who worked in the unit had all been convicted of murder and for most of us it was first time in our lives that we had experienced the satisfaction that can be gained from helping other people. The prison held more than 700 of the most serious offenders in the country, but the only official opportunity for any of us to put something back into the outside community that we had harmed so badly were those 12 places in the Braille Unit.

May 17, 2011 Region:Europe, Country:England&Wales, Prison, Transformation, Restitution

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