Victim-Offender Dialogue

Articles on meetings of prisoners with their actual victims while they are in prison.

Chickens and chats form basis of new prison life

from the entry on This is Corwall: ...."It may sound gimmicky, because this is supposed to be a prison and a place of punishment, but the people I'm charged with looking after are some of the most troubled and troublesome members of society," he said. "Their individual backgrounds are horrendous in terms of not having a father figure, and a lack of education and the opportunities that you and I experienced." Through treating prisoners with "decency" and giving back a sense of respect, staff are already seeing a drop in incidents of bullying and drug abuse. A large number of prisoners have volunteered to sign up to a scheme to donate a small weekly sum to the Victim Support Service.

Meeting the murderer: Profile of victim-offender dialogue facilitator

from the entry on Grits for Breakfast: See an interesting article from the Christian Science Monitor about a boat builder from Maine who runs a non-profit facilitating victim-offender dialogue (VOD) between violent criminals and their victims or their families, which is an idea derived from "restorative justice" models.

Why can't I tell my brutal attacker that I forgive?

from the article in the Nottingham Post ....Mr Ali, who lives in the Arboretum area of Nottingham, was left unconscious on the floor of St Peter's Gate after he was knocked out with one punch on at around 4.45pm on July 24, 2008. The 48-year-old was then stamped on and kicked in his head as shoppers and passersby looked on. When he arrived at hospital, fluid from his brain was leaking out of his nose. Jackson, then 27 and of Eddleston Drive, Clifton, was jailed for a minimum of five years after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, part way through a retrial at Nottingham Crown Court in July 2009.

Restorative justice in a case of serious sexual assault

from the article by Claire Chung for Restorative Justice Week 2011: ....I was raped twice, at knifepoint, by a man who had been released from prison, just 24 hours earlier. I was his 27th victim. I reported the crime immediately. He had walked off abruptly in the middle of the attack and I was sure of 2 things: he had done this before and he would do it again. I was believed and the rapist was caught, sentenced and returned to prison. Justice was done. Since the assailant pled “guilty” he was allowed a third off his tariff and the Judge, “to spare me any further distress”, proceeded quickly to his decision. Although I was in court, nobody looked at me and nobody heard me.

Father of Adam Rogers meets son’s teenage killer in prison

from the story by Sam Chadderton in Lacashire Telegraph: Adam Rogers’s father and his teenage killer have come face to face in an ‘emotional’ prison meeting. .... Dave Rogers who has campaigned with wife Pat for an end to senseless violence in their 24-year-old son’s memory, said he would recommend the ‘restorative justice’ process to other grieving families.

Restorative justice and prisoner reintegration

from Joe Casey and Ben Jarman's report The Social Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners in Council of Europe Member States The offender had already been in prison for five years. He had been convicted of rape. He and the victim had known each other; they had grown up in the same neighbourhood, he had been friends with the victim’s brother, and the victim’s father had been his teacher at primary school. The case, with his agreement, was referred to mediators by the director of his prison rehabilitation programme. He felt ashamed, and felt he needed the victim to hear him admit the crime, since at trial he had denied his role in the crime, under the guidance of his lawyer, and had in fact blamed the offence on the victim.

Murderers turned peacemakers

from the article by Laurel Kaufer on Peace X Peace: How is it that women, with dark pasts, serving time for murder and manslaughter, could possibly become honored peacemakers? Their story is one of personal commitment to themselves and the community in which most are destined to live out their lives. “This is an environment filled with conflict and violence. There is a dire need and want for change,” says Susan Russo, one of the fifteen initial peacemakers, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the largest prison for women in the world, Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. “Mediation interests all of us because we are lifers and long-termers hoping to make a difference in teaching our peers that there is a better way.” Beginning her quest in 2007, Sue Russo wrote over 50 handwritten letters from prison to mediators all over California. Her letters went unanswered until August of 2009 when one of her letters made it to me, Laurel Kaufer, Esq., a Southern California mediator and peacemaker and founder of the post-Katrina Mississippi Mediation Project.

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.

Colorado mother wishes for meeting with son's killers

from Ivan Moreno's article in the San Francisco Chronicle: The 3-year-old boy affectionately known as "Biscuit" was sleeping in the back of a parked old Cadillac when the shooting began. Fourteen bullets hit the car in the drive-by shooting outside a northeast Denver duplex. Biscuit was shot in the head and died. His brother, Calvin, four days shy of his 7th birthday, and a teenage cousin were unhurt. Sharletta Evans — mother of Biscuit, or Casson Xavier Evans — came to forgive the gunmen, who were 15 and 16 years old at the time of the Dec. 21, 1995, shooting. But it took years for her to decide she wanted to meet them in prison, hoping for closure. A new Colorado law encourages the state Department of Corrections to facilitate such reconciliation meetings. Yet it's a process that requires they be safe and don't backfire on victims. And prison officials say there's simply no money to make it happen in the near future.

Dialogues can offer healing for crime victims

from Ryan Marshall's article in the Carroll County Times: Recovering from a crime can be a deeply personal process for victims, but Maryland's corrections system offers victims who are interested a chance to interact with their attackers. The state is able to arrange dialogues between victims and the person incarcerated for their crime.

Victims confront thief in jail

from the article in The Northern Echo: The meeting was arranged by police as part of a restorative justice project and Mrs Turnbull, 57, of Deneside, had second thoughts about going along. She said: “I had decided I was not going to go. I felt as if I could not face meeting him. “It was only because the police turned up on my doorstep to pick me up that I went along because I did not want to waste their time.” Mrs Turnbull spent 90 minutes with the offender in Durham Prison, where he is serving a five-year sentence.

Prisons, rehabilitation and justice

by Lynette Parker Recently, I read an article about the struggles faced by the state of Florida after the US Supreme Court banned sentences of life without parole for juveniles who do not kill anyone. In the discussion over the need to revisit cases and re-sentence the offenders, one retired judge was quoted: “There are no resources in prisons for rehabilitation,'' the former judge said. ``You give him 30 years, and he'll get out when he's 45, what's he going to do? Re-offend. Some people, regardless of their age, need to be put away forever.”

Criminals could cut sentences by saying ‘sorry’

from the article by Anushka Asthana and Jamie Doward in The Observer: Tens of thousands of offenders may be able to reduce their sentences by making personal apologies to their victims, under plans for a “rehabilitation revolution” in the criminal justice system. Crispin Blunt, the prisons minister, is considering the move as part of a drive to offer victims the chance to come face-to-face with the person who committed the crime against them. A report released today by two charities, Victim Support and the Restorative Justice Consortium, suggests the policy could save £185m in two years by cutting reoffending.

Healing in a hard place

from the article by Naseem Rakha in the Sunday Oregonian: How do people heal from violent crime? How do they mend after a rape or assault, or after losing a loved one to murder? How do they get over the grief, anger and gnawing sense that no matter what happens, justice will never be served? For Patricia Dahlgren, whose mother, June Duncan, was abducted and strangled in December 1995, the answer came from an unusual source: the man who killed her mother.

Va. OKs bill to let violent crime victims meet with death row inmates

from the Associated Press article in The Washington Post: Lorraine Whoberry tried for years to meet face-to-face with her daughter's killer before he was executed last month. She was repeatedly denied. So the day after she witnessed his execution, Whoberry sat down with Gov. Bob McDonnell and asked for his help. A bill was making its way through the Virginia General Assembly that would allow victims of violent crime to meet with the perpetrators, but it excluded those on death row and juveniles. McDonnell amended the bill to allow victims to meet with inmates on death row. On Wednesday, the General Assembly unanimously approved the change. Although more than half of the states have victim-offender mediation programs, advocates said Virginia would be one of the first to cement it in state law. Virginia also becomes one of only a handful that allow meetings with death row inmates. “Even though it's not going to affect us, at least we've got something done,” Whoberry said when told about the change.

Parole denied for repeat drink-driver who killed woman

from Radio New Zealand News: The Parole Board is encouraging the family of a woman killed by a repeat drink-driver to consider a restorative justice meeting with him. Jonathan Barclay is serving a prison term of five years and six months for the manslaughter of 20-year-old Debbie Ashton, whom he killed in a head-on car crash near Nelson.

What is justice? State program brings victims and offenders face to face

Martha Early, a middle-aged single mother, and Andrew Papke, the chaplain's assistant, sit silently across from each other in the chapel, their hands clasped tightly across a wooden table. To Early's right sits a stack of pictures of her daughter Beth, killed -- along with her boyfriend, Daniel London -- by a teenage drunken driver in 1996. In front of her sits a well-worn binder bursting with colorful stationery and letters full of memories of Beth; she brought them to share with Andrew. Next to the binder is her Bible. Early gazes at Papke with a look of calm sadness, while Papke's head hangs solemnly. Seconds turn into minutes, and neither one moves. It seems as if the slightest murmur would send them back to earth, where they will be forced to communicate with words. Finally, Early squeezes Papke's hand. "I love you, Andrew," she whispers. "I love you, too," he answers hoarsely. Within moments, Papke's arms -- the very same arms that steered a car headlong into Beth Early -- are encircling her mother. After engaging in a brief hug, Martha Early gets ready to begin her three-hour drive back to Austin. Andrew returns to his prison cell at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, where he is serving 40 years for intoxication manslaughter.

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.

Grieving mum’s prison visit inspired by daughter’s kindness

from Jon Livesey's article in the Lancashire Telegraph: A heartbroken mother drew on the memory of her daughter killed in a car crash to find the courage to meet the burglar who broke into her home. Margaret Foxley told the burglar the laptop he stole contained treasured photographs of her daughter Jessica, who died in a car crash with two friends in Colne six months later. It was the first time in Lancashire that a victim had gone into prison to meet the person who committed a crime against them as part of the ‘restorative justice’ programme.

Three-year research project on mediation and restorative justice in prison settings

from the flyer announcing the project: The Mediation and Restorative Justice in Prison Settings Project is a three year international exchange project funded by the European Commission, between the counties of Germany, Hungary and the UK. The project will identify, exchange and develop best practice for the use of restorative justice (“RJ”) with the most serious crimes, particularly those against persons and property attracting a custodial sentence. Research suggests that RJ can have the biggest impact on the lives of victims and offenders where such serious crimeshave been committed.