Victim-Offender Dialogue

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

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.

Victim assistance

Lisa, The best link for APAC is www.pfi.org/cjr/apac. Of course, if you read portuguese you can visit http://www.fbac.com.br/. Don't underestimate the amount of victim involvement [...]

Brasilian prison project & restorative justice

Thank you, Lynette. Is there a direct link to APAC that you can provide? I am glad the project has some kind of victim assistance [...]

APAC link

Hi, Lorenn, I'm sorry that link didn't work. Try this one http://www.pfi.org/cjr/newsitems/transforminglives Lynette

APAC and Victims

Lisa, Thanks for your comments. APAC does not use Sycamore Tree Project. However, it has an office of victim assistance. So, on one hand they [...]

APAC prison & victims

Hello, Lynette. Thank you for your post about APAC in Brasil. I was drawn to the work being done in Brasil since I first I [...]

APAC

Thanks for this further information Lynn--it was amazing experiencing the APAC prisons...they are more like clean and sober group homes and communities than prisons. The [...]

APAC's sucess

Lorenn, Thanks for the comment. You are right about APAC's successes in helping the recuperandos change their lives and reintegrate into society. It's amazing just [...]

Principles and stories

Billy, thanks for your comments. I think you are right and there is a need to explain how approaching crime and wrong doing from a [...]

Young in prison

Gary, thanks for your kind words about the article and the work of PFI. I agree with your statements on the need to remember that [...]

APAC

Thank you for this Lynn. It is a sad commentary to assume there is no hope for people, especially youth. And thank you for writing [...]

restorative Justice

A clear reasoned statement. It may be time to spell out the principles and to tell the stories of the various forms of restorative approaches [...]

Prisons - rehabilitation - justice

Lynn is both articulate and accurate and I have nothing to add to her comments - I have the honor of knowing the PFI programs [...]

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.

Victim-offender meetings in prison

Good that it has to be done through a Victim/Witness Assistance Program - but are such programs restoratively minded, or do they think they are [...]