Don John O. Omale began his career with the Nigerian Prison service in 1990 as a Prison Health Superintendent. Overwhelmed by the many needs of prisoners in Nigeria, John asked his prison governor “where do we begin.” The encouragement to be innovative gave John the freedom to seek out possible alternatives for young and petty offenders. At the same time, partnerships with NGOs such as the Red Cross, Rotary Clubs, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action and the Catholic Institute for Development of Justice and Peace provided much needed provisions for prison inmates and a network in which to work for penal reform.

In 2002, John received a grant from the Rotary Foundation International Programme to visit the United States. During this visit, he studied alternatives to prison including the Victim Offender Mediation Program of the Monterey County Probation Department in Salina, California. He returned to Nigeria with the goal of advocating for victim offender mediation, a practice similar to dispute resolution processes being used in rural Nigerian communities.

Subsequently, John was awarded a British Chevening Scholarship for post-graduate study at Leicester University in the UK. For his Master’s degree in criminology, John wrote a literature on effective restorative justice for Nigeria. Currently, John teaches criminology and criminal justice at the Prison Staff Training School in Enugu, Nigeria.

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The most contentious issue in restorative justice literature is whether restorative justice would benefit victims of crime (especially victims of violent crime). Some victim advocates and politicians have argued that restorative justice would not be in the interest of victims of crime. However, my preliminary research findings show that the benefits of restorative justice to some victims of crime and to governments that wish to implement it is enormous. To government, restorative justice have ‘value for money’ (vfm) compared to the conventional criminal justice when the “crimino-econometrics” of both policies are considered.

For victims of crime who want to participate, restorative justice offers the possibility to answer to the “why me?” question and hope. To some victims of crime restorative justice is not only seen as a model of justice but also as a vehicle to Intra-Personal Harmony (IPH), and Inter-Personal Reconciliation (IPR). Perhaps for some victims of crime restorative justice is a “Harmony Restoration Therapy”.

To other victims of crime (especially victims of property crime) the answer to this important question (“why me?”) has a “victim-auto logical” implication. By this I mean that some victims have mentioned that since there would not be enough police officers to protect every victim of crime, the answer to why the offender targeted them might serve as a means of self-protection and/or their property to prevent further re-victimisation where necessary.

-- Don John Omale

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John is currently researching the “opinions of victims of crime and criminal justice professionals in Nigeria” with regards to restorative justice as a part of his doctoral research in restorative justice and victimology with the Centre for Community and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University.



Reach Don John Omale at djomale@yahoo.co.uk.




October 2006