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Finding Release in Prison: A Victim’s Story

After the brutal murder of her fifteen year old daughter, Karen was devastated. Yet she needed that terrible experience to be turned toward a positive purpose. To that end she volunteered to participate in the Sycamore Tree Project® -- a faith-based, in-prison restorative justice programme – in order to share her story with prisoners who had caused similar pain through their violent acts. To their surprise, both she and her husband discovered that they had been given a way to address and let go of some of the anger and pain they had been holding.

In-Prison Victim Offender Dialogue in the US

Victim Offender Dialogue programmes in prisons provide an opportunity for victims and victim survivors to meet with their offenders to discuss the crime and issues surrounding it.

Real People, Real Stories: Victims Face Fear and Find Healing in Prison

The Sycamore Tree Project® (STP) brings indirect victims and offenders together for a series of in-prison meetings to discuss crime and its impact. Recently, the Australian Broadcasting Company radio programme "Street Stories" followed two victims as they participated in a STP course in Acacia Prison. Through the interview, the victims tell their stories of victimization and describe the myriad of emotions and thoughts they experienced in the programme.

Immarigeon, Russ. Prison-Based Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs

Twenty years after the first victim-offender reconciliation meeting, victim-offender meetings are increasingly being held in prisons. This chapter describes victim-offender reconciliation programs at five sites in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. These programs have slightly different objectives than community-based victim-offender mediation programs; they emphasize sharing information and healing rather than restitution. They differ from one another in several ways, including continuity, objectives, and origins. This chapter identifies operational issues and reviews relevant evaluation research. Several recommendations are made to support further prison use of victim-offender meetings.

Merkel, Jim. Prison without Walls: Kerala's Open Prison Draws on Strengths of Community Life

More than 30 years ago, Kerala's central government set up a commission that recommended open prisons focused on reform. In August 1962, Kerala's first open prison was inaugurated. Currently, it's the only open prison in Kerala, although Indian states Uttar Pradesh and Andra Pradesh also have this type of prison. Viewed as an experiment, the prison holds about 280 prisoners. Every convict begins his sentence in a closed prison, and those who exhibit good behavior are transferred to the open prison. The open prison is known for treating prisoners with respect and entrusting them with responsibilities for work on the rubber plantation, personal chores, and cooperation within the prison community. Attempting to escape or committing any criminal offense after release will result in incarceration in a closed prison. To date, there has been only one repeat offender.

Liebmann, Marian and Braithwaite, Stephanie. Restorative Justice in Custodial Settings: Report for the Restorative Justice Working Group in Northern Ireland.

The authors remark that although there is as yet no comprehensive literature on Restorative Justice in custodial settings, this report demonstrates the range of activities already being practised. Of all the countries covered in this report, only Belgium carries out restorative justice policy in a custodial setting as a result of national policy. Initiatives elsewhere are carried out by a wide range of interested and dedicated individuals or groups such as prison officers, prison governors, probation officers, psychologists, boards of visitors, chaplains or citizens. As can be seen in the report, a variety of RJ processes can be carried out at different stages of a prison sentence and in a variety of prison procedures, e.g., adjudications, parole hearings and complaints.

MacDougall, Peter and Kennedy, Rosemary. Behind Prison Walls: Resolving Losses

“Behind Prison Walls: Resolving Losses�? is an innovative eight-week program at the medium-security provincial institution in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in which men, close to their release date, choose to discuss unresolved personal losses. Often, as they come to grips with life situations in which they were victims, they are able to begin to understand the reasons for their actions and accept responsibility for the impact that behaviour has on others. The purpose is to prepare participants for a reconciliation conference with their victims using the Real Justice model. Although this program offers a multi-faith chaplaincy focus for the reintegration of ex-offenders into the community, it can easily be adapted to any group in which individuals are dealing with unresolved losses and willing to accept responsibility for their actions.

Dinsdale, Jennifer. Restorative Justice in HM Prison Holme House: A Research Paper

The International Centre for Prison Studies initiated the Restorative Prison Project to examine the conceptual framework for imprisonment and to work with the Prison Service in Great Britain to apply restorative principles in the prison setting. One site for this work is HM Prison Holme House in northeast England. In 2001 Jennifer Dinsdale, a graduate student unaffiliated with the Restorative Prison Project, conducted research into the feasibility of restorative schemes in Holme House. She looked particularly at prisoners’ perceptions of the impact of their crimes on their victims, the openness of prisoners to engaging in reparative activities, and prisoners’ perspectives on their relationship to the community outside the prison. This paper reports her research findings.

Immarigeon, Russ. Reconciliation between victims and imprisoned offenders: Program models and issues.

Compiled by Russ Immarigeon for the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Office on Crime and Justice, this report is intended to give people useful information for either starting a victim-offender mediation program or setting up a specific victim-offender meeting at a local jail or prison. Immarigeon begins by presenting an overview of victim-offender reconciliation programs, both in the community and in penal institutions. This leads to descriptions of models of jail- and prison-based programs that address victim-offender concerns. Then he identifies critical issues to consider in planning such programs or meetings. At the end is a bibliography of resource materials and a list of resource centers.

Burns, Heather. Citizens, Victims, & Offenders Restoring Justice Project: Minnesota Correctional Facility for Women at Shakopee, September 26-November 21, 2000.

The Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee is the only correctional facility in the state designed to house adult women felons. The Citizens, Victims, & Offenders Restoring Justice Project at MCF-Shakopee was a nine-week pilot project designed to bring crime victims, offenders, and community members together to address the causes and consequences of crime in personal dialogues. Dialogues occurred in a circle process with the assistance of facilitators. Participants completed surveys before and after the project to measure desired outcomes. This document presents the key findings of the project based on the completed surveys.

Burns, Heather. Citizens, Victims & Offenders Restoring Justice Project: Minnesota Correctional Facility Lino Lakes, September-November 2001.

The Citizens, Victims, & Offenders Restoring Justice Project was designed to bring together crime victims, offenders, and community members to address the causes and consequences of crime in personal dialogues. The project at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Lino Lakes took place over three months. Dialogues occurred in a circle process with the assistance of facilitators. Facilitators even shared personal experiences related to incidences of violence or loss in their own lives. Participants completed surveys before and after the project to measure desired outcomes, and the meetings were audio-taped with the consent of the participants. Organized into case studies, this document presents the key findings of the project based on the completed surveys, tapes of the meetings, and observe notes.

Lovell, Madeline L and Helfgott, Jacqueline B and Lawrence, Charles F and Helfgott, Jacqueline B. Narrative Accounts from the Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice Program

This paper describes the Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice (CVORJ) program, a prison-based program conducted as a pilot study at the Washington State Reformatory. The program brings together offenders and victims-though not involved in the same crime- in the company on interested community members to discuss restorative justice principles. The program focuses on the sharing of personal narratives of crime to explore how the harms resulting from crime can best be addressed and justice achieved. Of interest was how a restorative justice model that highlighted community participation could be incorporated into a correctional setting and whether healing could result from the use of surrogate offenders, victims, and community members. The restorative nature of the program, its method of operation, results from the qualitative evaluation, and key implementaion challenges are presented.

Kin-man, Tai. Community Involvement in Corrections in Hong Kong

The paper focuses on corrections under the penal jurisdiction of the Correctional Services Department, as well as the community-based corrections under the Social Welfare Department. At any time, there are over 20 non-governmental organizations involved in the work of the correctional system in Hong Kong. They are dominated by religious organizations, which engage mostly in evangelistic activities. Other groups provide reintegration support, prison visits, and counseling services. The Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders is dedicated to helping ex-prisoners in their reintegration in the community. The Prisoners' Friends' Association provides prison visits, primarily to those prisoners who do not receive visits from relatives or friends. In addition to non-governmental organizations, private individuals from the community are also involved in rehabilitative activities for offenders. These range from evening education classes to hobby classes, sports training, recreation, and character training. The media promotes public awareness of the goals of offenders' rehabilitation.

Eggleston, Carolyn. "Humanizing the Nigerian Prison Through Literacy Education: Echoes From Afar"

Since the inception of the prison service in Nigeria, there have been little systematic educational provisions for prison inmates due to limited resource allocation. Early colonial studies have emphasized the custodial functions of the prison while silent on correctional functions of the modern prison. In view of the increasing emphasis on correctional education in most European countries and North America, this paper focused on the need to humanize the Nigerian prison system through educational provisions. Literacy education is viewed as helping ex-offenders develop positive social skills. In order to humanize the Nigerian prison environment there is an urgent need to adopt recent UN Minimum Standard for the Treatment of Offenders approved in 1990. The humanizing approach to penal administration through education and other socio-cultural activities is strongly encouraged by both Europe and North America.

Swanson, Cheryl and Culliver, Grant and Summers, Chris and Culliver, Grant. Creating a Faith-Based Restorative Justice Community in a Maximum-Security Prison.

Although most restorative justice programs take place outside of prison, there is a strong interest in bringing these programs into the prison environment. Various forms of victim-offender empathy and reconciliation programs have been introduced to incarcerated populations. Yet, efforts to implement restorative justice programs within the prison community creating a culture where conflict is resolved peacefully, are considerably less common. The faith-based honor dorm at W.C. Holman Correctional Institution in Atmore, Ala, is an effort to provide this programmatic environment. It not only aims to resolve conflict peacefully, it also has long-term objectives. This program works to create an environment in which inmates have space and opportunity to experience personal transformation. (excerpt)

Nelson, David E.. . Implementation and Effects of a Restorative Justice Program in a Correctional Facility.

Restorative justice is one of the varied processes utilized by prison and jail administrators to bring about a change of offender attitude while incarcerated, in efforts to return a productive, tax-paying citizen back to the community upon release. This study examines the implementation of a plan of restorative justice at a Missouri correctional institution. Data pertaining to three measures of offender behavior were collected from institutional records for the years 1996-2000; two years before and after the restorative justice program was implemented. The results indicate a positive impact on the population studied, indicating definite changes in offender behavior by showing a reduction in the three measures of behavior studies. (author’s abstract)

van Garse, Leo. Mediation in a Detention Context: Moralisation or Participation?

This article discusses the author’s development of mediation processes between victim and offenders in Belgium. The focus of the mediation is during the criminal justice process, particularly the punishment phase. In 2005, Belgium passed an act making mediation a part of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and mediation was introduced to address the problem of overpopulated prisons. One proposal was “restorative detention” where civil servants would work in prisons to counsel prison personnel on how to promote a restorative environment. The main goal is reinforcing prisoners to think about the harm they have caused and how they can mend that harm. The final section of the article discusses the author’s findings from employing mediation and restorative justice frameworks in Belgium prisons.

Goodenough-Gordon, Katya. RADIUS Program for Girls in Minnesota Offers a Gender-Specific Model.

RADIUS is an innovative effort that blends the philosophies of restorative justice with the best practices of gender- responsive programming for girls under 18. Restorative services are provided to girls while they are in residential placement, during their transition and furlough, and after release. The two key components of the program are restorative justice circles and grief and trauma counseling. (excerpt)

Strahl, Barbara T.. Nevada Program Uses Mediation to Assist the Homecoming of Released Prisoners

Barbara Strahl manages to interweave both the personal stories and the sobering statistics related to offenders transitioning from prison to home life. The reader meets the pseudonymous Adam, who is having difficulty seeing the severity of his crime and subsequent incarceration from his family’s perspective. Strahl then addresses the problems often associated with community reentry of prisoners, such as public safety, societal reintegration, and possible lack of family support. It is in this context that Strahl explains the formation and structure of FOCUS, a family mediation program developed by the Neighborhood Justice Center in Las Vegas. FOCUS was formed with the belief that family mediation would be a tool for community reentry of prisoners and would also assist the family to reincorporate the inmate into the family structure. The reader is then introduced to Terri (not her real name), who is having trouble getting her family to address her offense and the changes it has brought about within the family unit as she begins her transition to home life. Strahl closes by describing how beneficial FOCUS mediation was to Terri and her family, and how the program will continue to assist soon-to-be released prisoners with their reentries.

Walker, Lorenn and Sakai, Ted. A Gift of Listening for Hawaii's INmates.

“Restorative Justice as a Solution-Focused Approach to Conflict and Wrongdoing” facilitator training is a 12-week program designed to help inmates learn self-control and getting along with others. The total 24 hours of training are scheduled as two-hour sessions for one evening each week, which covers topics such as listening skills development, using open-ended questions, resiliency development and protective factors, using communication for conflict resolution, restorative justice and forgiveness. The inmates are taught that effective facilitators are competent, self-aware people who listen carefully, and who exercise control when their emotions are triggered. They are also taught emotional intelligence skills. These skills include: “self-awareness; identifying, expressing and managing feelings; impulse control and delaying gratification; and handling stress and anxiety.” Emotional intelligence enables one to be aware of the feelings of others and to better manage relationships.(excerpt)