Home → Resources → Real People, Real Stories

Real People, Real Stories

Up one level

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.

Moreland, Rachel Miller. One Mother's Quest

In 1993 Latrice Floyd’s son Seth was murdered in a Pennsylvania jail while incarcerated for a drug-related crime. Shawn Burton, also incarcerated at the same jail for a drug-related offense, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. Ten years after the killing, the Pennsylvania Mediation Program for Victims of Violent Crime arranged for Latrice Floyd and Shawn Burton to meet in a Pennsylvania state prison to talk. (While Burton maintains his innocence of the murder itself, he admits complicity in knowing about the plan to murder Seth Floyd.) This article recounts the crime and its effects on Floyd and Burton, as well as the feelings they experienced as a consequence of their mediated victim-offender dialogue.

Editor. Enlightening experience

Being part of a restorative justice conference was an enlightening experience for Sergeant Andrew O’Reilly. “I can be as cynical as the best of them, but this conference was quite interesting. “It definitely opened my eyes to the way restorative justice can have a beneficial effect. I think it’s a positive process. “It is case specific, and each case needs to be weighed up on its merits.� The conference Andrew attended related to a road fatality. (excerpt)

Editor. Potential for Cross-cultural Healing

Two recent restorative justice conferences held on a marae demonstrated the potential for cross-cultural healing through the court-referred restorative justice process. The conferences followed guilty pleas by three young men who had damaged an irreplaceable Maori carving at the entrance to the whare. (excerpt)

Lee, Celine. The Power of Engaging Us All In Dialogue

A restorative justice practitioner in British Columbia, Celine Lee has experienced the criminal justice system in a number of ways: victim; victim support worker; victim-offender mediation participant; and criminal justice worker. In all these experiences, she claims she has grown all the more convinced of the power of dialogue. Lee recounts in brief her own journey from being a co-victim after the murders of her mother and sister, including ways in which a victim-offender mediation process helped her deal with the crimes.

Kelly, Russell. Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program – In the Beginning

Russell Kelly is now a restorative justice practitioner in Kitchener, Ontario. In 1974 he was a teenager who, with a friend, both under the influence of alcohol, committed a number of acts of vandalism one night in Elmira, Ontario. After being apprehended, they were turned over to Mark Yantzi, a probation officer and volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee in Kitchener, and to Dave Worth, another volunteer. Yantzi and Worth, in coordination with the courts, arranged for the teenagers to meet with their victims to apologize, to hear their victims’ statements, to ask forgiveness of their victims, and to determine restitution. Thus arose the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program in Kitchener and an oft-repeated story of the emergence of modern day victim-offender mediation.

Blomquist, Todd. Restorative Justice – Reflections on Dialogue

At the time of writing this reflection, Todd Blomquist was a resident of the Restorative Justice Unit at Grande Cache Institution, Alberta, Canada. Here he shares aspects of his personal journey into crime, as well his experiences in prison, particularly his exposure to restorative justice ideas and values through peacemaking circles at Grande Cache Institution. He credits these circles with his growing awareness of the impact of his crimes and his lifestyle decisions on himself and on others. He expresses the growth and hope he has gained from restorative justice ideas, the circles and peer support in the Restorative Justice Unit, and the welding career he is learning while incarcerated.

Radunsky, Pam. Reflections on ‘Engaging Us All in the Dialogue’

In this short essay, Pam Radunsky reflects personally on the meaning of the theme for Restorative Justice Week 2004 in Canada: “Engaging Us All in the Dialogue.‿ Her sister, Kristen French, was abducted and murdered by two men in southern Ontario in 1992. The same men abducted and murdered several other young women over a period of time. Recounting the effects of the crime and the criminal justice process on her and her family, as well as numerous conversations she has had over the years with others about this trauma and about the experiences of other crime victims, she notes that engaging in this kind of dialogue is anything but pleasant. Nevertheless, she underscores the deep value of dialogue for those affected by crime. Out of all of this, Radunsky has become a restorative justice practitioner in Ontario.

Walker, Lorenn. Beyond Policy: Conferencing on Student Misbehavior

In this article Lorenn Walker looks at the use of conferencing to deal with student misbehavior. Conferencing is a process for conflict resolution. It focuses on repairing relationships when offenders admit wrongdoing. The process brings together the parties who have a stake in the conflict and its potential resolution: victims; offenders; families and friends; and communities. While it is often used in criminal justice settings, many are employing it in school settings as well. Walker recounts the story of using a conference to deal with her own son’s victimization by another student in school. She describes the conference process, the Real Justice model of conferencing, and benefits of conferencing in terms of addressing the infraction and in decreasing repeat offenses.

Dunn, Michel. Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice Week is a week dedicated to education about and advancement of restorative justice among churches and the public in general. Michel Dunn presented this paper at a public forum entitled “Restorative justice: Humanizing justice,‿ during Restorative Justice Week 2003, held in Ottawa, Canada, November 19. According to Dunn, while restorative justice as a term is a relatively new concept in Canada, it is in fact an approach to wrongdoing that is much older. Aboriginal people have used this kind of approach for a long time. Dunn goes on to point out that restorative justice has even been applied for a long time to deal with the most serious crime of all – murder. He illustrates this using his own life as example. When he was younger, Dunn killed his law partner, a crime for which he was convicted and incarcerated. In this paper he recounts his journey back from that darkness through the restorative efforts of a number of people visiting him in jail.

Anonymous. A Story of Community Conferencing

This paper is a resource tool for people to reflect upon the needs of victims of crime in relation to restorative justice values and processes. To aid this reflection, an actual crime from Calgary, Alberta, is described from the perspective of the victims. A family’s home was broken into and vandalized while the family was on vacation. The story recounts the family’s feelings upon their return and discovery of the break in, the police handling of the crime, and a community conference (mediated by Calgary Community Conferencing) between the perpetrator and the victims to address the crime and its effects. The questions posed by this event and paper concern the integrity of restorative justice values and the involvement of crime victims in restorative justice processes.

Huculak, Bria. A Story of a Peacemaking Circle

What are the advantages of using a Circle approach or process to address criminal offending? How does a Circle process differ from a traditional courtroom? These are questions illuminated by this restorative justice resource paper by Bria Huculak, a judge of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In the paper Judge Huculak describes the nature, structure, and purposes of peacemaking circles. She points out how they are different from traditional court proceedings. Additionally, she notes that circles are being used for a range of offenses and in a variety of settings. To illustrate the use of a circle approach, she sketches the context for and outcomes of a peacemaking circle employed to address an actual robbery case in which violence was threatened.

Janzen, Siegfried. A Story of Mediation

Victim offender mediation is increasingly common in recent decades. Nevertheless, it is sometimes seen as inappropriate in cases involving violence, and it is not very common to attempt it many years after a crime. In this restorative justice resource paper, Siegfried Janzen – a member of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee in Petitcodiac, New Brunswick – tells the story of a mediation involving both those factors. In this case, domestic conflict between a husband and wife led to the wife’s death by the husband, with great emotional trauma to two sons, and a life sentence for the husband. After nearly two decades of incarceration, the man and one of the sons met in a mediated setting to talk with each other. Janzen, summarizing the crime, its effects, and the mediation itself, asks why the community was not involved in dealing with the aftermath of this crime, and why the needs of the victims appear to have been ignored at the time of the trial.

Jacobson, Robyn. A Story of Victim Offender Mediation

This paper is a resource to help others reflect on two aspects of victim offender mediation (VOM): (a) what constitutes success in VOM; and (b) what a mediator can do to facilitate a positive outcome from VOM. With respect to these two matters, Robyn Jacobson shares a story from her experiences as a volunteer mediator with Conflict Mediation Services of Downsview (CMS-D) in Ontario. The story involves an altercation between students attending a local high school hockey game. Jacobson describes the incident; the responses of the school, police, and courts; the roles of the victim and the accused youth; the mediation between the victim and the offender and their family members; and the outcomes from the mediation.

Weider, Tim. Transforming Tough Kids through Circles

Tim Weider served as Interim Director for Finger Lakes Restorative Justice during the summer of 2004. A major accomplishment was securing Kamal Tipu to serve as FLRJC’s first intern and establishing a working relationship with the New York State School at Industry. Here is his story. (author's abstract).

Merritt, Midge. Circles Take Root with Single Parents

In June 2004, Midge Merritt and Janice Lester Bell participated in a Circle Keeper Training let by Kay Pranis and sponsored by Finger Lakes Restorative Justice Center. Afterwards, they established a circle at Wilson Commencement Park where Midge is a Case Manager and Janice was an intern. Here is their story. (Author's abstract)

Raim, David. Learning Circles

In the Fall of 2004, David Raim was part of a Seminar in Criminal Justice at Rochester Institute of Technology led by Dr. Thomas Castellano. Here is his story of how Circles transformed his learning experience. Author's abstract.

Mitchell, Joan. Strangers Become Allies in RJ Trainings

oan Mitchell participated in a Circle Facilitator Training in June 2004. Joan is a member of the FLRJC’s Board of Directors and recently retired from the Monroe County Probation Department. This is her story. (author's abstract).

Griffin, Jean. RJ Improves College Student Relationships

Jean Griffin is Associate Director at the Center for Student Conduct and Conflict Management Services at Rochester Institute of Technology. Here is her story about using restorative justice practices with college students. (author's abstract)

Knight, Lorrie. Creating Safe Schools with Classroom Meetings

Lorrie Knight is Dean of Students for Albion Central School District in Orleans County. Her primary responsibility is the discipline of 1200 students. Here is her story about the use of circles with children in public schools. (author's abstract)