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Anderson, Samantha and Karp, David R. Vermont’s Restorative Reentry Program: A Pilot in Burlington’s Old North End

The Vermont Department of Corrections (VDOC) has been one of the pioneers of restorative justice in the United States. VDOC continues this role with the application of restorative principles to their reentry program. A basic component of this effort is to modify Vermont’s reparative board model to organize community volunteers more effectively for participation in restorative justice panels. A restorative justice panel consists of community volunteers who meet with offenders reentering society. Community members provide advice and support for offenders on reentry. Samantha Anderson and David Karp review a pilot program for a restorative justice panel in the Old North End of Burlington, Vermont, a district with high crime rates and a significant number of released offenders.

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.

Bridges to Life: A Promising In-Prison Restorative Justice Intervention

Bridges to Life is an in-prison restorative justice programme that facilitates meetings between offenders and unrelated victims. This article is drawn from a paper by Marilyn Armour, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. The complete article is attached.

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.

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.

Fillichio, Carl. Violence, Victims, and Communities: A Story of Restoration.

In San Francisco, however, a different answer has taken shape. There, the sheriff’s department runs an innovative program called Resolve to Stop the Violence. It is RSVP’s mission to bring together everyone harmed by violent crimes: victims, adult male offenders, and communities. First, it centralizes the needs of victims, many of whom are targets of domestic violence, enabling them to restore themselves and become survivors and advocates. Second, it holds offenders accountable and punishable. But, just as important, it focuses also on changing their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour on restoration of victims and self, and on equipping them for crime-free lives on the outside. Third, RSVP energizes the community to take part in all of these efforts. RSVP’s in-custody and post-release treatment and education is supported by creative collaboration among local government agencies. It gets active participation from all local stakeholders in reducing violence, fear, and economic and social destabilization of the community. (excerpt)

Forget, Marc. Restorative justice in prisons: An evolution from Victim Offender Mediation in 1998, to a restorative prison wing in 2001, to a holistic, multi-sector project in 2004.

The three projects that are highlighted in this presentation were selected because they represent a very broad spectrum of restorative approaches applied to the prison environment. Each of these 3 projects is in a different phase of implementation. The first project is the oldest (1998), and provides a lot of evaluative data; the second project has been operating for 4 years and is currently undergoing its fist evaluation; the third project is the newest, and not all aspects of its programs have been implemented yet. (excerpt)

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)

Gordon, Katya Goodenough. From Corrections to Connections: A Report on the AMICUS Girls Restorative Program.

Corrections professionals are looking for new models that can effectively address the needs of women and girls in the corrections system and take on the unique challenges they pose. For the past four years, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has partnered with AMICUS (a non-profit agency) and a juvenile residential placement facility to provide a gender-responsive program for serious and chronic female juvenile offenders. “The Girls Restorative Program” is an innovative effort that blends the philosophies of restorative justice with the best practices of gender-responsive programming for girls. Restorative services are provided to girls while they are in residential placement, during their transition and furlough, and after release. (excerpt)

Gustafson, Dave. Exploring Treatment and Trauma Recovery Implications of Facilitating Victim Offender Encounters in Crimes of Severe Violence: Lessons from the Canadian Experience.

This chapter first describes research undertaken in 1989 with victims/survivors and inmates that led to the development of the program. A case study that involves an adult male survivor of child sexual abuse illustrates the process and the healing outcomes for this survivor, for the members of his family, and for the offender. Some of the issues raised by the case are explored, notably the nature of trauma and how guided communication between victims, offenders, and other involved parties can assist recovery. The presentation of the case study is followed by a review of the history of the program. There is growing evidence of the therapeutic impact of victim-offender mediation upon the participants. Victims often report that the mediation experience has helped in their recovery from trauma, including a diminishing of severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participating offenders have also described the mediation process as healing. Therapists and prison program facilitators have reported observing significant increases in victim empathy and a commitment to relapse prevention in offenders who have participated. Other jurisdictions are implementing similar programs with technical assistance from FRCJIA staff. The first 15 years of the program have continued to show the value of mediation in helping to heal the harms caused by violent offenses. Well-conceived victim-offender dialog models, especially when informed by trauma recovery and offender treatment research, are apparently effective in bringing positive outcomes even for cases of violent crimes. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

Haarala, Lloyd. A Community Within

A member and elder of the Anishinaabe of N.W. Angle Band #33, Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Lloyd Haarala is also the native spiritual advisor at William Head Institution, a correctional facility in British Columbia. He tells in this article of a recent Spring Fasting opportunity at William Head Institution. A former inmate nearing the end of his Warrant Expiry Date asked and received permission to live in the facility for the week of fasting to help current inmates. Haarala explains how this exemplifies the value held among First Nations’ people of giving back to their communities. This emphasis on community, also found in restorative justice, is as much a matter of the heart as the head, says Haarala. Further, restorative justice as the importance of family and community should be the norm for society in general, not only when crime or wrongdoing occur.

Helfgott, Jacqueline B and Lovell, Madeline L and Lawrence, Charles F and Lovell, Madeline L. Accountability, healing, and hope through storytelling and dialogue

In this article, the authors describe the Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice (CVORJ) project. A response to legislative changes in the state correctional system, CVORJ was a prison-based program conducted as a pilot study at the Washington State Reformatory. It began in 1997 and continued into 2000. CVORJ consisted of a twelve-week program with a weekly meeting and ongoing follow-up discussions about the effects of crime. Readings and discussions about restorative justice were also part of the program. Participants included victims of crime, offenders, and citizens. The authors of the article look at the structure of the program, selection of seminar participants, the seminar process, and findings from a program evaluation.

Herron, Bobbie J. . Citizens Circles: A Road Map to Successful Community Involvement Promoting Responsible Citizenship

Citizen Circles create partnerships that promote positive social interaction and accountability for offenders upon release. Circle members address risks that contribute to criminal activity by taking ownership over the solution. It is an opportunity for citizens to communicate expectations for successful reentry and help offenders recognize the harm their behavior has caused others. Offenders are able to make amends and demonstrate their value and potential to the community. (excerpt) This manual provides an overview of the Citizen Circles.

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.

Love, Bill. "Program Curbs Prison Violence Through Conflict Resolution"

But good relations between inmates and staff are important to maintaining safety and order in an institution. The DOC is learning that communication and conflict resolution are effective tools for managing their inmate populations. (excerpt)

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.

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.

Making Victims' Voices Heard

Victims’ Voices Heard (VVH) provides victims and victim survivors of severe violence the opportunity to meet with their offenders in a facilitated encounter. Located in Delaware, it is based on a model first developed in Texas. Kim Book, programme coordinator for VVH, describes her experience with the criminal justice system and shares a victim perspective on the mediation process.

Monahan, Lynn Hunt and Niesyn, Patricia A and Monahan, James J and Niesyn, Patricia A and Gaboury, Mario T and Monahan, James J. Victims' Voices in the Correctional Setting: Cognitive Gains in an Offender Education Program

Restorative justice asserts that the offender has a responsibility to repair the harm done, to be accountable rather that just do time. The restorative justice philosophy can be found in a variety of settings, with one of the most recent settings incorporated into a range of sentencing and offender treatment approaches. A promising approach is the victim-awareness education program which allows inmates an opportunity to know about the scope of victimization, as well as develop insight into its aftereffects in the life of the victim. In 1997, the Connecticut Department of Correction initiated a 40-hour victim-awareness education program, VOICES, and classes began in 1998. This study analyzed data from the fall 1998 to December 2001 to assess the effectiveness of the program. A 50-item questionnaire was developed and administered to participants in the VOICES program before beginning the program and after its completion. The intent was to measure knowledge of and sensitivity of the impact of crime on victims. The results of the study provided significant support to the hypothesis that the VOICES program would produce increases in specific aspects of offender knowledge of and sensitivity to crime victims. Those offenders exposed to the program had a significant increase in knowledge of the facts of victimization and increased knowledge of victim rights. They were also more sensitive to the plight of victims. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Nielsen, Marianne O.. "Canadian Aboriginal Healing Lodges: A Model For The United States?"

Native Americans are over-represented as incarcerated offenders, yet there are few effective programs available to them. Prisoners of Aboriginal ancestry are also overrepresented in the Canadian correctional system. A number of culturally appropriate, innovative programs have been developed to effectively lower their recidivism rate in that country. This article explores one such initiative, the Aboriginal-operated healing lodges, by focusing on one institution: the Stan Daniels Healing Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, the largest and oldest in Canada. The history of the center is presented as well as data about its residents, staff, mandate, ideology, programs, and recidivism rates. A number of potential obstacles to the development of such a center in the United States are discussed, but it is concluded that this model might be very effective in some states with a sufficiently high Native American population.