So how do you know that an offender means it when they say sorry?
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filed under:
country: england and wales,
justice,
programmes: stp,
national ministry,
language: english,
region: europe,
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From the blog by Dave Walker of PF England & Wales: This is a question I have been asked quite a bit when I tell people about the final session of the Sycamore Tree programme. It is not an easy question to answer when you are talking to someone who has never visited a prison and has grown up with a media-fed, cynical and unqualified view of prison life. I will attempt to answer it for you here and I’m sure you will tell me if I have made a hash of it.
The final session is where we see the first application of the principles of Restorative Justice from the offenders taking the programme. We have spent five previous sessions teaching them what Restorative Justice is, how to accept responsibility for what they have done, what it feels like to be a victim, how to take the first steps towards reconciliation and getting them to talk about what they can do to change.
Now they have to demonstrate what they have learnt by performing what we call a ‘Symbolic Act of Restitution.’ Essentially they are encouraged to stand in front of a room full of people, mostly total strangers, and read a letter or a poem or present an artwork or whatever they have prepared. The room full of strangers will include a selection of community witnesses, the victims who attended earlier in the course to share their story, often a Governor or other senior staff member and, of course, the other learners.
...I attended a session in a well known, inner city prison full of local, inner city, young men with all the airs and graces of inner city life, drugs, violence and gang culture. These things don’t cease upon sentencing – if anything they can sometimes be more intense on a prison wing than on the street. Status can be everything on the wing and a new pair of trainers will do wonders for you on the respect scale.
To see a young man in an environment like this full of masculine front stand up to read a letter he has written to the parents of another young man he had beaten up in a gang related incident. To see this man physically shaking and weeping in front of the room I have described. To see some of the other men welling up at what they are hearing. To hear the regret that the realisation of their actions has induced: a realisation not at all prompted by the court process. To witness all this is the only way to have that big question answered. This is what I witnessed and I have absolutely no doubt as to their sincerity.
Last week we saw 9 Sycamore Tree courses come to a close. Nearly 200 men will have demonstrated their desire to change in this way. Such was the sincerity demonstrated in one prison that a woman who has suffered the murder of a loved one and had attended the course to share her story, stood up in front of the same total strangers and expressed her desire to forgive the murderers!
Say what you like, this is real and it’s happening all around the country.
Read the full post.
Your program
And, in particular, is anyone from your organization planning on being present in Nairobi, Kenya this July at the International Special Needs Offenders conference?
I will be in the country as a volunteer with Community Education Services Canada at that time, and hope to be present at the above-mentioned conference.