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Exploring Restorative Justice: Peacebuilders, crime victims and ex-prisoners

Crime victims, offenders and communities share a stake in restorative justice. At the just-completed Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU, two courses brought stakeholders face-to-face.

A former Virginia prisoner studied with peacebuilders from around the world in a May course, "Restorative Justice: The Promise, the Challenge." In a June course, "Looking Through Both Lenses: Restorative Justice Through the Eyes of Victims and Offenders," that student told his experiences to learners who also heard a rape survivor’s story.

While criminal justice typically focuses on punishing wrongdoers, restorative justice asks "Who has been hurt?" and seeks ways to "heal and put things as right as possible," wrote Howard Zehr - a founder of the restorative justice movement - in his 2002 bestseller, "The Little Book of Restorative Justice."

Dr. Zehr, a professor at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, co-taught the SPI restorative justice course in May with Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, director of the Office on Crime and Justice at Mennonite Central Committee.

Zehr characterizes the restorative approach, identified in the 1970s, as more focused on helping victims and holding offenders accountable.

Antonio (Tony) Dodson talks with Howard Zehr of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU.
Photo by Jim Bishop

'A Slave to My Circumstances'

Convicted of firearm possession following a prior felony, Antonio (Tony) Dodson, 25, of Reston, Va., was incarcerated 21 months. He is completing a transitional therapeutic program at the Gemeinschaft Home near EMU, where he told staff member Ruby Zehr of his hopes to work for criminal justice reform. She suggested SPI, where he enrolled in her husband’s six-day course.

"For a long time I was a slave to my circumstances – rough family life, bad role models. I hate to give prison any credit, but I came across some very positive people while I was locked up," Dodson says. In accepting responsibility for his actions, "I found peace within myself."

In Zehr’s class, Dodson found getting to know peacebuilders from around the world "awesome." Learning experiences ranged from respectful debate to role-playing as a murder victim’s grandchild. What he appreciated most was "knowing I’m not the only one out there that wants to institute change in a positive way."

Dodson hopes to study at a community college. "I wasn’t put on earth to be a failure," he states.

CJP Alumni Making a Difference

In June, CJP graduate Barbara Toews and alumna Kathleen Buckley co-facilitated the Victims and Offenders course, where Toews arranged for Dodson to speak. As Restorative Justice program manager for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Toews works with inmates – some of whom have studied her 2006 "Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison," published by Good Books. The book includes ideas for living restoratively within a "non-restorative" environment.

"I lived on that side of the wall. I’ve shared pieces of my story. Various people have said ‘thank you for making it real,’" Dodson says.

Like Toews, Buckley works in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system – but with crime victims, in the state’s Office of the Victim Advocate. She arranged a class presentation by a Pennsylvania woman, Collette.

Finally Healing

Twenty years ago, at 17, Collette was dragged from her doorway, held captive for four hours, tied up, drugged and raped. Her assailant remains imprisoned for that attack.

Following many emotionally troubled years, Collette contacted the Victim Advocate office to request mediation with her attacker. Zehr says such encounters, though not always feasible, may be the best-known aspect of restorative justice.

Three years later, with mediators, Collette met the now-middle-aged prisoner, who expressed remorse. While she says she has forgiven him, she suspects he may harm others if released.

From the day of that meeting, Collette ceased being tormented by nightmares. Yet while telling her story in a calm voice, Collette, recently married, insisted she will never have children because "I would never want someone I loved to go through something that bad."

SPI student Aloysius B. Nyanti asked, "Where did you find support and hope?" Collette, whose parents coped with her ordeal uncomfortably, cited mediators and rape-crisis volunteers.

"Where I come from, the family has a bigger role to play," said Nyanti, of Liberia, a Lutheran Church facilitator for ex-child soldiers re-entering their communities.

Nyanti asked whether mediation focuses more on victims or offenders. Buckley replied that Pennsylvania only allows victims to request such meetings, though some offenders seek them. She and Toews are preparing a proposal that would allow offenders to place letters in a file for their victims to read if they chose.

After Collette left the classroom, students shared varying impressions of her recovery.

"In my country, people don’t talk about that" (i.e., rape), said Guylene Hyacinthe Clerger, who leads an outreach program for street children and domestic violence victims in Haiti.

Following a discussion of trauma healing, Buckley had participants prepare to debate whether forgiveness should be expected in a restorative program.

Zehr notes that philosophies on issues including forgiveness vary within the restorative movement, though any restorative program invites all affected to become "part of the solution."

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer living in Harrisonburg

— article by: Chris Edwards; posted June 25, 2007