Restorative Justice: Crime and Healing

But these were not pretty stories we were hearing: a rape, an armed
robbery, the murder of three elderly women. The tellers, Peg, Debbie and
Tanya — the three angels, as many of the inmates started calling them
— had been victimized by these crimes, and each spoke in unrelenting
detail about what happened.

The women spoke on Wednesday, day two of the three-day circle process I
took part in last week, led by Jerry Hancock, a former
defense and prosecuting attorney who became a United Church of
Christ minister four years ago and now works under the auspices of
the UCC Prison Ministry Project; and former Wisconsin
Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, who is
currently a law professor at Marquette University. The week
was part of a three-month Restorative Justice class at the prison, at
the end of which the inmates who participated get a diploma, and changed
lives.

…

These women spoke not with anger but almost lovingly. They were
messengers. They had seen hell’s landscape. Each talked of the impact of
the crime on friends, family: the ripple effect. Debbie’s marriage fell
apart. Her children were traumatized. Tanya grew estranged from her
parents. Peg held Mema’s murder inside her for decades. There was simply
no context in her life in which talking about it in all its detail was
possible.

The context in which it was possible was Restorative
Justice. We sat in a circle of equals. We listened and absorbed their
words. Afterward, and over the next day, each person in the circle had
chances to respond. The inmates began talking both about their own
victims and their own pain. “Mema was with me all night,” one of the men
said on Thursday morning.

This is only a sliver of what happened over an extraordinary three
days. We talked frankly and from the heart about crime; we listened to
each other. Something shifted, though I can’t say precisely what. Life
felt sweet, fragile . . . precious.

“Be more than a survivor,” Debbie urged. “Be a lifeguard.”

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