Interchange: Ellen Halbert helps the Austin, TX D.A.’s office reach out to victims of crime

Source: (2000) Kaleidoscope of Justice: Highlighting Restorative Juvenile Justice. 1(3): 3. Fort Lauderdale, FL: Balanced and Restorative Justice Project, Florida Atlantic University. Downloaded 21 January 2005.

Too often the criminal justice system leaves the victim largely out of the criminal justice process. In contrast, restorative justice seeks to place the victim and the harm suffered at the center of the justice process. Ellen Halbert knows this all too well from personal experience. A victim of an extremely violent assault, she is intimately acquainted with what it means to be a victim of crime – to endure both the crime and the criminal justice system. She also knows all this from professional experience for, out of her experience, she became director of the Victim/Witness Division in the Travis County, Texas, district attorney’s office. In this personal and professional context, Halbert is convinced, as she explains in this article, that restorative justice is the right and best approach to dealing with offenders and victims.