Tyumen: Great Expectations

Source: Moscow: Public Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform. Downloaded 10 October 2002.

In this article, Olga Tarasjuk shares her personal experiences and convictions that led to her becoming the restorative justice programs coordinator in Tyumen, the capital of an oil region in Russia. Tyumen has many prisons, in part because convicted criminals from all parts of Russia were transported there to serve their sentences. With great expectations, as she says, Tarasjuk began work in a prison school. After a few years she despaired of the prospects for juveniles who were incarcerated, and she became convinced of the need for alternative ways of dealing with juvenile offenders. Thus, in 2000 she became part of a group motivated to implement restorative justice in Tyumen. Tarasjuk recounts the formation of this group and its activities on behalf of restorative justice programs for juveniles. To illustrate the work, she includes the story of a victim-offender reconciliation case in a local school