36 Hours With Hope

That was the headline from the story that was written about our Restorative Justice program.  The reporter was an observer all week, and she won an award for her portrayal.  I would give you a copy of her article except that it was in Afrikaans!  The experience was intense.  I had never been involved in anything quite like it.  I described the outline of the program in my last post, but here are a few reflections.  I really still need to process it all, but here is the beginning. 

 

The week was a powerful blend of heartbreak and hope.  On the one hand, it was disturbing to be sitting at a table with two rapists and a few armed robbers, but on the other it was encouraging that they were willing to speak openly about their guilt.  The few times when a man did make excuses for his crime, other prisoners were quick to hold him to account.  Nobody listens to prisoners, so even the fact that we were there became a humanizing influence.  We sat at tables with tablecloths and shared a meal together.  The men were open with their stories because they knew we respected them as individuals. 

 

The transition is definitely a slow one.  After we showed the prisoners some graphic pictures from a crime scene, there was a discussion about how all different kinds of crime can lead to great pain.  One man experienced a “break-through” when he realized it does not make sense to mutilate a body after you have killed it.  He was proud of himself!  Many prisoners have lived such a traumatizing life that they have lost the moral vocabulary to assess their actions.  The necessary psychological defenses they have built against the abuse in their own lives have led them to a very dark place.  While it is striking how much work remains to be done in prison, amazing transformation is possible.  We had several prisoners who realized that there would be no chance of healing unless they were honest about their crime to their families.  The “Family Reconciliation Service” we held on Saturday gave them a chance to do it!

 

I initially was on the course only as an observer, but as I built a rapport with the prisoners and the volunteers from Hope Prison Ministry, they made me a table facilitator.  The prisoners were fascinated with my studies, and I was quickly dubbed the “American Criminologist.”  I started something of a stir when I described a prisoner I had worked with in the States.  He had “back-slid” because of unconfessed sin in his life, and the gist of my story was that “what you keep, you also carry.”  I didn't think much of it at the time, but prisoners quickly began quoting it and arguing over it.  There is such an obsession with secret crime in this place, that I guess I hit a raw nerve.  They liked me enough that they asked me to run one of their follow-up sessions on forgiveness. 

 

Stay tuned for more thoughts on Restorative Justice!