When criminals meet with their victims and actually grasp the injuries they’re responsible for – the first step toward reconciliation is taken.
Interested Bay Area citizens met with San Quentin prisoners to practice the principles of Restorative Justice. This unusual meeting created a bond between prisoners and the community that otherwise would not materialize.
The underlying principle of Restorative Justice involves victims and offenders engaging in dialogue. Participants believe that this leads to healing and closure to pain and suffering. More importantly, it increases offenders’ awareness of harm caused, thus preventing future negative behavior.
NON-PUNITIVE
The San Quentin Responsibility, Rehabilitation, & Restoration Interfaith Roundtable sponsored this “alternative approach to corrections,” intending to make communities safer through a non-punitive approach.
Former prisoner, Leonard Rubio was instrumental in bringing the idea of Restorative Justice inside of San Quentin, initially through the Victim Offender Education Group.
The Group’s inspiration:
The Little Book of Restorative Justice, by Howard Zehr
Justice that Restores, by Charles Colson
Restoring Justice, 2nd ed., by Daniel W. Van Ness and Karen Heetders Strong
Crime and its Victims; What We Can Do, by Daniel W. Van Ness
The Little Book of Circle Process, by Kay Pranis [Native American tradition of the Hephaka Sapa (Black Elk) a holy man of the Ogala Sioux.]
Prisoners Vince Russo, Kevin Hagan, Albert Hernandez, and Bob Kaser, along with facilitators, Mary Elliott, PhD and Rose Elizondo assembled college students and faculty from University of San Francisco, U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, the Jesuit School of Theology, San Quentin Buddhist Sangha, along with teachers and principals from K-12 public schools to participate in this symposium.
Community leader and former lifer, Eddy Zheng spoke to the audience about the principles of Restorative Justice.
“We are here today because we need healing in our lives. We need restoring of what has been harmed,” Zheng said. “Being in prison is nothing I am proud of, but as a result of being in prison I became the person I want to be.”
At the Symposium, the California Re-entry Program saluted its staff of nearly 30 volunteers who have assisted over 1,000 prisoners at San Quentin. On Tuesdays and Thursdays around 10 members of the staff enter San Quentin to aid prisoners by preparing resumes, finding jobs and housing, obtaining driver’s license and Social Security cards. The program is actively seeking volunteers to help Spanish-speaking prisoners.
Project Homeless Connect (PHC), a local public assistance group was also represented at the symposium. (www.projecthomelessconnect.org ). PHC informs potential clients that they do not have to be homeless to obtain assistance with the life skills services they provide.
Aqeela Sherrills, spokesperson for “California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty” (www.californiacrimevictims.org ) travels worldwide facilitating concepts that inspire peaceful solutions to tough neighborhood problems by asking, “What does peace look like in urban neighborhoods?”
Sherrills opened the symposium saying, “As a result of the murder of my 18-year old son, Terrell, I have come to understand that we are not our experiences. What we have perpetrated of been victimized by only informs who we are becoming. It is not who we are. Who we are is a creative dynamic force in the would that has the capacity to define our own fate.”
BELIEF IN MIRACLES
Lorrain Taylor, whose twin sons were murdered, expressed her restoration through an original gospel song, “Take a Stand,” which included audience participation for the chorus.
According to sponsor Mary Elliott, PhD, “Restorative Justice confirms my belief in miracles. Every moment presents us with an open door.”
Facilitator Rose Elizondo added, “Storytelling is the language of healing and community building. Through sharing our personal stories and listening to the people we’ve harmed, we’re learning to hold ourselves accountable for the effects and ripple effects of the harm we’ve created. We’re learning to live our way into a new way of relating as a community.”
The community lauded Lorenzo Romero for translating the symposium into Spanish.
