It’s puzzling to many of us why the obvious isn’t the norm. For example, why don’t they teach how to do personal taxes in school? And why don’t people who commit crimes and claim to be sorry, say those words to their victim?
Sometimes, criminals face their victims in court and there’s an opportunity for them to express remorse. There’s a difference between feeling bad because you got caught and genuinely taking responsibility. It’s called restorative justice when you truly own what you’ve done.
In Fort McMurray, Alberta, they’ve had a restorative justice (RJ) program for juveniles for many years. They began extending it to adult offenders a few years ago and it’s been a huge success. Out of 115 people who’ve taken part, only one has re-offended.
Here’s How It Works
Essentially, the criminal admits guilt and when the victim agrees, they meet face to face. The offender must listen to the victim explain the full effect of the crime had on them. It’s not easy. Avoiding court isn’t the goal of this exercise and in fact, that only happens occasionally. The same with sentence reductions.
An RCMP official confessed there was a time when he thought RJ was just being “soft on crime.” Not anymore. It’s humanizing. For whatever reason, a thief or a thug can justify what they’re doing to themselves. Once they hear about their behavior from the other point of view, it’s moving and sometimes, devastating. As it should be. On some occasions there’s forgiveness, sometimes there is not.
The federal conservatives are fixated on reforming the bail system right now, not without some good reasons. Heinous crimes have recently been committed by people let out on bail. But that’s a black and white approach that ignores gray areas between doing the crime and doing the time. People are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Statistics actually show that fewer accused people have been let out on bail in recent years. And assigning bail is a more complex issue than the federal opposition would have you believe. People want to do something even when there’s no blanket solution that’s fair. It’s understandable. But more people could wrongly be incarcerated than future crimes prevented. Is it worth it if some crimes are prevented? Those are questions for bigger minds than mine.
It Sounds Easy But It’s Not
RJ is voluntary. No one can be forced into doing it. Some convicts have said they’d rather do prison time than meet the person whose life they altered. It’s that difficult to do.
Instead of a catch-and-release system of criminal justice, why not inject some compassion? In broad terms, we don’t ostracize people we love because they’ve got a criminal record. (With exceptions, of course.) We desperately want them to straighten out their lives and stop breaking the law. Expanding this program might be a good start.
Pondering . . .