You can't deny the power of restorative justice. Victims find freedom when they grapple with their pain and learn to forgive. Offenders' lives are transformed when they confront the harm they have done and accept responsibility. And, peace returns to communities when trust and goodwill replace fear and hatred.
Read true stories from men and women who encountered this power for themselves. Be challenged by their example. And, see for yourself why Justice Fellowship is so passionate to bring restorative justice to neighborhoods across America.
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Community Reentry Programs |
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By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: August 13, 2009
 My name is Michael. I am an inmate at Phillips State Prison in Buford [Georgia]. On Aug. 20, I will discharge my sentence. I will be given a bus ticket back to Columbus, a set of clothing to wear out of prison and a check in the amount of twenty-five dollars. I’m 39 and suffer from mental illnesses. I don’t have family to help me transition back into society, so once I step off the bus in Columbus, I will be a homeless ex-con. I hope to be able to find shelter and medication, but what scares me is that I have 13 years to be on probation, and I have to report to the probation office within 24 hours of my release.
Where is there any help for folk like me?
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Prison Rape is No Laughing Matter |
 Pat Nolan's brow furrows in agitated disbelief when he remembers one corrections official's reaction to prison rape. "What can I say?" the man asked with a dismissive shrug. "It's prison."
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 A crippled mind is the worst kind of prison. Yet as an inmate in New Jersey's corrections system, Thomas Farrow knew the despair of living in both kinds of bondage. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, he spent over eight years in prison and became intimately acquainted with a mental health system that was wrecked at its core.
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 The following story is taken from "Come, Let Us Reason Together," by Becky Beane
Corey Moore sinks shyly into the couch, dwarfed by his mom and dad who sit on either side of him. The soft-spoken 12-year-old, who excels in math and likes to ride his bike, hardly fits the image of "juvenile delinquent." Yet he committed a crime that got him expelled from school and confined to a youth detention center "It didn't feel right, because I wasn't sleeping in my own bed." He snuggles closer-more securely-to his dad.
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The following story is an excerpt from the article "The Way of the Just," by Tamela Baker.
"Ryan" and "Toby" and two other teens thought they were cool last spring when, after partying at one boy's house, they broke into their school and, in Toby's words, "we started smashin' stuff." Thousands of dollars' worth of "stuff." "We thought we got away with it," Toby says. "Then some people started talkin',"
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The following story is taken from the 1996 BreakPoint Commentary "Vera's Story."
Last spring, Vera's husband picked up a knife and tried to kill her. Police arrested Vera's husband and the courts sent him to prison. But six months later 61-year-old Vera was still paralyzed by fear and depression. She had no job and didn't even know how to drive a car.
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