A brief description of restorative justice projects operating in Missouri prisons.
The $1,850 that California State Prison, Solano inmates raised this year selling KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] dinners will go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, an agency official said Tuesday.
For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.
Throughout the ceremony, offenders spoke, sang, showed a video they made in conjunction with a victims family, performed a step-like routine and held a balloon release. They also stressed the week's theme, “Every Victim - Every Time,” and pledged “No more victims - no more pain.” As Kuhicsko and Cassidy sat listening to the words and watching the video, tears rolled down their cheeks, and for the first time Kuhicsko said she knows that these offenders know what they have done.
At California State Prison, Solano, inmates in the Victim Offender Reconciliation Group work to accept responsibility for their crimes. They also raise money for victim groups and victims through sales of such things as chicken and pizza. Sitting Thursday in a circle in the prison's visiting room, inmates told Janet Bryan of Vallejo they were glad to give her a $1,850 check earlier this month to assist her work in Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Farmington Correctional Center employees and officials representing the court system and various crime victims groups gathered Tuesday afternoon for a Crime Victims’ Rights ceremony. Al Luebbers, the superintendent of the prison, explained the theme of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week this week is “Every Victim. Every Time.” He asked employees and others there to pledge to help every victim, every time — even those who decline services. Nearly 24 million Americans are harmed by crime each year.
Inmates also provided labor valued at $60,000 for restorative justice projects throughout the state.
A state fund that benefits crime victims should be getting several million dollars more from criminals each year because of a law that takes more money from prison inmates, corrections officials said on Monday. Prisons now collect half of every dollar each inmate earns or receives from outsiders and put it into a restitution fund. The percentage increased from 40 percent under a law that took effect Jan. 1. Prison officials timed Monday's announcement to the start of Crime Victims' Rights Week.
Parliament should take urgent steps to abolish the death penalty in Kenya. It should freeze all current death sentences and transfer convicts on the death row to life imprisonment, through a Presidential declaration. These are the recommendation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, in its new Position Paper number 2 of 2007.
Imagine being hijacked three times, shot at and almost killed six times. Now imagine giving the person who tried to kill you a job. A brave and forgiving Michael Makamo made a surprise announcement at the launch of the Restorative Justice Programme at Leeuwkop prison in Jozi on Wednesday. As vice-president of motor group EmpowerFLEET Holdings, he wants to employ his attacker, Mpho Tshabalala.