An Excellent Restorative Justice Conference in Merseyside

Our team at Restorative Justice Merseyside facilitated an excellent Restorative Justice conference at HMP Kirkham last week. Here's what the facilitator said:

"We facilitated an amazing Restorative Justice ‘face-to-face’ conference for a sensitive and complex case at HMP Kirkham. 

"Like so many of these situations it stemmed from a tragic event which had an enormous impact on the victim - the person harmed by the events. Sleepless nights, nightmares, anxiety, PTSD, and the list goes on. The Prison Offender Manager (POM) was fantastic considering it was her first experience of Restorative Justice in over 20 years in Prisons. There was lots of honesty, lots of emotion and planning for future chance meetings. 

"The perpetrator - the harmer, admitted to pleading not guilty until the last minute because he was a kid, immature and selfish, without a thought for the victim. He believes he has changed now, over the years attending lots of courses for victim awareness and his own development. He agreed to the meeting because he genuinely wanted to say sorry, to admit to his wrong doing and try to support the harmed to move on.

"The harmed person said at the end of the conference: "I feel like I got what I came for. I won’t be frightened of you anymore. I won’t see a monster when I close my eyes, I am feeling like I have got closure, that's what I wanted more than anything, to move on with my life."

"What a privilege to be part of something so powerful, so impactive and so important for everyone involved."

Well done to everyone who took part in this conference!