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| ©Priscilla Etienne |
Last week the Evening Standard ran an interview with Neville Lawrence who is calling for automatic prison sentences for carrying a knife; on top of that I recently watched a documentary with Brooke Kinsella discussing restorative justice.
The documentary featured Brooke talking to families of victims and their views on restorative justice; which is bringing people harmed by crime or conflict, and those responsible for the harm together, to talk and find a way of moving forward. She wanted to know if it helps rebuild their lives after crime or conflict One woman sat opposite a young man who verbally abused her. It began quite heated, then calmed fairly quickly with the help of mediation. It ended with the young man apologising for his actions. There was a woman whose brother was brutally beaten while he was walking one evening at a seaside resort. She chose to meet her brothers killer.
Brooke stated that she was not ready to meet her brother's killers but had a deep admiration and respect for the woman who did.
The government has spent 7 million in a 7 year research programme into restorative justice. Statistics say that 85% of victims that took part were satisfied with the process. I must admit, it makes me wonder if these figures are exaggerated. When I interviewed parents of victims to homicide for a personal project, 1 out of 10 said they had met with their child's killer. Lots of people I have spoken to were very unsure if they could be involved with restorative justice, and many more clear that they would not.
I do not doubt that some offenders who get that chance to apologise for their actions and possibly explain their behaviour will not re-offend, and this is definitely a positive step forward. However, there are still areas that I feel need consideration and money.
The first being the cost of a funeral. When a family is unexpectedly faced with funeral costs, who is going to help them pay? I think that some money should be available to pay towards it. I know families who are still paying for funerals, years later. The second area which needs attention is the courtroom. Why do families of the victim and the offenders have to sit so close together? There should be areas built within the court, where comments and heckling can't be directed so closely at victims families and vice versa. These points are really important and they are areas which should be addressed first.
The Ben Kinsella Exhibition leaves Millwall this end of school year 2014. Here is the link to find out more.
http://www.benkinsella.org.uk/
I interviewed my 10 year-old nephew who went to see the exhibition.
"I went with my class, there were 24 of us. The first thing I noticed was the educational film. They were showing clips of the cast of Coronation Street talking about knife crime. They showed the CCTV film of Ben walking down the road after he was stabbed. This bit made me feel quite sad, most of the girls were emotional.
It's a useful thing to go and see. I think it would stop young people from getting into trouble."
I dedicate this blog to Ben Kinsella.
See you at the next posting
