Victims of violence meet with offenders in program

When a person is a survivor of a rape or the family member of a murder victim, nothing is going to make right what went wrong.

The harm does not evaporate from the past, and the dead do not come back to life.

Offender/Victim Ministries of Newton soon will be participating in a statewide program that seeks to give the victims and survivors of violent crime the opportunity to take steps toward healing.

The program is an extension of the statewide program administered by the Department of Corrections that facilitates dialogue between victims of severe violence and offenders.

The Department of Corrections program has two employees but a waiting list of about 30 victims wishing to speak to offenders.

“It is going to be extremely important to have additional trained volunteers,” said Carla Wozniak, assistant director of the Kansas Office of Victim Services. “We have a waiting list of victims to start the preparation process. It’s not only important to our department. It is important for the victims who are on that waiting list.”

Libby Schrag, executive director of OVM, said the process for preparing for these dialogues can be long and complex.

It can take months or up to a year before a victim is allowed to meet with an offender.

The victim must initiate the process. Then the offender is contacted to see if he or she is willing to meet with the victim. The volunteers in the program question the victim and offender to learn if the offender can give appropriate responses to the victim and not cause more harm and if the victim has realistic expectations for the meeting.

Not all victims will meet with offenders.

The program has had 26 victims enter the program since it began in 2002 but only seven face-to-face meetings.

The emotions and expectations behind these meetings can be varied, Schrag said.

Some victims simply want to look the offender in the eye, she said.

Others hope to express in their own words how the crime changed their lives.

Still others hope to gain answers about what exactly happened leading up to the crime and how someone could do what they did.

Wozniak said there are consequences for both the victim and offenders.

“I think that, first and foremost, it holds the offender directly accountable for the crime they committed,” she said. “The system is focused on the offender verses the state. This allows the victims to meet one on one with the offender and tell them how it has affected them and their family.

“To go through this process is an educational experience. It allows the offender to really see the impact of their behavior. They have to really understand on a different level how their actions have harmed another human being.”

The offenders can be changed by their experiences with the program, Schrag said.

“Some of them have really thought about what they want to say,” she said. “They come to a place of great remorse. Some know it is much harder to meet the person than to serve 25 years in prison.”

Schrag said this new cooperation with the Department of Corrections is somewhat of a departure from OVMs previous programs.

OVM has focused on what they call restorative justice, which often focuses on first-time offenders committing low-level crimes offering restitution or attempting to make amends with victims.

Schrag said no amount of dialogue will make up for the loses these victims have faced; however, she said she hopes she will be able to help some move forward in their lives.

“We hope it will help them put together a new story and a new life. It may help them move forward in their healing from this kind of tragedy. We hope it will help them find what they need to keep going,” she said.

OVM sponsored training in June for seven volunteers who will participate in the program. These volunteers will have more training with the Department of Corrections Nov. 30 before they begin work on cases.