NCJ Number
187954
Date Published
2000
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the prison chaplain's role in assisting in the achievement of restorative justice for women inmates in Australia.
Abstract
From a chaplaincy perspective, restorative justice is about working toward mending a three-fold relationship rift: a rift within offenders/prisoners; a rift between offenders/prisoners and the offended community; and a rift between prisoners/offenders and their families. In religious terms, this process of mending the three-fold rift is about reconciliation. Essentially, a chaplain's role is to be a confidential and nonjudgmental listener for inmates, believing in them as valuable individuals who deserve respect and dignity. Given that most women inmates have experienced a diminishment of self-worth and self-respect, this function of a respectful and nonjudgmental listener is paramount for the nurturing of the women's innate potential for change, healing, and positive life contribution for themselves and others. Specific tasks of the prison chaplain include encouraging the personal and spiritual development of offenders/prisoners, accepting them as valuable people in the community; advocating for the provision of effective rehabilitation resources for prisoners as well as alternatives to imprisonment; being a liaison between offenders/inmates and their families and friends, with the aim of restoring or improving relationships between them; providing moral support to families of inmates who feel victimized as outcasts by the community; and offering an alternative perspective to punitive justice, in the hope of changing public attitudes of vengeance and punitiveness.