Corrections_Today_September_October_2019_Vol.81_No.5

nEWS & vIEWS

To overcome such hurt and pain will take time. Offering opportunities to share that pain and work through it with therapy and victim-offender discussion opportunities can be less expensive and more helpful than ad- ditional incarceration. Healing upon reentry Often people of faith in com- munities have a desire to help with welcoming and restoring returning citizens but do not understand how to become effectively involved. Toward that end, more communities are offering trauma healing workshops and other programs that can share needed insights among faith com- munity members. Programs such as Healing Communities have devel- oped trainings to help local faith communities intervene with their faith community members who are victims, offenders and their families. 4 These trained faith communities can learn to understand the needs of their people who have been traumatized and become a station of hope for those involved in the criminal justice process. This includes welcoming them and offering a place where they can grow into healing and transform- ing to wholeness. For example, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area is working on building a vibrant reentry community based on restorative justice prin- ciples. The local reentry coalition, Capital Region Ex-Offender Support Coalition (CRESC), includes a mix of non-profit, for profit and govern- mental organizations collaborating to meet the needs of returning citizens and the community. 5 The CRESC website lists numerous organizations in the coalition and opportunities

citizens may be easily misunder- stood, rejected and traumatized by community members and the system. Chaplains, alongside restorative justice advocates, can stand for mor- al and ethical programs which bring healing and wholeness to returning citizens, victims/survivors and the traumatized community. Chaplains can encourage faith communities to become educated in how to minister to people returning to their commu- nities in a compassionate, healing and accepting, yet accountable, manner. They can also encourage communities and legislators to con- sider greater support for restorative justice practices and programming. If people want a better place to live and grow where they reside, they have a responsibility to do what they can to restore broken relationships and help bring healing to the traumatized people who reside there. ENDNOTES 1 Center for Justice & Reconciliation, Prison Fellowship International. (2005). Restorative Justice Briefing Paper . Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from http://www.d.umn.edu/~jmaahs/ Correctional%20Assessment/rj%20brief.pdf 2 Rea, L.M. (2012). Restorative Justice: The New Way Forward. Center for Christian Ethics, Baylor University. Retrieved from https://www.baylor.edu/ content/services/document.php/163073.pdf 3 Zehr, Howard, Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times, Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA, 2015, Chapter 8. 4 Healing Communities USA, www.healingcommunitiesusa.com, Philadelphia, PA. 5 Capital Region Ex-offender Support Coalition website is www.reentrynow.org, Harrisburg. Damon Wagner Fields is an associate chaplain at Dauphin County Prison and reentry staff person through Christian Churches United of the Tri-Counties, Harrisburg, PA.

offered by its various agencies. An initiative to have a one-stop reentry hub through the Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministry (CRAM) has become a reality with several reentry organizations having office space on location. CRESC office staff make referrals to various agencies in the community based on their specific needs. The reentry coalition also has a restorative justice committee that investigates ways to transition the criminal justice system, including the courts, into a more restorative justice practice. Several non-profit agencies have focused on mentoring and other supports, including AMiracle4Sure, Sound Community Solutions, The Program — It’s About Change, and others. Many of these organizations are founded and run by previously incarcerated citizens, and they are receiving contracts from state and county correctional institutions and state probation and parole agencies to provide services to prison resi- dents and returning citizens. Thirteen local churches have taken the Heal- ing Communities’ trainings. Evidence-based and faith-based programs in many communities are needed to help returning citizens re- ceive the care and healing they need as they try to become reestablished as productive, contributing mem- bers of the community. A restorative justice approach can be important to help provide a place where returning citizens are heard in their pain yet also are held accountable for their actions in making restitution. If their trauma is not healed appropriately, a returning citizen may more likely respond in an inappropriate man- ner. On many occasions, returning

12 — September/October 2019 Corrections Today