A Visit Most Dear

** I recently asked another inmate who is involved in our college-prep program here at LCF to write a guest post. He graciously agreed and below is his post:

I recently received a visit from a man named Bernie, an unremarkable event except that he is the father of a murdered son and I am 20 years into a life sentence for first-degree murder. We were brought together by a common pursuit of victim-offender mediation in which my attempts to obtain a mediation agency-sponsored reconciliation conference were repeatedly denied by MDOC administrators, as were Bernie's. 

During our visit, Bernie spoke of how he had forgiven his offender early on and had been wanting to personally extend him forgiveness for many years. I, in turn, relayed how it took me much longer to realize my moral obligation to provide my victim's family with a personal apology but had also been seeking such an opportunity for a number of years. Bernie and I also exchanged testimonials of how our mutual Christian faith--his of longstanding and mine of more recent origin--had both compelled and enabled us to seek reconciliation with our counterparts. We further compared the long-term effects murder had had on us. Amazingly, Bernie spoke only of how he and his family had been able to put their tremendous loss behind them and were doing well. I described how I have been able to find a sense of purpose in this dismal place through teaching math classes to fellow prisoners seeking college enrollment and by assisting them in discovering the many benefits of restorative justice practices. 

Our visit was very cordial, extremely therapeutic, and completely devoid of any fear or hostility. It ended too soon with multiple handshakes, plans for a sequel, and a request for Bernie to become my mentor--a request he readily granted. 

None of this would have been possible if we had not pursued a personal visit following the MDOC's denial of a formal reconciliation process; none of this would have been remarkable if it had not been me that had taken the life of Bernie's son. 
-- Scott Wynne #247226