Victim-Offender Dialogue Now an Option for Victims of Crime in Michigan

Over the last several decades, a grassroots movement has been growing in the world of criminal justice reform. This movement centers around redefining justice as restorative rather than simply retributive. While it is perhaps easier to view justice as the strong gavel of the law slamming down on a judge's desk, frequently sentencing offenders to long prison sentences for breaking state or federal laws, this restorative-focused idea of justice recognizes that crime is primarily a violation of people and relationships.

Proponents of restorative justice initiatives recognize that while victims may achieve some sense of satisfaction in seeing an offender sentenced for his or her crime, real healing of the wounds of crime does not take place for these victims because the criminal justice system maintains a strict wall of separation between victim and offender. This wall often means that victims are unable to effectively communicate to the offender the harms they experienced, to ask questions of the offender, or to actively participate in designing a rehabilitation or restitution plan for the offender. This wall also means that offenders are unable to effectively express remorse, apologize to the victim, and attempt to make right the wrongs they have done. This has been a constant frustration for me since I long to right my wrongs!

As this movement of redefining justice has been growing, some victims have wanted to reach out to those who harmed them, either directly or through a third-party mediator. Yet, the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) has had strict rules in place prohibiting such dialogue. These policies may have been put into place originally to protect victims from being re-victimized, but now legislators are recognizing that victims need a way to take control of their own healing.

In 2017 the Michigan legislature passed Senate Bill 8, Act No. 5, which modified Michigan's law, making victim-offender dialogue with offenders possible. This bill centers around increasing victim satisfaction with the Michigan criminal justice system, a worthy objective for legislators who have traditionally been more offender-focused than victim-focused. With such a goal in mind, the new law mandates that the MDOC "facilitate victim-offender dialogue if the victim is willing" (MCL 793.33(3)(e)).

Because this language is so new to Michigan, most victims do not yet know about it or have the support networks in place to take advantage of this tool for healing. Victim's rights and advocacy groups, as well as restorative justice programs, must develop processes to facilitate these victim-offender dialogues in such a way where victims experience the healing they seek. Victims also need to be educated that this option is available to them.

Victim-offender dialogue can be scary for both victims and offenders, but if true healing is to take place, healing that centers on the violation of the victim and her or his relationships, victims must have a voice in the process. Victim-offender dialogue is often empowering for victims, but to make use of this process, victims must first know that it is available.