Search results for category: Offender SupportUnder the new process, most convicted felons -- as many as eight out of 10, according to Crist's office -- will automatically have their rights restored.
lorida moved Thursday to allow felons to more easily get their civil rights back after they serve their sentences, moving a step away from what some called an unfair remnant of a darker past. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pushed the change, saying the rights to vote, hold office and serve on a jury were fundamental to being part of a democratic society.
After weeks of behind-the-scenes lobbying, Gov. Charlie Crist appears to have the two votes on the Cabinet he needs to restore civil rights to many ex-offenders. Crist has called a meeting Thursday of the Board of Executive Clemency to consider changing a system that thrust Florida into the national spotlight as a state with some of the highest barriers to citizenship for felons who have served their time.
ichael Rosado says he never meant to start the fire at Amelia's Grocery Outlet. He was 16 when he and a friend were just trying to entertain themselves, he said, while Rosado's mother shopped. When the teens found an opened lighter in the store's hardware department, they played with it for a few minutes before moving to the next aisle.
Kory Douglas of the Lafayette County Victim/Witness Program in the District Attorney's Office, said the program is certainly beneficial. "It's a great opportunity for the victims to be able to address their offenders and for the offenders to be able to apologize Š to face the victims so that they are able to be a close-knit community," she said.
Scott Saunders, co-owner of Just Foam, said he planned to relocate to another space in Oceanside and rebuild the business with his 23 employees. Saunders, a surfer and lay minister who lives in San Clemente, said his company is part business and part ministry. As part of his work with the nonprofit Prison Fellowship, Saunders started Just Foam about two years ago to provide employment for former convicts and people in rehab programs.
He also had a problem, but didn't quite know it. The loss of his parents, his traumatic life as a child, had left him wracked with pain. He turned to alcohol, drugs, and eventually, he turned to crime. He was wasting away his young life until, one day in court, he was given a chance to turn his life around. He now had an opportunity to make a difference -- he agreed to meet the people he had hurt and he agreed to make amends. Unwittingly, the seed for what is now referred to as Restorative Justice had been planted from his involvement in what is internationally known as "The Elmira Case". It was a drunken rampage that changed legal history!
The press called Martin's actions a "crime spree." Already convicted of armed robbery, Martin was facing the death penalty. In less than two weeks the jury would decide his fate. Terrified that his son would be sentenced to die, Phillip did the only thing he felt he could do: in an act of faith and desperation in his garage with the car exhaust running, Phillip made the consummate sacrifice to spare his son the ultimate punishment. Ironically, his suicide presented Martin's with another chance at life; the jury, moved by Martin's loss, spared his life.
Often, offenders tend toward what Dr. Kenney calls the ‘I’ve suffered, so don’t make it any worse’ syndrome, while victims then counter with how much they’ve suffered as a result of the offender’s actions. “It becomes an adversarial process centred around who’s the bigger victim.”
He was a real teenage tearaway: stealing and taking a knife to school until he was expelled. Yet for a 16-year-old it was only once he met one of his victims and apologised that he finally saw the damage he was causing.
|
RJ Today
Categories:
Community Action (87)
Courts (43)
Crime Prevention (38)
Law Enforcement (56)
Offender Support (76)
Prisons (21)
Public Education (132)
Restorative Systems (93)
Victim Support (130)
|
Copyright 2007-2008 Prison Fellowship International -
Reprint Policy