At the launch of his long-awaited policy review, partly aimed at the local elections bit also to put his final imprint on future plans, Tony Blair will set out a vision of personalised public services and early intervention. The prime minister will insist it is no longer good enough for public services to be shaped by providers rather than the taxpayers who fund them.

This is what we observed: the mother of an adult son killed in his jail cell in conversation with the man convicted of his murder; a young woman confronting the man she used to call "da da" and who strangled her mother to death when she was four years old; and, a new mother reconciling with the man she trusted most in the world who one random evening raped her at knife point while she begged for mercy. This is no touchy-feeley extravaganza. This is the hard, courageous work of of reconciliation and emotional healing in response to the most heinous crimes imaginable.

A man wrongly imprisoned nearly 25 years for rape is set to get a $1.2 million payback from the state. Today, the Georgia House will consider paying Robert Clark that much in restitution for his time in prison for a 1981 attack before DNA evidence cleared his name two years ago.

The group is made up of Board members, staff from the YJB [Youth Justice Board] strategy directorate, police officers, managers from youth offending teams (YOTs) and from the secure estate. They will continue to meet regularly to develop and implement project plans for extending and improving the use of restorative justice, to consult with partners and to develop a longer term strategy. A consultation period for practitioners followed the launch of the Action Plan and many useful reponses were received from YOTs and the secure estate as well as from important partners such as the Restorative Justice Consortium and NACRO.

Without a guilty verdict this woman has nothing. Her polytech can’t even guarantee that she won’t have to see the man who raped her. To do this is to choose the abuser over the abused, because it is those who have least power who will feel compelled to move on. The justice system doesn’t care what survivors of sexual violence want, or what they need to get on with their life. There is no way for a woman to say: “I want to live a life free of the man who raped me” without first proving that he raped you beyond reasonable doubt... . We all know that most rape cases will not result in convictions. We must be able to offer those who have been raped something more than the responsibility to avoid their rapist.

Healing and reconciliation are integral to the journey of forgiveness, the Rev. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who serves as the director of the Institute for the Healing of Memories based in Cape Town, South Africa, told the Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) conference gathered in Boksburg March 10. Restitution and reparation are part of the journey, he added.