RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — Peacemaking circles make a difference in a community.
“Nationwide, crime goes down where there are Restorative Justice Programs in the community. Recidivism drops significantly as a result of participating in RJ,” according to Volunteer Mediator and Program Coordinator for the Center For Restorative Justice, Connie Pich.
The CFRJ hosted a training session last week as part of its volunteer mediation program in Rapid City. Harley Eagle and Rose Rowlands facilitated the training program held on May 25 and 26.
Eagle of Winnipeg, Canada lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for seven years. He has a degree in Peacemaking and just spent two weeks at the United Nations facilitating peacemaking prior to coming to Rapid City.
Rowlands of Whitehorse, Yukon Canada, near the Arctic Circle, together with Eagle, has been creating peacemaking circles and sentencing circles all over Canada. The Canadian judicial system realizes that there are more ways to create change in people besides incarceration and punishment.
The need for the judicial process in the Rapid City area to include peacemaking circles was recognized by community members in the judicial system and law enforcement, therapists and counselors, and others who have seen the tragedy of repeat offenses in the adult and juvenile justice systems.
Fifteen years ago, the CFRJ in Rapid City began bringing people together to help heal relationships in local communities where there are conflicts or problematic differences. Last year alone the CFRJ, a non-profit organization, supported with a grant from the John T. Vucurevich Foundation, heard two hundred cases.
Joanne Conroy, an Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge who has been the Executive Director of the CFRJ for the last year and a half, along with twelve volunteer mediators and four office volunteers, are dedicated to implementing a system of conflict resolution based on peacemaking circles.
“Each mediator is a trained volunteer from the community,” said Pich.
They receive nothing more than travel expenses as compensation for providing the invaluable service that they do for our community.
“Our mediators are dedicated to the restorative justice process,” said Conroy, “and they come from all walks of life, bringing with them many different life experiences.”
“The new Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tim Standing Soldier, is very dedicated to restorative justice and is involved in other organizations that help families to keep teens from entering the juvenile justice system,” said Conroy.
Most referrals come from the justice system, community workers, business owners or organizations.
“The majority of victims do not have a voice in the judicial system. They never get to meet with the person who victimized them and most of the time they are not really heard in court except when they are needed as a witness. Look at the additional harm this has created here. The victim has a wound inside and so does the offender. When both of these wounds are not addressed it affects the families and the community for generations,” Pich, a former psychotherapist said.
Pich stated that mediations are done between the person who has created harm and the person who was harmed, sometimes referred to as the offender and the victim, in cases ranging from family business disputes to violent crimes and generational trauma.
“In peacemaking circles everyone, the mediators, victim and the offender, are all in the circle together. Only one person can talk at a time. Injustice profoundly damages more than just one person, that is why everybody needs a chance to really be heard without anybody interrupting,” Pich said.
Circle sessions can last for hours and can go on for several months. Pich described the steps involved, saying that, initially, although this is a victim-centered program, two or three mediators will meet with the offender, The mediators ask the offender three basic questions: What happened? How were you affected? What do you need to do to restore the victim to wholeness?
“The most important thing is for them to say it out loud and know that somebody is really listening,” Pich said. “The impact of entering the judicial system to the offenders’ lives and the lives of their families, often with destroyed relationships, is ignored by the justice system.”
Collateral damage to the community as a whole results from this impact. Constant legal ramifications and cost to the offenders and their families make it so that people can never get on their feet. An offender being placed in the justice system does not usually result in justice for the victim or the community, according to Pich.
Victim Impact Panels, held once a month, are court ordered. “People who have offended sit in a group for two hours and listen to people who have been victimized and how it changed their lives forever,” said Pich. “At the end they say ‘I had no idea how I must have changed these peoples’ lives and the harm I did to them and their families.” Pich said, “In every circle I have done there has been one person who has let go of their reasons to justify what they did to another person.”
Next, the victim is called to come with their support system and three questions are asked: What happened? How has it affected you? What would restore you to wholeness?
“When a person who is harmed has a chance to talk about what was happening to them that day or what they were thinking about that day (when the offense occurred) in a non-judgmental, safe atmosphere, they can find tremendous healing,” said Pich. She added that peace of mind and healing can come from understanding what was happening before they were harmed.
If the offender shows remorse and intent to begin the healing process then the two parties are brought together for full mediations and the same three questions are asked once again. “It takes guts to sit in a room with someone and truly apologize and try to make things right,” said Pich.
“A lot of our cases involve generational trauma incurred by the boarding schools. Children who were taken from their parents and placed in a violent environment never learned parenting skills. There is a cycle of domestic abuse and addiction to cover the pain, which is passed on from one generation to the next.”
In cases involving substance abuse, the first step, according to Pich, is treatment for the addiction. “The person being treated will have a chance to uncover the pain underneath that is fueling their addiction. Recovery is a slow process,” she said, “until five years sober, they don’t recommend that people look into Adult Child of Alcoholic issues because it’s so painful. There are also co-dependency issues with the families of alcoholics or addicts.”
The ground breaking will begin this fall for the new Pine Ridge Justice Center. It will have a circular courtroom. “Rose comes down with Harley a lot and have been helping to train people to do the peacemaking circles. They are going to teach volunteers how to implement sentencing circles,” said Pich.
The next peacemaking circle mediator training will be in September. One of the trainers will be Dr. Mark Umbreit, who established the Center for Peace at the University of Minnesota, where you can get a degree in Peacemaking. Umbreit has recently helped with conflict resolution between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Pich said that South Africa, realized their country had to do something to heal from the horrible acts, which individuals had inflicted upon one another during Apartheid. They are now doing peacemaking circles as a nation.
Pich said, in closing, “All of our sessions end with the song, Let There Be Peace On Earth and Let It Begin With Me.”
(Contact Aly Duncan Neely at: prairiedog59@hotmail.com)
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