Prisoner-Victim Mediation Works in Germany

Peter Brandhorst

The prisoner resembles an oak tree, with his arms and neck covered by a collection of various tattoos. He is only just about to turn 26 but this young man who grew up in a home and started taking drugs at the age of 14, is already serving out his third prison sentence. One time he smashed someone’s nose and another time someone’s whole face. “They insulted me,” he explains today, “and then I hammered into them.” The idea of being able to resolve conflicts in any other way had never occurred to him.
For a few months he has been voluntarily undergoing a victim-empathy training course along with several other prisoners from the Correctional Facility of the City of Kiel (JVA Kiel). This course is a pilot project being held at the JVA Kiel and at the Schleswig Juvenile Institution (JA Schleswig) as part of a European research project led by scientists at the Kiel University of Applied Sciences. The aim is to develop ways of making offenders aware of the pain their victims suffer, prevent them from reoffending and at the same time give victims an opportunity to deal with their traumatic experiences in a better way. When asked by visitors to the JVA Kiel what he had learned so far, the young convict responded: “that victims are just people too,” adding, “I hadn’t ever thought about it that way before.”
Visits to the JA Schleswig and the JVA Kiel were part of an international symposium in Kiel which brought together scientists and practitioners from nine European countries working in the field of restorative justice between offenders and victims – better known in Germany in the form of victim-offender mediation schemes. So far in Germany these mediation programmes have been conducted almost exclusively before court proceedings, mostly following minor or mid-level crimes. It is hoped that the research project, which is being coordinated by the Schleswig-Holstein Association for Social Responsibility in Criminal Justice (Victim and Offender Treatment) on behalf of the EU, will develop guidelines that can be applied across Europe in order to allow for the regular provision of victim-offender mediation processes after court proceedings and also in the event of serious crimes.
Minister of Justice Anke Spoorendonk (of the SSW party) highlighted the significance of such modern victim-offender mediation programs right at the start of the conference and announced that very soon Schleswig-Holstein would be incorporating substantial parts of the research results achieved to date into the work at both its juvenile and adult detention facilities. The corresponding law on juvenile detention is already being debated in parliament, while the new law on adult detention should be approved by the cabinet at the end of the year and discussed in parliamentary debates at the start of next year.
In the future, the law will grant victims and offenders the opportunity to seek contact with one another in the context of a victim-offender mediation scheme, even after legal proceedings have taken place. Participation is voluntary; offenders and victims should be prepared for their meeting by mediators and be accompanied by them. According to Spoorendonk, the state of Schleswig-Holstein is once again leading the way, this time in the use of modern mediation procedures. While all other federal states are reporting declining or stagnating numbers taking part in the current mediation procedures, Schleswig-Holstein is already witnessing a clear increase – in the case of youth mediation the figures have more than doubled, from over 300 to almost 700 cases per year. In addition Schleswig-Holstein will soon be one of the only federal states, alongside Baden-Württemberg and Bremen, to promote the extended mediation scheme that is available even after a legal procedure.
Speaking to HEMPELS, Spoorendonk voiced her expectation that through the use of mediation programmes the problem of repeat offending would be clearly reduced. In addition victims would not only remain in their role as witnesses before court, but they can be shown the way to obtaining personal and material redress. The Minister of Justice has the support of the Public Prosecution Office in Schleswig. The Chief Senior Public Prosecutor, Wolfgang Müller-Gabriel, spoke to Hempels during the conference about an “ideal model that brings together the interests of three parties – society, victims and offenders”.
The successful implementation of such procedures was demonstrated at the Kiel conference using the examples of the pilot projects being conducted at the JA Schleswig and the JVA Kiel. In Schleswig, victims and offenders who had previously had no connection were brought together. Ricarda Lummer, a research assistant at Kiel University of Applied Sciences, explained that these conditions helped offenders develop a sense of empathy for the pain suffered by victims. For their part, victims explained how after the meeting they had found a way to “pose questions and perhaps finally lay the issue to rest”.
During the conference it was also made clear that for many victims of crime dealing with their traumatic experiences is still a difficult process, even years later. Speaking with offenders and confronting what happened to them once again can rip open wounds that they thought had healed. Speakers from many countries pointed to the importance of qualified mediation support, while researcher Lummer underlined the work done by victim support associations to communicate the “huge benefits of victim-offender mediation programmes” to victims of crime. Against this background Minister of Justice Spoorendonk announced that the state government had voted in favour of a “qualification offensive for mediation professionals”.
The young convict from the JVA Kiel has not yet met any of his victims. He admits to being scared, “I have come to understand what I have done to them”. First of all he wants to write letters to some of them asking for forgiveness, “in order to find my own peace of mind. Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I did”.

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