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All stories from Latin America

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• Argentina |
• Brazil |
• Chile |
• Ecuador |
• Bolivia |
• Colombia |
• Costa Rica

A Life-Saving Prison

Jefferson knows about the lure of crime. Like so many ex-prisoners, he discovered that freedom from confinement does not mean freedom from problems. When he left prison at the age of 32, Jefferson had to find a job despite the stigma of a prison sentence and Brazil’s 9 percent unemployment rate. With 31 percent of Brazilians living below the poverty line, few seem to have sympathy for the prisoner.

Explaining Restorative Justice in Colombia

Dan Van Ness, PFI’s Executive Director of the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, recently travelled to Colombia to help PF Colombia in its ongoing efforts to promote restorative justice among criminal justice professionals.

35 Years of Helping Prisoners

More than fifteen Prison Fellowship organisations around the world are operating faith-based prison units that offer invaluable spiritual and moral training to inmates.

Facilitating Reconciliation

Usually the Sycamore Tree Project® brings together victims with “unrelated” offenders, but PF Colombia recently held an STP programme in Bellavista Prison where victims met with the offenders who actually victimized them.

Assisting Foreign Prisoners in Chile

For several years, PF Chile staff and volunteers noticed the difficulties faced by foreign prisoners in Chilean prisons. Most were in prison for drug trafficking and faced many difficulties in obtaining the necessary legal assistance. In 1998, PF Chile began providing this assistance through it legal department.

PF Chile Expands APAC-based Units to More Prisons

After launching the country’s first APAC-based prison unit earlier this year for 100 inmates in Iquique, Chile, PF is helping the national chaplaincy organisation to develop the faith-based units in 14 more prisons.

Dialogue for Peace in Colombia

In January, PF Colombia began a roundtable discussion on creating a peace process using the paradigm of restorative justice. The series of meetings, held in one of the country’s major prisons, brought together members of different groups participating in the ongoing conflict – paramilitary and guerrilla -- as well as researchers in restorative justice from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, representatives of the Medellín city government and members of PF Colombia.

Police Training in Colombia

In October 2006, PF Colombia Board Chairperson Lácides Hernandez served as an instructor in a training course covering restorative justice theory and practice for Medellín Metropolitan police.

Preparing Prisoners for Release

In the state of Entre Rios, Prison Fellowship Argentina, Catholic Prison Pastoral, Baptist Prison Ministry, “Patronato de Liberados” (parole) are working together in the provision of a pre-release programme for prisoners who are ninety days from obtaining conditional release.

ADR in Bolivia

Early this year, the Oruro branch of PF Bolivia opened the Charles Colson Conciliation Centre. Having received official recognition from the Ministry of Justice, the centre has five certified conciliators providing alternative dispute resolution services in civil, family, and penal disputes.

Working for Peace in Colombia

Recently, Lácides Hernandez, board chairperson of PF Colombia, participated in a meeting between representatives of the Colombian government and the guerrilla group Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) in Havana, Cuba. The purpose of this meeting was to develop an agenda for a peace process.

Defending the Poor

On the day he was released from prison he began looking for work. He knew his family had suffered during his time in prison and he desperately wanted to begin providing for them again. It was difficult going. Then one afternoon, a few days later, the police came and accused him of committing a robbery in the area. He was summarily arrested and dragged off to prison. As an ex-prisoner, his guilt was readily assumed. Unable to afford legal help, his conviction is all but assured. His situation is bad, and his family’s welfare is worse than ever. He feels totally isolated, forgotten and alone.

A Sycamore Tree Project® Story From Costa Rica

The Sycamore Tree Project® is an in prison restorative justice programme bringing together groups of unrelated victims and offenders to explore issues related to crime. Over a course of 5-8 meetings, the groups discuss crime, its impact, and ways to make things right. Miguel Tello, restorative justice programme manager for the Centre, facilitated the first Sycamore Tree Project® in Costa Rica. In this article, he shares his reflections on the experience.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

The Gospels are an amazing story of reconciliation. It is the heart of the Christian message. Yet reconciliation is not the first thing that comes into the minds of innocent victims who suffer a loss or an injustice. People who lose a loved one to a violent crime will often feel bitter, angry and resentful. Seldom would anyone be inclined to think first of forgiveness and being reconciled to the offender in such circumstances. As difficult as the process of reconciliation is, a growing number of PF ministries are responding to the challenge of helping victims and offenders grow beyond the pain and anger and alienation of their experiences. The results are often miraculous.

Sycamore Tree Project® in Colombia

PF Colombia has recently completed its first two Sycamore Tree Projects®. One took place in Bellavista prison, involving prisoners convicted of murder and victims who had lost loved ones to murder. The second was in a Medellín neighbourhood that has been racked by violence. Following is one of several stories related by Lácides Hernandez, Board Chairperson of PF Colombia:

APAC-Offering Hope for the Burdened

Ten years ago, Roberto was burdened by despair and hopelessness. The source of his misery, however, wasn’t the 25-year prison sentence he was serving, or even having to share a cell with 30 other prisoners in a space built for just six. His anguish came from a place within him that felt utterly unloved. “I began to believe that people didn’t love me, that my family no longer loved me, that even God didn’t love me anymore,” he now recalls. “I believed I was the trash of society, with no value,” he adds.

Growing Interest in Innovative Prison Management System

Prison Fellowship affiliates are running prison regimes that represent unique changes in prison management. These changes are based of the methodology developed by the Association for Protection and Assistance to the Convicted (APAC), the PF affiliate in Brazil. The APAC methodology creates a strong community environment among prisoners and volunteers that fosters spiritual, behavioral and lifestyle changes.

Developments from Colombia

In December of 2002, the Colombian National Congress made several changes to article 250 of the Constitution of 1991, which addresses the obligations of the prosecutor in investigation and prosecution of criminal cases.

Site Description: APAC Etre Rios

The APAC Method is in the process of being implemented in four prisons in the Entre Rios Province of Argentina. The Entre Rios Province Prison Pastoral Team of Prison Fellowship Argentina is carrying out this work. Known as APAC de ENTRE RIOS, the Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted of Entre Rios, APACER is a civil volunteer association with its legal address in the city of Concordia in the Province of Entre Rios. It does not as yet have any fully-fledged residential APAC units, but is working with individuals and groups of prisoners in four prisons.

Site Description: Quito and Guayaquil

Since its inception in 1984, Confraternidad Carcelaria del Ecuador (CCE) has concentrated its efforts along the following: (a.) evangelisation in order to reach as many of the prisoners as possible, and (b.) CCE has developed its own distinct APAC Method, based on the Brazilian APAC Model.