It is run by a woman with a criminal history and astonishing courage, Jackie Katounas. Jackie had
been convicted of 138 crimes and spent much of her
adult life in jail, when she decided to straighten up.
Drawing on her experiences, she has found purpose
and joy in going back into jails to help others.

With her she takes groups of people who have suffered the consequences of crime and are willing
to share their experiences with offenders, however
vulnerable it makes them feel. Jackie manages the
encounters confidently, and ensures there is plenty
of support available for both parties.

Jackie and others run a restorative justice programme of organised meetings between victims and offenders called The Sycamore Tree, named after the Biblical tax-collector Zaccheaus who had a change of heart. The programme is funded by Prison Fellowship of New Zealand and the Department of Corrections.

Over the last 3 years it has involved about 100 victims and 100 offenders, in prisons including Rimutaka Prison (Upper Hutt), Arohata Women's Prison (Porirua), Hawkes Bay Prison (Napier), Manawatu Prison (Palmerston North) and Paremoremo Prison (Auckland).

The programme aims to promote feelings of victim
empathy within the hearts of offenders, encouraging
them to think about both reconciliation and restoration.

"I am passionate about the work because it produces results, I think it has a huge impact," says Jackie. "We've had glowing evaluations in terms of the thoughts and feelings of participants, and what it
meant to them."

"When the victims are sharing their stories, you can see it affecting the hearts of these guys (the offenders). They are feeling for these people,
empathizing with them."

Though the victims at the meetings are not those
directly affected by the individual offenders present,
their stories promote understanding of what the
offender's own victims are likely to have experienced. "It gives offenders good information to start putting things right with people they've caused harm to," says Jackie.

And whereas victims might agree to participate
with a desire to help offenders, they often also find
they emerge from the process with a greater sense of
resolution and forgiveness about the crime they've
suffered.

Jackie works hard to find those special people who have experienced crime and are strong enough to face discussing their experiences with offenders. They are often found through churches, but non-Christians are also welcome.

Offenders are referred by prison staff, chaplains and
social workers, and are screened to ensure their
sincerity. It is expected that the programme will result in lower rates of re-offending, but statistics will only become clear over a number of years.

"We're planting seeds for offenders who have spent a life-time offending. Very often it's the first time they've considered the effect on the victim and I
believe it has a profound impact." Emotions are particularly strong for those who have been affected
by, or perpetrated, traumatic crimes such as rape or
murder.

To balance such strong emotions, and facilitate the
building of trust and honesty, Jackie uses video clips
and 'fun' exercises. Each programme consists of
eight two-hour sessions.

Jackie's own troubled history began with a painful
childhood; followed by 17 years of avoiding what
had happened through drugs and crime; until finally
she felt so low she decided to return home and face
her past. Jackie describes a "significant encounter"
she then had with one of her victims, in which she
was confronted with the effect her crime had on this
person's life. "From that point on, I was never going
to offend again," she said. "I started to explore the
concept of victim-offender face-to-face meetings."

She became a Christian and began to use Christian
networks to support her work. Jackie became a
founding member of a charitable trust called Hawkes Bay Restorative Justice Inc., and bravely began organising victim-offender meetings.

Beginning her work in Hawkes Bay Regional Prison, supported by the Crime Prevention Unit, Jackie then began to expand the programme more widely under the Prison Fellowship of New Zealand.

PFNZ has recently secured funding from the Department of Corrections for Jackie to train
facilitators to run the Sycamore Tree programme in 8
prisons over the next year. These prisons include
Manawatu, Rimutaka, Invercargill, Waikeria
(Waikato), Wanganui, Christchurch and Auckland.

Prison Fellowship national director Kim Workman
says that the Government has recognized the
importance of restorative justice principles in the
Sentencing, Parole and Victims Rights Acts of 2002,
and the Corrections Act, due to be released in 2005.

"Mediation, reparation and reconciliation are essential features of the traditional Maori and Pacific Island justice systems," explained Mr Workman.

"We find that prisoners from those ethnic groups
particularly respond positively to an opportunity to
restore relationships."

This article originally appeared in Inside Out: the official newsletter of Prison Fellowship New Zealand and is reprinted here by permission. For more information about PF New Zealand please see http://www.pfnz.org.nz/