"They were very honest, a lot more honest than I wanted them to be. But I see that I did hurt them in a lot of ways and I plan on restoring that relationship we once had." This was the response of Lequan when he was asked how his family answered his request for letters telling him how they felt about the crime he had committed and the aftermath of that offense.

Lequan was about to read letters from his mother and his grandmother, his younger brother and his father to three people who recently had taken on a temporary role in his life. He began by removing a small sheet of paper from an envelope and said, "With this one, I cried. It was the first letter I ever received from my grandmother. The worst thing I can do is to disappoint my grandmother. It hurts knowing that she knows."

Lequan at 23 has six months left of a 30 month sentence he received when he was found guilty of selling drugs. The final phase of his incarceration is being lived out at the Western Mass Correctional Alcohol Center on Howard Street in the South End of Springfield.

It’s from there that he’s escorted by a correctional officer to his monthly meetings with the volunteer members of the Community Accountability Board held at the Urban League on State St. in the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield. That’s the local community to which he’ll return.

The letters from his family were the result of apologies and letters individual family members had received from him as part of an assignment given to Lequan by the three members of his board. This written exchange was a means of helping Lequan come to a greater awareness of the victims, the many people he’s hurt because of his actions and the negative choices he’s made.

Presently, there are six community accountability boards meeting monthly in five different sections of Springfield. Three more are being planned for Holyoke. They are representative of a concentrated effort on the part of the Correctional System of Hampden County to implement the principles of Restorative Justice during the incarceration of offenders.

In less than four years, the number of incarcerated men and women in the United States grew from 1.2 million to two million by the year 2000. That statistic alone seems to be an indication that something in this nation’s criminal justice system needs to be rethought and reworked.

James E. Kelliher, Assistant Superintendent in the Sheriff’s Department of Hampden County, agrees. In view of that growth rate he believes, "It is time that we reassess and challenge our methodology in addressing the harmful and damaging consequences associated with criminal behavior. Applying the principles of Restorative Justice should be the measure to gauge our effectiveness."

The thinking espoused by the principles of Restorative Justice sees crime as primarily an offense against human relationships and secondarily as a violation of a law. From this perspective, crime is seen as harm committed against individuals rather than against the state.

Restorative Justice recognizes that the primary victims of a crime are those most affected by the offender’s actions. This philosophy also recognizes that secondary victims are impacted as well. These secondary victims include the victim’s family, the offender’s family, and the broader community.

Through the lens of this approach, the primary focus then is not so much on punishing the offender as it is on providing the offender opportunities to repair the harm caused by his/her actions. Ways for including the offender, victim, and community in determining the mode of reparation are sought and developed. This results in the offender becoming accountable for responsibly following the plan determined by the community-based group for the repair of the harm done.

The tenets of this philosophy work toward restoring victims, empowering them, and responding to their needs as they themselves see them. They also encourage a continuing search for meaningful ways to involve communities in responding to the causes of crime in their particular areas.

This philosophy began to be named in 1974 when a Mennonite probation officer and a volunteer service director called together a group of concerned members of a rural community in Ontario, Canada. Through that collaboration, the principles of restorative justice became a norm for the criminal justice system there.

In addition as a result of that collaborative effort, a more humane and efficient approach to such systems has begun to evolve in this country. States like Minnesota and Vermont have demonstrated some degree of success in following this thinking. The western section of Massachusetts is doing so as well.

Kelliher considers his participation in a December 1996 National Institute of Corrections sponsored video-conference on Restorative Justice hosted by the Franklin County Reinventing Justice Collaborative as "the catalyst that literally changed my perception of the way we in criminal justice should conduct business."

Soon after, that new perception inspired him to gather representatives from a variety of departments and agencies to work together in the initiation of the Hampden County Restorative Justice Collaborative. It also helped him and his co-workers name and build on their already existing programs.

He explained, "In Hampden County, we are fortunate to have a Sheriff who has not only been receptive to, but who has encouraged the practice of Restorative Justice for many years. The programs and initiatives developed and practiced here such as community service and crime prevention programs had not been formally labeled as ‘Restorative Justice’ per se, but rather were instituted because they made ‘common sense’ and constituted ‘the right thing to do’."

Michael J. Ashe, Hampden County’s Sheriff for the past 26 years sees the work he’s involved in as more than just locking criminals away. He said, "What we’re trying to do is integrate into the lives of the offenders the sense that when they’re stealing an automobile or they’re breaking into a home, they’re violating peoples’ privacy, their rights. Our job is to educate them and to raise that level of consciousness about the rights of the victim and also the rights of the community."

The heart of this philosophy is not new. It has biblical roots and certainly echoes the teachings of the New Testament. It also is reflective of the concern and hope that Pope John Paul II evoked in July of 2000 when he wrote:

"We are still a long way from the time when our conscience can be certain of having done everything possible to prevent crime and to control it effectively so that it no longer does harm and, at the same time, to offer to those who commit crimes a way of redeeming themselves and making a positive return to society . If all those involved in the problem tried to develop this line of thought, perhaps humanity as a whole could take a great step forward in creating a more serene and peaceful society."

"Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration, A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice", a statement published by the Catholic bishops of the U.S. in December of 2000, begins with that papal quotation. In the document’s introduction the motivation for this timely publication is clearly expressed:

"A Catholic approach begins with the recognition that the dignity of the human person applies to both victim and offender. As bishops, we believe that the current trend of more prisons and more executions, with too little education and drug treatment, does not truly reflect Christian values and will not leave our communities safer."

The bishops continue, "We are convinced that our tradition and our faith offer better alternatives that can hold offenders accountable and challenge them to change their lives; reach out to victims and reject vengeance; restore a sense of community and resist the violence that has engulfed so much of our culture."

Sister of St. Joseph Carol Allan, who works within District Attorney William Bennett’s Office as the Community Prosecution Coordinator, was one of the early members of the Restorative Justice Collaborative in Hampden County. Regarding the Bishops’ Statement, she commented:

"I have to say that there wasn’t a more poignant time for the bishops to come out with a statement on rehabilitation and restoration. I think that we’re at a juncture within society that is looking to address issues regarding crime differently. It gives me great hope as a Sister of St. Joseph working in a legal field that our U.S. bishops are looking at the same things we’re looking at."

Another Sister of St. Joseph, Mary Quinn, has more recently joined this effort. For the past year and a half, she has worked within the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office and with the Hampden County Restorative Justice Collaborative to help develop, create, and oversee the programs that implement this philosophy here.

Because so much of the area of Hampden County is urban, Sister Quinn, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Restorative Justice Collaborative have added challenges to face. How can offenders committing crimes within the anonymity of a city be helped to develop a real sense of the people they’ve hurt? Can they ever experience themselves as positive contributors to the community’ s good?

Much of the focus of Sister Quinn’s initial period of work has been to assist in finding ways for such questions to be answered. Some answers started surfacing through the Victim Impact Program which the Sheriff’s Office has been offering for the past two years.

In describing that education process, Sister Quinn said, "During that six to eight week program, offenders really learn about the harm they’ve caused victims and community." She hopes to help augment that learning further through the development of a victim/offender dialogue program which she and her collaborators are striving to initiate sometime in the near future.

Sister Quinn’s primary responsibility has been to help continue the growth and the organization of the Community Accountability Boards. Offenders in the pre-release stage of incarceration who have participated in the Victim Impact Program are encouraged to continue their preparation for release by participating in one such board.

During the four to five monthly sessions when offenders like Lequan meet with the community volunteers who form their particular boards, more learning happens. Offenders are challenged to experience what accountability to the community means.

Sister Quinn explained, "In essence what the volunteers say to an offender is, ‘We’re here to talk with you about your victimizing, your harming the community. That’s what we need to focus on.’ There’s that fine line that the volunteers walk, I think, in trying to be supportive but also really challenging to each offender."

Beth Coombs who works as a family mediator for the Center for Human Development (CHD) is one of the volunteers who has gone through the screening and training process for membership on a community accountability board. She participates in the board that meets at the Urban League.

In talking about the board’s process she said, "This interaction is a way of putting a personal face on both sides of the conversation around crime. It’s so easy to make judgments about somebody you don’t know."

She added, "We wouldn’t have the many problems we have in society if people really talked and listened to each other. I also have a really strong bias toward accountability. That’s important on every level of life."

Tangala Sales , who also works for CHD, is also a volunteer whose board meets at Mason Square. She became involved with this community accountability process because she wants her young daughter to feel safe.

In saying, "I feel that people do deserve a second chance", she expressed another motivation for her participation. She added, "I believe that there are people out there who have been incarcerated and still make a difference in our community."

Someone who fits that description is Laura Scanlan. She spent 14 years of her life in what she now recognizes as "14 years of hell, absolute horror", lost in the blur of her drug and alcohol addiction. She spent the next 15 months in prison, convicted of selling drugs.

Scanlan sadly remembered, "I lost my two kids when I went to prison. My family took my babies. My mother would come to Framingham and visit me and cry. My children would cry and I just watched."

She added, "I found freedom in prison." Prison provided her the time and the help she needed to begin her painful journey toward sobriety. She’s been sober, without drugs and alcohol for the past nine years.

During these years, Scanlan married her husband Dan, reclaimed her two children and gave birth to two more. She’s managed to be productive at two jobs and is about to start her training for a new one as a corrections officer at the Hampden County House of Corrections.

She’s also giving back to the community she hurt by volunteering her service as a member of a community accountability board. Her board meets at Holy Family rectory in Springfield.

Scanlan described a moment when she came to a new awareness driving home from Western New England College with her husband Dan, also an offender, now sober, volunteering his service as part of a board. They were returning home from a training to ready themselves for their board participation.

She recalled, "We were driving along and I began to cry, to sob. I never realized till that moment how many people I hurt by what I did. It was like an awakening. It was very painful, but healing because I could move on."

Lequan hopes to move on as well. He said, "I still have a very supportive family and hopefully with their support and the good people I surround myself with I should be okay."

He added, "I read something from Malcom X that said that he puts jail second to college when a man needs to think. I’ve really had a lot of time to think and find out who Lequan is and that’s something I wouldn’t be able to do if I was out on the street. I’m just trying to find out who I am because I realize I always lived a lie."

( For more on Restorative Justice tune in to "Real to Reel" on Palm Sunday, April 8 at 11a.m. on WWLP-TV22.)