Services

The CSJR can help you heal your wounds, to take back control of your life allowing you to move on. You will be able to ask offenders questions, you will share your pain and listen to theirs, you will understand and be understood.

Recognizing the diversity among people, we offer a wide range of services adapted to your needs, your preoccupations and values:

• Victims Offenders Encounters (RDV explained below)
• Mediation between offender and his/her victim.
• Circles of Accountability
• Letter or recording exchanged between offenders and victims
• Mediation between an offender and their family
• Psychological support or referral to other organisations

Victims Offenders Encounters:

In 1999, the Federal Training Centre reinitiated a previous program run from 1990-1993 called “Face to face”. The more recent version took the name of RDV for «Rencontres Détenus Victimes». With 2 facilitators, 4 victims and 5 sustitute offenders, five weekly meetings were scheduled. Since then, the RDVs have multiplied in several prisons in Québec.

RDV Goals:

• Create a space where participants can express themselves freely
• Promote awareness of the impact created by a crime on victims
• Promote a release of pent up destructive emotions
• Promote a mutual understanding and the release of harmful prejudices

RDV Process:

• Preparation phase:
After the initial contact, each candidate will be interviewed by a facilitator to share their expectations & they will be given a clear presentation of the process.

• Initial Meeting:
Participants do not know each other. All are present on a voluntary basis and have agreed to the terms of confidentiality. They mutually express their motivations as well as their expectations.

• Facilitated by two Mediators:
Three to five victims of criminal acts meet with an equal number of offenders while observers from the community add their support to the process.

• RDV Meetings
Three to six consecutive weekly meetings are held in a secure and safe setting in a penitentiary, where an atmosphere of respect, trust and listening is built.

Follow up:

Participants can always reach the CSJR for help. Roughly three months after the RDV, a reunion is organised to allow each one to evaluate their experience and share it with the others.

Participants frequently wish to share their experience with other community groups or the larger public. As the need arises, as during the National week of Restorative Justice, they volunteer to speak or write about their experiences in Restorative Justice.

We keep working on the emotional consequences of various crimes; robbery, incest, rape and murder.

Since 1999, RDV sessions have been held in the following places:

• Archambault Institution
• Leclerc Institution
• Montée St-François Institution
• Federal Training Center
• Cowansville Institution
• Repentigny with Parents Unis organization

Mediation

Mediation is by far the most well-known form of restorative justice. It creates a safe space where participants (victims, offenders and people around them) can express themselves freely. This approach allows an increased awareness of a crime’s impact on a victim. It facilitates the expression of destructive emotions & it increases mutual understanding for both parties and the giving up of negative prejudices.

Mediation can be offered by the crown counsel to both parties, instead of going through a long, costly and time consuming trial in court. Unlike, other Canadian provinces, Quebec has not yet allowed mediation as an alternative to incarceration for adult offenders, even though it has been recognized by the Criminal Code (art. 717).

Interested in participating ?

* Have you been victim of a criminal act and are still living the consequences ?

* Are you an inmate wishing to get out of the cycle ?

* Are you a relative or close friend of a victim or inmate and undergoing second-hand repercussions ?

The CSJR can help. Contact us!

You have been a victim of a criminal act?

The CSJR can help !