A recent visit to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater provided students in the law school’s Restorative Justice, Law and Healing course the opportunity to learn about the rehabilitation efforts of a local prison community, and to sit beside convicted men in the Restorative Justice 101 course offered at the facility. Below are reflections about the experience from four law students in the course, which is taught by Father Daniel Griffith.

I think this is an experience that every law student should have. This class is led by inmates who have been selected by their peers to be a part of the “council.” These students work with Ashley Nelson, who is one of the on-site psychologists at Stillwater, to put together the curriculum and facilitate each class. Inmates must apply and be selected to participate. There were roughly 15 students in attendance the day I was there; all men, one Native American, one Cambodian, two white, and the rest were Black.

At the end of the class a few of the students shook my hand and said that they hope I come back to visit. They asked me which “side” (prosecution or defense) I want to be on and I told them that I work in a prosecutor’s office right now, but that I’m trying to do that work for the right reasons and to use that position within the criminal prosecution system for good. Like I told them, I don’t think prosecutors should be asking for people to be locked up unless they’ve spent time in the facilities people are sent to and have an appreciation for what they are asking of the court.

Attending the Restorative Justice 101 class offered to inmates at the Stillwater prison was a deeply rewarding experience and gave me much to reflect on in the weeks that followed the class.

I do not consider myself a judgmental person, but at the prison I met people who, had I known of their criminal records before meeting and speaking with them, I may have approached the conversations with preconceived judgments of them. For example, one inmate whom I spoke with at length during and after the class session had incredibly insightful things to say, yet had I read his case beforehand I certainly would have been far less comfortable speaking with him. My preconceived judgment of him would not be based on any fair determinations – as a human being I am allowed to be comfortable or uncomfortable with whomever or whatever I choose – but my discomfort would be inherently disregarding any self-work that he has done and would not account for how unlikely he is to recommit that type of offense.