Joe Avila took a drive up a California highway — drunk — and killed a 17-year-old cheerleader.
He went to prison for manslaughter.
His experience with the law turned out to be religious — like many other inmates, Avila found Jesus in jail, asked God for forgiveness and came to terms with the horrific consequences of his actions.
But now that he is out, Avila is pushing a program that aspires to do more than encourage prisoners to find God. He wants criminal offenders to make amends to their victims — a concept, he says, that is both deeply religious and missing in the criminal justice system.
The idea is part of a growing focus nationwide on the role of forgiveness in communities — in the justice system as well as in physical and mental health.
Avila, regional director of the national Prison Fellowship ministry group, was in Las Vegas from California last week to support an effort to establish a faith-based Victim Offenders Reconciliation Program.
The program is sponsored by the national Southern Baptist Convention as part of a yearlong evangelical focus on Las Vegas. The denomination has funneled more than $1 million into Southern Nevada this year, $35,000 of which will be spent on establishing this program.
The program seeks to unite offenders and victims for a meeting in which victims express their feelings and, ideally, offenders arrange to make amends in some way that is meaningful to the victims. The result, local organizer the Rev. Tommy Starkes of Tropicana Christian Fellowship says, is “the healing relationship of forgiveness.”
A similar, but secular, reconciliation program already exists in the Juvenile Court system. Administered by the Neighbhorhood Justice Center, that program focuses on first-time, misdemeanor crimes: vandalism, fistfights, shoplifting — and is supported by the courts as an alternative to sentencing. Kids clean offices or mow yards to pay for their misbehavior.
But the evangelical group, which met with prison activists Thursday night at Starkes’ church, wants to expand the program to adults after they serve time — and draw attention to the link between the traditional religious concept of forgiveness and the administration of justice.
“Most religions emphasize a balance between forgiveness and punishment,” Starkes, a Southern Baptist, said. “Certainly Christianity emphasizes forgiveness. And yet a long time ago, America adopted a justice system that is more punitive than redemptive. The part about forgiveness — the most healing part — is missing.
“And our system leaves the victim out of the resolution. They punish the offender, but the victim often feels there is no closure. For example, with the (Timothy) McVeigh execution, you saw lots of victims’ families saying they still didn’t feel closure.
“Our program — which is voluntary — is designed to connect the offender who is about to be released from prison with the victim to say, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘What can I do to make up for my actions?'”
For many faiths, making amends directly to the victim is a key part of recovering from wrongdoing. In Judaism, for example, the principle of “teshuva” requires a wrongdoer to acknowledge his transgression, make a public confession and express remorse, resolve never to do it again, compensate the victim with acts of charity and ask the victim for forgiveness.
RESEARCH
If forgiveness is a matter of faith, it is also becoming a matter of science.
Research on the effects of forgiveness — psychologically, physically, sociologically and economically — is on the rise.
To wit, the international Campaign for Forgiveness Research started in Washington in 1997 and has committed $5 million to research projects on “the power of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
About 30 different projects at universities around the world are being funded, and 30 others have been tagged for future funding. Among them: “Does Forgiveness Benefit Physical and Mental Health?” at Purdue University, and “Does Forgiveness Enhance Brain Activation Associated With Empathy in Victims of Assault?” at the University of Manchester, England.
The campaign is a nonprofit organization endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and former President Jimmy Carter.
“The new wave of research we’ve begun has the potential to reveal the profound value of forgiveness in our lives — information that could reduce human misery and enhance the quality of life worldwide,” campaign Director Everett Washington said.
Yolanda Morales has seen the seeds of forgiveness planted in Las Vegas.
As a volunteer mediator for the Clark County Neighborhood Justice Center, Morales has met with juvenile offenders and their victims, and seen emotional changes take root from some of the pettiest of crimes.
“I had one case where these two seventh-grade girls went to a mall and shoplifted some hair accessories,” she said. Rather than prosecute, the owners opted to use the victim-offender program.
“What was really very positive is the mall security people were involved in the mediation, and the girls were able to see the impact on those people. The security people were also very empathetic with the girls, and it enhanced the idea that young people are accountable to the community,” Morales said.
“Another time, I had two 11-year-old boys involved in an incident. One had been bullying and teasing and humiliating the other in the park, and finally, the other one beat him up,” Morales said.
“It was kind of scary to see that kind of violence from such little boys. But what was so positive about our mediation was that the parent of the bully realized she needed to get help for her son because he was so violent. And the boys were able to see their similarities.
“This can work on a broader scale.”
Mike Hull, another volunteer mediator in the juvenile victim-offender program, said the court system discourages offenders from taking responsibility for their actions.
“The first thing the lawyer tells them is, ‘Don’t admit guilt,’ ” Hull, a Henderson police officer, said. “Through this program, the offenders and the victims learn that the other one is a person, too. If they just go to prison, they may never learn how much harm they have done.”
EFFECTS
Face-to-face reconciliation also can affect recidivism rates, according to Steve Goldsmith, director of the Los Angeles County Victim Offender Restitution Program, a similar program.
“We’ve been able to show a 50 percent reduction in recidivism among those offenders who participated in a meeting with their victim,” Goldsmith said. “The idea is to create empathy in the offender.”
The Los Angeles program began in 1992 and was instigated by a juvenile judge. Today, it works in collaboration with religious groups, but is administered by a panel of civic officials — including the sheriff and public defender.
Barbara Strahl, senior mediation specialist at the Clark County Neighborhood Justice Center, said the most difficult part of administering the juvenile reconciliation program has been getting the necessary stakeholders on board and organized. Her program mediates about 60 cases per year — with both staff and volunteer mediators that bring the victim and offender together.
“Vegas is a little behind, there are communities that use it much more extensively,” Strahl said. “But we’re getting there.”
Starkes, Hull and Avila received training from the Fresno Pacific University Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies — a Christian university that helped establish more than 50 such programs worldwide.
The center’s website explains about the religious roots of the justice program:
“Humanistic motivations do not have the driving force or staying power of religious convictions. Neither do humanistic motivations demand strict adherence to principles, which are seen as right from an absolute perspective. A humanist does not necessarily see eternal principles at work in restorative justice … A person working out of religious motivation … understand God’s call to shalom, to wholeness, as a timeless call.”
Starkes and the coalition of religious leaders from churches valleywide plan to begin their program this summer.
In Avila’s case, the victim’s parents have not agreed to meet with him. But in a coincidence he attributes to God’s will, his wife happened to meet and become friends with a woman years after the accident who, it turns out, is a friend of the victim’s family.
Avila met with her and asked for her forgiveness. The woman, long angry at Avila, cried. She told him about the girl he killed — a bright, happy teenager.
And then she forgave him.
“It is a journey,” Avila says. “Right now, the restitution I am making is in making a life transformation. I have changed my ways, and I am trying to help others. But I do have hope that I will someday meet with her (the victim’s) parents.
“These are never easy matters.”
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