Quakers in Criminal Justice

August 2016 Newsletter Download PDF

Editorial

I am gladdened by the submissions “Two Ex-Prisoners Write”, it is the stuff that not only afirms what we in QICJ do but that provides testimony to our faith. Both articles have inspired me: – the “Leopard Spots” challenges me to change my own human frailties and the “Day Ahead” inspires me to seize the joy in every day, to notice the miracle in the quotidian, in the small things that I so usually take for granted.

I have often thought that the arts are the forerunner for change; Mike Nellis has submitted a joint review of both Camus's “Outsider” and Douade's “The Mercault Investigation” that humanises the characters using undertones of restorative justice. Who knows, such creative pieces may well herald the change so sought after by those who work with the criminal justice system. A total review of the system is called for by Will McMahon in Justice Matters and Martin Wright echoes the call for a Royal Commission on the penal system.

I would like to dispel the myth that I alone am the editor of this newsletter as it is reproduced electronically by Jonathan Lamb and Alan Russell has been carrying out eloquent emendations for some time now, so “the editor” is in fact a team.

Carmel Schmid
Newsletter editor

Also in this edition