Mediation between Drug Support Worker and her former client
(names have been changed for confidentiality).

Victim: Joanne
Offender: Ruby
Co-mediators: Rosie Carnall and Gill Morton

Offence: Theft, Fraud. (6)
Case opened: 12/02 (7)
Direct meeting: 03/03
(follow-up visits due by the end of May 2003)

Ruby, an heroin addict, had been a client of Joanne’s and had stolen her purse during a home visit. She had then used a credit card several times. She volunteered for mediation whilst in custody through a self- referral system run in conjunction with the Probation Resettlement team. She said she wanted to make an apology for what she had done.

We visited Ruby in prison and she appeared very sincere in her desire to make an apology. She said she would be willing to have a direct meeting if Joanne requested this but otherwise would like to write a letter of apology. Ruby said that they had enjoyed a close relationship at the time of the offence that it preyed on her mind that she had betrayed the trust between them.

We requested victim contact through our police contact worker and heard back quickly that Joanne had said she was willing to meet with mediators. Joanne was delighted to see us when we visited her. She said she had felt close to Ruby at the time of the offence and had been very upset by what had happened. She also said she did not like to think of Ruby in prison and of her children in care. She was keen to have a direct meeting, which she felt would enable her to put what had happened behind her and move on.

Ruby was delighted when we told her how positive Joanne had been about the possibility of mediation. We asked how she felt about having a direct meeting and she said she was strongly in favour of this option and very glad that she would have the opportunity to apologise to Joanne and try to make things right between them. We agreed that we would try to organise the meeting before her release date which both she and Joanne felt would be preferable.

We had not held a direct meeting in this prison before but they were quite helpful in co-operating with us about the situation. When we were clear that we were going to be able to hold the meeting within the prison we had a second meeting with Joanne to go over the format of a direct mediation and explore further her hopes for the meeting. She was very clear that this was the right option for her and seemed composed at the idea of meeting with Ruby again.

On the day of the meeting we collected Joanne from her home and drove her to the prison. The meeting was held in a private room within the Probation department. A prison officer remained in the room with us but stayed unobtrusive - we made sure she was out of the line of sight of both victim and offender – and assured us she would not interrupt and would maintain confidentiality.

We started the meeting with the usual process of going over ground rules and then each party having a period of ‘uninterrupted time’ to describe their experience of the offence. This felt somewhat unnecessarily formal as they knew each other before but keeping to the agreed format helped to ensure that the mediation process was effective and did not lose it’s focus.

The rest of the meeting passed very easily with extended informal communication between both parties, which covered the issues they had said they wanted to. Towards the end of the time available we brought them back to the focus by suggesting we consider a possible agreement.

Joanne had told us previously that she hoped to be able to have further (non-professional) contact with Ruby and we felt it was important that both parties understood how this might work. We helped devise a written agreement which set out clear boundaries to possible future contact between them. Both parties expressed high satisfaction with having had the mediation process available to clear up personal issues between them that would otherwise have been left unresolved.

Both parties in this case have agreed that their story can be used for media purposes and would be willing/suitable for interview.
Mediators would also be willing to be involved with media contact.