A convict turned crusader

Anna Maynard in the Ashburton Guardian (New Zealand) writes about Jackie Katounas, who spent most of her adult life in and out of Australian prisons. When she returned to New Zealand, she was arrested for recieving property stolen from someone she knew.:

"I had been completely oblivious to the fact that I was hurting people before. You just do it (the crime) and get over it."

Ms Katounas went to see the victim and he extended his forgiveness to her.This had been unexpected and caused her to think about her life and who she was. That introspection saw her make a positive change, towards working as a facilitator for restorative justice.

Now, Ms Katounas likes to be up front about her past so as not to cause confusion while she educates people on restorative justice and her part in it. In 2003, she became the Restorative Justice Services manager for Prison Fellowship.

Because of her own past experiences, Ms Katounas is passionate about her job."I just love it, absolutely love it. It’s my very purpose for getting up in the morning. You never know what the day’s going to bring."

She mentors facilitators throughout New Zealand and supervises the implementation of the Sycamore Tree programme - a restorative justice programme of organised meetings between victims and offenders- throughout 14 prisons. "It’s quite magic really. I'm not the process, I'm just guiding it," she said.

She said the meetings are usually more for the offender, as apologising is the start of change. "Forgiveness doesn’t delete the event. I think there’s a song about how saying sorry is the hardest thing."