There is a Balm in Wichita Falls
1. This book details the healing journeys of Linda and Ellen. As you read the opening chapters about their separate victimizations, what thoughts did you have about what they suffered through?
2. On page 12, Ellen says to her father, “I guess a crime victim’s only right is to be present at the scene of a crime.” What is your reaction to Ellen’s statement?
3. In the first paragraph of page 43, Linda states that what they need—healing—will not come through “vengeance and getting even.” Human anger at a wrong committed and the (sometimes) accompanying desire for revenge can serve as useful tools for self-protection. When the desire for revenge goes too far, however, “self-protection” can morph into prolonged battle. Discuss personal justice and societal justice as they relate to anger, revenge, and punishment.
4. Ellen has told numerous interviewers, “Every time I tell my story, I heal a little bit more.” The first time she told her story in a large public setting at the steps of the Texas Capitol (pages 71–72), a sense of control and purpose permeated her soul like never before.
What is your reaction to Ellen’s vulnerable sharing of her story and why she chose to do so?
5. Early on in her ordeal, Linda was able to vocalize her pain: “There’s a Cathy-shaped hole in my life, and I’m not sure if it will ever go away” (page 41). Almost five years later, Linda discovers that standing at a podium and teaching (page 102) helps to fill the hole created by Cathy’s death.
Similarly, Nell Myers (pages 54–55) discovered her personal mission of fighting for crime victims’ rights as her best response to the horrific murder of her daughter.
Discuss the dynamics of purposeful activity combatting the debilitating effects of personal hurt and tragedy.
6. Cathy Phillips, the mother from Abilene, Texas, shocked the Victim Services director, Raven Kazen (pages 104–05), with her request of wanting to speak face to face with the imprisoned murderer of her daughter. When contacted by Raven, Ellen instinctively knew that what this mother wanted was just and right. On the other hand, most members of Cathy Phillips’s own family thought she was crazy for wanting to do so.
What is your reaction to this mother’s plight and her desire to confront her daughter’s killer?
7. Restorative justice is often defined as repairing the hurt caused by crime—beyond what happens in the courtroom. Retributive justice—”You do the crime, you do the time”—is maintained by laws, cops, judges, courts, and prisons. Retributive justice is a necessary construct of civil society.
The Rev. Ginnie Mackey’s book, Restorative Justice: Toward Non-Violence (pages 124, 170–72), introduced Linda to an alternative approach for repairing her hurt.
On page 185, Ellen tells the group of VOD mediator trainees that for some crime victims, like her and Linda, “justice is not choosing the most vindictive recourse, but what will be the most helpful, bring the most healing, and provide the most recovery for everyone concerned.”
How can restorative justice and retributive justice better co-exist?
8. Chapter 30 (beginning on page 162) details the work of Ellen as the Travis County victim services director in the District Attorney’s office. What kind of accountability did the woman, facing a drunk-driving charge, take on as she met with her victim face to face?
9. On pages 180–81, Linda and David Doerfler discuss the VOD process. They emphasize that the dialogue process is about accountability and healing, more so than forgiveness. Toward the end of their discussion, she says “the telling of one’s story in the company of caring souls can be a balm of healing.”
Discuss the dynamics of story-sharing as part of the healing process.
10. David Doerfler was charged with the monumental task of formalizing the victim-offender dialogue process for the TDCJ (pages 119 and 152). Later, during a training session for VOD mediators, he describes forgiveness (page 183) as “moving past righteous anger and resentment to a position that holds each party as a human with worth.”
What is your reaction to this definition?
11. On page 192, Kay Pranis, as a presenter at the restorative justice conference in Washington D.C., makes a strong case for restorative alternatives and buffers to improve the criminal justice system as it was and currently is.
What do you think of her ideas?
Does brutality breed brutality?
“It’s to the prosecutor’s advantage to have the victim remain angry and unhealed until the case is resolved.” Yes or no?
Respond to the penultimate paragraph on page 192, and to her assertion that restorative justice has attributes that both conservatives and liberals can champion.
12. More than 90 percent of currently incarcerated individuals will one day be released from prison and reenter society. Reentry, however, is difficult for many paroles (see the first three paragraphs on page 209). Recidivism rates in the US—within five years of release—run between 60–70 percent.
Reliance on incarceration to enhance public safety is expensive. Many advocates claim that restorative practices in court and in prison settings improve recidivism rates.
What type of prisoner do you want released into society—one who has examined the consequences of their misdeeds (as Ellen required of Gary Brown) or one who has simply served the time required of their sentence?
13. On the morning of the VOD between Linda, Ami, and Gary Brown, the warden at the Allred Unit outside of Wichita Falls (page 214) asks Linda what she hopes to get out of the encounter.
What kind of accountability do you think came forth from the dialogue?
What other impressions do you have of the dialogue’s exchanges?
14. After the dialogue is completed, Ellen takes a photograph of Gary in between Linda and Ami. (This photo can be seen in the Photo Gallery section on the author website, http://www.tcarlosanderson.com.)
What did each party get out of the dialogue?
T. Carlos Anderson 