Restorative Justice for Bernie Madoff?

As we continue to deal with the likes of Bernie Madoff and other swindlers who have lost millions of dollars for their investors, perhaps Elie Wiesel has a good idea on how to punish all of them.  Holocaust survivor, human rights activist and author Elie Wiesel lost his entire life savings with Madoff.  His charity, the Elie Wiesel Foundation, lost another $15.2 million.  As Wiesel said, “‘psychopath'” is too nice a word for him.  This man knew what he was doing.  I would simply call him thief, scoundrel, criminal.”  Speaking on a panel last week about what punishment he would like to see for Mr. Madoff, Mr. Wiesel said,

“I would like him to be in a solitary cell with only a screen, and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, ‘Look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child, look what you have done,’ nothing else.”

Professor Jonathan Hyman, in forwarding this lovely snippet to me, noted that this sounds a lot like part of a Restorative Justice process.  I agree.  Since Madoff will never be able to pay his victims back or help them put their lives back together, perhaps the best punishment is to be reminded daily of how many lives he ruined.
 

3 thoughts on “Restorative Justice for Bernie Madoff?”

  1. It’s certainly an attempt at the beginning of the Restorative Justice process — helping the offender take responsibility for his actions. The remainder of the process, acknowledging accountability; making amends to the victims (not simply by apology but by restitution); forgiveness; and, restoration to the community are, of course, absent. If, as some predict, Madoff will spend the rest of his days in prison, could we find some work for him that could profit his victims? It seems a shame to waste a talent we have only to date seen the dark side of!

    Thanks as always for your provocative posts.

    Best, Vickie

  2. Thanks for the post! I am horrified at what Madoff has done to Elie Weisel and the Weisel Foundation. I think the vision for punishment is absolutely deserved and not nearly adequate. However, I’m not sure that it is restorative justice. Here’s why:

    It is passive. Madoff is not asked to engage in any way with those he has bilked; rather he is just made to look at them on a video screen and hear what he did to them. While listening is certainly a part of the process (and maybe that’s the point) and it could build a deeper understanding, watching a video does not require the perpetrator to bring himself into the conversation. I’d like him to actually look at the victims’ eyes in real time and have to demonstrate to them that he is listening.

    It does n’t do much to empower the victims. Though I suppose while they are making the video, they could acheive a certain sense of having confronted Madoff, it seems very different from an actual dialogue.

    Finally, there is no element of reparation. While it is true that Madoff could not repay all that he has taken from his victims, I suspect that there is something he could do that would be meaningful to those whose lives he has ripped apart.

    Thanks for the post.

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