As we know, it is rare that any form of dispute resolution makes it onto network television in prime time. Friday night’s episode of Blue Bloods—the New York police drama starring Tom Selleck—featured a story line about restorative justice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good example. In the story, a young woman whose family was killed when she was a child got a letter from the convicted killer. He wanted her to participate in a restorative justice process. If you want to just watch the episode without knowing more, the link is: here
After a few twists, the young woman agrees to participate. Tom Selleck joins, although he is the New York Police Commissioner he was a police officer who had worked on the case. Post-conviction restorative justice processes for murder cases do happen. But, it would be rare for the offender themselves to reach out to the victim’s family—that would normally be done by the facilitator. And, before any direct contact there would be preparation to explain the process and what to expect. Restorative Justice practitioners often talk about spending more time in preparation with the parties than the actual process may take because they want to be sure everyone is prepared and knows what to expect. In the world of TV, that level of preparation doesn’t make for good drama. Instead, this young woman goes to the prison and meets with the man who murdered her family with apparently no preparation and little support. It is no surprise (spoiler alert!) that she ends up urging the man to commit suicide and seems to leave the experience as angry and hurt as she was when she entered.
The man had been seriously mentally ill and delusional when he committed the murders and didn’t get health care until after his arrest. Now two decades later, after being medicated and treated, he fully understands and regrets what he did. It is a shame that Blue Bloods didn’t use the story line as an opportunity to invite viewers to think critically about how we can provide better mental health treatment to prevent such tragedies or to think about how to respond to what appeared to be a sincere apology. It is also a shame that the show was so dismissive of a process that could be used more, and used well, in the criminal justice system in this country. The only line in the program that seemed to acknowledge the positive possibilities of restorative justice was a throw-away when one of Tom Selleck’s children, who is also a police officer, said something like “I could see it being good to do with kids, but not with adults.”
I agree with all the above criticisms and concerns. It defies logic how the plot can have a multiple murder victim survivor engage in a victim-offender encounter the day before her wedding. This renders the episode totally trite — as vacuous as the William Shatner commercial repeated throughout during the commercial breaks (one of many commercials you will be regaled with if you watch).
The program inappropriately simplifies Restorative Justice by calling it “a program”. It’s not a program … it’s a set of principles and dynamics that are present in some methods. It is often a victim/offender encounter method, but not always.
The Selleck character sets the state early in the episode by referring to the offender in question as a sociopath. Psychopaths and sociopaths are, generally speaking, not going to benefit from Restorative Justice, nor are they likely at all to offer any benefit to a victim in such a process. But, it is the victim’s choice. If a victim is educated about the chances that the offender may actually be remorseful, maybe the victim still wants to see the offender, with realistic expectations. That’s OK, but no reparative arrangement is likely to ensue.
Once the offender is ‘framed’ by Selleck as a psychopath, his recovery from parahoid schizophrenia and ‘finding God’ are rendered totally unbelievable. One wonders if the powers-that-be — those who benefit from the punitive system — fund crappy programs like this as disinformation against healing justice methods.
God, I hate TV commercials. So glad I don’t normally see them at all.
‘Just John’ Wilmerding
Brattleboro, VT
This seems to be indicative of the types of problems created by a lot of the art we use to talk about things in our society. When TV shows are told episode by episode and there must be some conclusion at the end of the hour, more mature concepts are hard to flesh out.
In contrast a show like HBO’s ‘The Wire’ was able to discuss legal concepts and the interworkings of American society by devoting 60 hours to one story. The first season for instance looks at wire tapping and police brutality from various perspectives and is able to carry on an educated discourse within the show.
So having never watched this show I guess my take is what do we really expect from network television?
A friend told me the show would be on. I only watched the last few minutes of the show, but was horrified. I have been facilitating dialogues for thirteen years. This is not what any of us who do this work experience. The media always makes a mockery of restorative justice work and it is why I refuse to work with them. It’s all about the ratings, not about the healing.
What a injustice to have the general public watch this show who will now form an opinion that this is how the restorative justice process works. The Restorative Justice process is victim based with a mindful, thoughtful process that takes months and months to prepare for AND contact can only be initiated by the crime victim’s willingness to participate. The process is not for everyone but for those who make the CHOICE, it helps to empower them and move forward in their life.
I too was disappointed when I saw this episode. The facilitator was basically absent from the process. On the other hand, the following day was portrayed as her happiest: the victim’s wedding. Too bad the mediator/facilitator couldn’t at least note at the conclusion that now that the rj had occurred, she was emotionally able to move on to create a new family of her own with better insight into her family of origin’s killer’s genuine remorse and her having had the courage to confront him even if not to forgive him. A good first step in a long and difficult process.