
Live Facilitation of the Offender Resettlement Journey - Jane Ball
Jane Ball
A 16-year-old daughter learned at an Offender Resettlement Journey that she hadn't been visiting her father at "his university". he was in prison. Jane Ball takes readers live into facilitating these visceral, spatial walks through criminal justice.
This companion paper takes readers "live" into facilitating an Offender Resettlement Journey (ORJ); the symbolic, spatial walk Jane Ball developed with Peter Garrett for the Virginia criminal justice system. The ORJ isn't just talking about an offender's journey; it's experiencing it viscerally. Ball uses a school reunion analogy: finding yourself behaving like your 19-year-old self because being in that space brings out those roles. During one ORJ, a 16-year-old daughter learned her childhood "university visits" to her father were actually prison visits. The facilitator must balance power differences; coaching leadership not to explain or justify when hearing what isn't working; while keeping their own emotions in check. A participant noted: "You get a guy with a tattoo on his face... then his vulnerability really shows." The paper also reflects on adapting ORJs online during COVID, and how practitioners develop the presence required; through first-hand experience, coaching, and deliberate reflection.
Format
Paper
Category
Topics
Dialogue in prisons and justice settings, Facilitation and practice
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