Rise in South Yorkshire crime victims taking up restorative justice
Half of victims approached wanted to make contact with an offender
More and more victims of crime in South Yorkshire are asking to make contact with the people who did it.
Organisers of so-called 'restorative justice' say they've seen a rise in people interested in meeting or writing to offenders in our county.
Sarah Briggs was a student in Sheffield when her house was burgled. She suffered from sleep paralysis and night terrors as a result of what happened.
She visted prison to meet the burglar himself:
"You build up a monster in your mind. You just see a shadow. I worked myself up into expecting this imaginary creature so seeing a human man sat across from me really helped me.
"It was a middle aged man sat there who just felt so bad for what had happened. And it brought to his light that I was just a 21 year old girl living away from home who had just gone through so much since it had happened. It helped me to see his realisation of that.
"He apologised. He explained to me that he'd made a few bad choices and that it was never a specific target, it was opportunity. He got really upset, he got emotional about it. And I got emotional because I didn't expect it. It was surreal but it was a really amazing experience."
Remedi deliver the restorative justice programme in South Yorkshire, with funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner.
They've told us half of crime victims they contact about it say they're interested in making contact with the people who targeted them.
Assistant Director Nicola Bancroft says it has benefits for the victims and the offenders:
"We are certainly finding that more and more people that we speak to have heard of it now whereas a couple of weeks ago you could ask anybody in the street and they might not have heard of it. There are more and more people taking it up.
"What we tend to hear from offenders who've taken part is that this is the hardest thing that they will have ever done. Actually having to come face-to-face or hear the full impact of your actions through a letter - that's harder than hearing that from a judge or someone who's working in prison or probation with you because it humanises it."