Here & Now: Bridges to Life

A restorative justice program is bringing victims of crime and offenders face to face, where they can learn from each other and then heal from each other. It's called Bridges to Life, and the chief operating officer suffered an immense tragedy himself. Fox 4's Sean Rabs spoke with him in this week's Here and Now report. I am visiting with Jim Buffington, who is the chief operating officer of Bridges to Life. Jim, first tell us what that is, sir, and then we'll talk about the big event that's happening. Great, thank you so much. Bridges to Life is a restorative justice program. In prisons, and what we do is we bring victims of crime, as well as just regular volunteers into the prison setting. We meet one night per week for 14 weeks, two hours in a small group circle, 10 inmates with two volunteers. So you just said to me, you bring victims of crime into that setting. Is there tension? Well, There is a little bit, but what we've found now, first of all, the victim of crime, their offender is not in the prison that they're going into. Doesn't matter. Right, but four of the 14 weeks, we actually have a victim share their experience of how crime has impacted them and their family. And what we have found is when a victim shares their story, it heals them, it helps them. On the offender side, for the inmate. They actually get victim empathy they're hearing about the other side of crime that they have caused. And then we've got a 14 week process where we meet each week in the evening. And we cover topics like responsibility, accountability, confession, forgiveness, reconciliation. And by the end of the 14 weeks, the inmates have a different perspective of crime and the impact that they've caused. I can imagine not only powerfully emotional experiences, but I also imagine there's a moment where I've harmed other people, I want to change my life. Right. I see that every day. We're in so many places. We're in 19 states, seven countries. In fact, at the end of this year, we're going to have 100,000 graduates. And so we've had a lot of impact. We started here in Texas. So there's a big event you're having on the 14th. Tell us what that is and where that's going to happen. So every year we have kind of a vision dinner event for the community. We have an event in Amarillo, Waco, Houston, and Saturday on the 14th is gonna be our event in Arlington. You're gonna hear from victims of crime. That have gone into prisons to share their story and how Bridges to Life has helped heal them, as well as you're gonna hear from graduates that have taken our program. They've been released from prison, they're doing really well, and they're gonna share how Bridges to Life. Help them, change them, restore their family relationship, and prepare them for success in the community. If you go to bridges2life.org, that's bridges, plural, T-O-L-I-F-E.org, here in the DFW area, we've got staff people that are in the DFW area. They manage all of our locations. So we're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We're in nine different locations. Where volunteers can come in with us either as a victim speaker or just a small group facilitator. This is a great program and thank you for sharing with me. Thank you for sharing with our viewers about Bridges to Life.