WASHINGTON _ Every other Friday, Peggy Steele picks up the phone and talks to the man who murdered her son more than 20 years ago.
Steele and Bryce Todd Brosier, who was convicted of killing 25-year-old Jimmy Steele in 1995, exchanged a few letters about five years after the crime. But it wasn't until 2014 that they met face-to-face, in the Colorado prison where he is serving time, and talked about the murder.
Colorado is one of 31 states that offer victim-offender dialogues. It's a form of what's known as restorative justice, which encourages both sides to talk about how they were affected by a crime and offenders to take responsibility for their actions.
In many states, offenders serving time are barred from contacting victims. But the prison-based programs give victims a chance to ask questions in ways they weren't able to in court. Prisoners get a chance to do something positive for those they've harmed.
Restorative justice is also used in many jurisdictions before incarceration. This allows offenders to avoid jail time for low-level crimes by meeting with their victims to discuss the incident and how they can make things right. But prison and parole offices are increasingly adapting restorative justice programs to help those who have committed serious and violent crimes while they are in prison and as they reintegrate society _ sometimes without the participation of victims or their families.
Steele said she wanted specific details about her son's death. "I wanted to know what he went through," she said, and what his last words were _ "Oh god, Todd, why?
"I brought my son into this world and wasn't there when he died," she said. "For 19 years I just had so many scenarios going through my mind. Now I don't have to imagine anymore."
It was hard for her to hear, she said. And Brosier, 47, who is still in prison at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, said it was hard for him to tell.
"Looking in Peggy's eyes and telling her about killing her son _ that changed me," he said.
Brosier wanted to know how her son's stabbing had affected Steele's life. And that was hard for her to talk about. "I felt like if I told him all the things that changed because of my son's death, that would shame him," she said.
"I would think about her on holidays or on Jimmy's birthday. Would she be thinking about him?" Brosier said. "Would she be hanging an ornament on Christmas remembering how she had bought this for Jimmy's second birthday?"
Both said they left their prison meeting with a lot to digest. But it helped them begin to put the crime behind them, and they have continued with regular phone calls. That ongoing relationship may be unusual, but the empathy that restorative justice often elicits is not.
