Melissa talked to the robber in prison

After Melissa was involved in a robbery at a supermarket, the perpetrator asked to get in contact with her through Perspectief. A few weeks later, Melissa can look the robber in the eyes. “It was a very special conversation. There was a completely different man in front of me.”

On an ordinary day, Melissa is doing her grocery shopping at a supermarket. When she goes to pay at the register, a robber comes in and started waving around a weapon. Melissa immediately sees that it’s a fake gun, and kicks him in the knee. The robber flees and Melissa does what not a lot of people could copy. She goes after him and makes sure that he is arrested. Eventually he is convicted to time in prison.

Make a difference
A little less than a year later, Melissa received a letter from Perspectief. She found it when she came back from vacation. The robber would like to get in contact with her. “I was surprised, but I immediately thought: ‘there are good intentions behind this letter.’ A good friend said: you can make a difference now, by accepting the request. That’s why I said ‘yes’. If someone wants to take a chance to better themselves, then I want to give them that chance. That gave me a good feeling, that something good would come from this story.”

Together with a mediator from Perspectief, Melissa visits the perpetrator in prison. “He was no longer the robber, there was a completely different man in front of me. It was a very special conversation. Someone from the prison was also there, and he said he had never experienced something so special. He told his story and thanked me. I think he expected me to be very angry, but by that time I wasn’t angry at all anymore.”

“I think that restorative mediation is very important. It was good for me to see that he was taking this chance and I’m very happy I accepted the invitation. Later on, I had contact with his mother, who said: ‘You saved my child.’”