Longtermers’ Responsibility Project

A person can serve a whole life sentence without ever being challenged to examine and make amends for their harmful acts. This project addresses that gap, challenging and supporting incarcerated people to consider their specific roles in their crimes and take responsibility for the harm they have done. The program is currently offered to incarcerated people who have served at least 10 years for a crime that led to the loss of human life.

The project’s curriculum was developed by a team led by a restorative justice practitioner and crime survivor as well as a person convicted of homicide-related crimes. Participants reflect on the choices and forces that brought them to where they are, investigate and heal from their own experience of being harmed, and accept full responsibility for the harm they have done. They also plan for meaningful, reparative action, either in the community after reentry, or in the prisons where they will remain, in order to use the potential remaining in their lives to do good in the world.

Osborne is now adapting the program to use with other groups, such as young adults and older people convicted of less serious crimes.