Talk crime, talk prisons and talk to Jackie Katounas.

The convict turned crusader was in Ashburton over the weekend, sharing her life, and her life changing experiences with a large number of women at the annual Zonta women’s International Women’s Day breakfast.

Ms Katounas spent most of her life involved in crime, but has made some major changes and now hopes to share those changes with communities across the country.

She spent most of her adult life in and out of Australian prisons because of her involvement in drug dealing, armed robbery and fraud.

Soon after she returned to New Zealand in 1994, Ms Katounas was arrested for receiving stolen furniture and realized she knew the owner of the property.

For the first time in her life she felt a deep sense of shame.

“I had been completely oblivious to the fact that I was hurting people before. You just do it (the crime) and get over it.”

Ms Katounas went to see the victim and he extended his forgiveness to her.

This had been unexpected and caused her to think about her life and who she was. That introspection saw her make a positive change, towards working as a facilitator for restorative justice. 

Now, Ms Katounas likes to be up front about her past so as not to cause confusion while she educates people on restorative justice and her part in it.

In 2003, she became the Restorative Justice Services manager for Prison Fellowship.

Because of her own past experiences, Ms Katounas is passionate about her job.

“I just love it, absolutely love it. It’s my very purpose for getting up in the morning. You never know what the day’s going to bring.”

She mentors facilitators throughout New Zealand and supervises the implementation of the Sycamore Tree program - a restorative justice program of organized meetings between victims and offenders- throughout 14 prisons.

“It’s quite magic really. I’m not the process, I’m just guiding it,” she said.

She said the meetings are usually more for the offender, as apologizing is the start of change.
“Forgiveness doesn’t delete the event. I think there’s a song about how saying sorry is the hardest thing.” 

Ms Katounas has a few “why” questions when it comes to the New Zealand prison system.
“Why do 85 per cent of offenders go back to prison within the first two weeks? I think we seriously need to look at why our prisons aren’t working.”

She knows the reality of prison life well. 

“I’ve been there and I think I’ve got something valid to say.”

Ms Katounas would like to see restorative justice funded and implemented into every prison in the country.

She believes there is a feeling of “disconnectedness” for offenders when they come out of prison into society and if there was some sort of connection between prison and the outside world, perhaps there would be less chance of re-offending.