Victim Offender Mediation Dialogue: Profound Impact on Victims, Offenders and the Caring Professionals Who Assist Them Through the Process

As the crime victims’ rights movement progressed in Texas in the 1980s and 1990s, crime victims were seeking and attaining more involvement in the criminal justice process, as well as receiving more compassion and acknowledgment from criminal justice professionals statewide. Fewer victims were being left out of the process and more were being provided with the information and participation they so passionately wanted.

At the request from a woman whose daughter had been murdered in 1990, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice challenged the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to find a way for her to meet face-to-face with the incarcerated inmate who was responsible for her daughter’s murder. Since there was no process in place for this kind of meeting, the three-person victim services office of the Parole Division was given the opportunity to implement a way for her to have her request fulfilled.

In 1991, the meeting took place at the unit where the inmate was housed. Later that year, the victim services office was elevated to a section, and, to help other victims who wanted to possibly have this kind of meeting, Victim Offender Mediation Dialogue (VOMD) was developed into a program. Victim Services became a TDCJ division in November 1997 and continues to offer VOMD for crime victims in Texas to this day.

VOMD, or victim-centered victim offender dialogue, is a victim-initiated program that provides an opportunity for a crime victim to meet in person with the inmate or parole client who is responsible for their victimization. Many victims want the chance to express the depth of the impact that violent crime has had on their lives as well as on their families. Victims who participate in VOMD may have questions that have never been answered, and the only one who can answer those questions is the person who committed the crime. The “mediation” part of VOMD is not meant to be a binding agreement or resolution; it is more of a way for the inmate to provide what they can for the victim in the process and honestly accept their responsibility for their role.

The VOMD process can only be initiated by the victim of the crime and is confidential for both the victim and the inmate, who does not have to agree to participate and gets no favorable outcome to their inmate status or parole review by participating. They do, however, get the opportunity to accept responsibility, be remorseful for their actions and be accountable for the pain and suffering they have caused.

Both the victim and the inmate are carefully prepared by a well-trained Victim Services Division mediator throughout the process. Great care is implemented in the VOMD preparation to prevent any re-victimization during the process or allow the inmate or client to victim-blame or minimize the extent of the effects of the crime or their responsibility and accountability for their role in the crime. The inmate may choose to stop participating at any time during the process.

VOMD is meant to be a restorative process for the victim and to allow the victim to get what they need by participating. It is not intended as an opportunity for the inmate to ask for or expect forgiveness. It is always the victim’s prerogative to offer forgiveness if they choose to do so.

The mediator will provide an immediate “debriefing” separately for the victim as well as the inmate involved and will follow up 30 to 60 days later to ensure that the experience continues to be a positive and effective experience for the victim as well as the inmate.

While homicide is the offense of record for most mediations, victims of sexual abuse and family violence are participating in growing numbers.

As Mark Odom, VOMD Program Supervisor explained, “Many victims who are now adult survivors who were sexually abused or assaulted as minors have become involved in the criminal justice process as statutory victims.” As minors, the statutory victims are the next adult closest of kin, such as mother and father, as long as they are not the offender of record.

As the number of sexual assault and family violence victims VOMD requests began to increase, the TDCJ Victim Services Division developed specialized training and processes for the mediators to help victims work through the mediation preparation process and guide the offenders on how to effectively participate as well. As Odom said, “The VOMD process is not therapy, but it is therapeutic.”

VOMD has been replicated throughout the country, with the staff helping other organizations develop their own programs.

In 2023, TDCJ Victim Services Division assisted the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to develop National Victim Offender Dialogue Facilitator Training. The TDCJ’s VOMD staff participated in the pilot project for a national facilitator academy by assisting in the curriculum development. In September 2024, the NIC, with the help of the TDCJ VOMD staff, tested a national pilot academy for facilitators for sexual abuse cases.

The VOMD staff also have been instrumental in assisting the National Association of Victim Assistance in Corrections (NAVAC) in the development of, “The 20 Essential Principles of Victim-Centered VOD,” and getting those principles adopted as an American Corrections Association Standard. NAVAC provides grant funds to help other states develop their own victim offender dialogue programs under these guiding principles.

Since that first mediation dialogue was held in 1991, the Victim Services Division has developed a model process that most states in the US have used to develop similar programs for their crime victims. In Texas, the ability for a statutory crime victim to request victim offender mediation dialogue is guaranteed in the Texas Crime Victim Bill of Rights, Article Art. 56A.051 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.