The Ministry of Justice on Friday invited an ex-convict to give a drumming performance to demonstrate the success of its “remedial justice” campaign.
The campaign was introduced by the ministry a few years ago to promote dialogue and reconciliation between criminals and their victims.
Eight years ago, the ex-convict, identified only as “A-gan” (阿甘), was sentenced to more than five years in prison for assaulting a man surnamed Chu (朱) during a dispute.
Photo: Hsing Cheng-chen, Taipei Times
A-gan was also ordered to pay damages of more than NT$3 million (US$100,000) in compensation for the serious injuries inflicted on Chu.
Upon hearing the verdict, A-gan shouted in court that he “should have hurt Chu more seriously.”
Today, because of the justice ministry’s campaign, Chu is a fan of A-gan’s drumming and said he has forgiven the man who inflicted so much pain on him.
According to ministry officials, A-gan, who is from a broken family, had been in prison for more than a year when he came to the attention of the renowned performing arts group U-Theatre during a percussion class at Changhua Prison.
After A-gan was released on parole, he got a job with U-Theatre and developed a passion for drumming.
With the help of the performing group, Changhua Prison and the Legal Aid Foundation, A-gan was able to establish contact with Chu and apologize to him, the officials said.
Chu was invited to speak at Friday’s press conference, but he declined, saying he did not want to distract from the intended focus of the event.
Chu instead issued a recorded statement.
“The injuries have made my life miserable,” he said, adding that he often cannot sleep even after 10 sleeping pills.
He said that during the litigation, he could not bring himself to forgive A-gan because his attacker showed no remorse or regret. Chu said he ignored the many letters A-gan sent him from prison.
Saying he had hated A-gan previously, Chu, who was burdened with huge medical expenses after he was injured and he often suffered epileptic seizures as result of his head trauma, later chose to forgive him and agreed to a settlement of NT$600,000 in damages.
He said the events between him and A-gan over the years led him to realize that “forgiveness is not just one-sided.”
Speaking about his ministry’s remedial justice program, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said that most convicts have difficulty finding a job once they are released and often return to crime when they have no money.
Currently there are about 65,000 inmates in Taiwan’s correctional institutions, who have to return to society someday, Tseng said. If the ministry can help them find jobs upon release, it will not only reduce the recidivist rate, but also improve the manpower problem in the market, he said.
Last year, an estimated 396 manufacturers took part in a job fair held specifically for ex-convicts, offering them 2,180 jobs, according the ministry.
Feng Kuo-ching, the owner of a restaurant and bakery in Hualien, said he was an example of the success of the ministry’s campaign.
He said he was sent to prison as a young man, but obtained loans from the Taiwan After-care Association to start his own business after he was released on parole.
Feng said he now employs more than 10 ex-convicts at his restaurant and bakery.
“I’m willing to give former inmates a chance,” he said.
However, he added that his was just a small business and that he hoped other enterprises would join the program to provide opportunities to former inmates.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS