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1999 Texas Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1999)

handle is hein.sag/sagtx0074 and id is 1 raw text is: Oe OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL - STATE OF TEXAS JOHN CORNYN August 5, 1999 Mr. Wayne Scott Open Records Decision No. 659 Executive Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice Re: Whether communications made in P.O. Box 13084 a victim-offender mediation session are Austin, Texas 78711 confidential under section 154.073 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. (ORQ-29) Dear Mr. Scott: On behalf of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (the department), you ask whether communications made in a victim-offender mediation session are confidential under section 154.073 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code in conjunction with the Public Information Act's section 552.101 of the Government Code. These communications include records of the victim-offender mediation such as the Affirmation Agreement and the videotape of the mediation. The department's Victim Services Division provides and administers the victim-offender mediation program. The purpose of the victim-offender mediation is to provide victims of . . . crime the opportunity to have a structured face-to-face meeting with their offender(s) in a secure, safe environment, in order to facilitate a healing, reconstruction/recovery process. Likewise, the victim-offender mediation provides an offender with the opportunity to realize the human impact of the crime upon the victim. The mediation is initiated by the department at the request of a victim. Participation in the mediation is voluntary, and either the victim or offender may withdraw from participation at any time in the process. In addition, the mediator has discretion to terminate the mediation if he feels the process is no longer beneficial to either party. Before the victim and offender actually meet, each must be screened to ensure that mediation is appropriate for the particular parties involved, and each party must go through an initial orientation phase that prepares them for the face-to-face mediation session. In order to participate, the offender must admit guilt and take responsibility for the crime that is the subject of the mediation. The

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