From victim to survivor: Healing vigil held in Grand Rapids

Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice (CSSJ) held a healing vigil Saturday in observance of National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

"These support groups are important to have, first and foremost, so that we're together. We're not alone, and it's important for us to know that we're not alone," Amina Gacek, a survivor, explained. "We are where we get our strength from. We are where we learn from. We remind each other that we can heal. We give each other hope. We show each other where to find that hope, where to find that strength, and then we pull each other along that path."

Gacek told FOX 17 that, while receiving an outpatient service at a pain clinic in 2019, a nurse in the recovery bay sexually assaulted her.

The nurse was sentenced to probation, but during the trial, Gacek learned that she wasn't alone.

“Hurt people hurt people, right? But, it was further wounding for me to find out that, in his pain, he hurt many people, not just me, but many people,” she said.

Michigan lawmakers already are working toward Gacek's goal of stopping the cycle.

House Bill 4450 would provide inmates with "productivity credits" — programs in which, during incarceration, inmates would receive tools, including education and addiction therapy — allowing them to get time taken off of their sentence.

"That is the actual purpose of productivity credits, so that they can stop the cycle and be safer people…We don’t want people to hurt people anymore. We want people to not perpetrate the pain anymore. When people are out on the street and causing pain and causing hurt and committing crimes, it is because of pain. We want that to stop. We don’t want them to hurt any more people, right? So, while they’re receiving these productivity credits, they’re getting healing and coming out safer," Gacek said.

FOX 17

CSSJ is a national network of crime survivors joining together to create healing communities while helping to shape public safety policies.

Click here if you're interested in joining or donating to CSSJ's movement.

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