What a load of populist bullsh*t.
I don't actively oppose this, it's just so utterly pointless that wasting any time on this while so many genuine social problems go unaddressed for decade seems sickening to me. Who cares if defendants get to see their victim's family or not? Is this going to prevent any single crime in the entire country? Is it going to make anyone's lives concretely better?
It's funny how the "law&order" right are so prone to complaining about the "feel-goodism" of liberals, when in fact this law is the most perfect embodiment of "feel-goodism".
Not all of the harm caused to the victim by the crime is concrete, so why should the response be only geared toward that?
Will seeing the person who killed your loved one(s) really heal any emotional would, either? I honestly don't see what's so important about this, or who was really asking for such a law.
Victims/families should be given the opportunity to express to the person who hurt them how it has affected them. Whether they believe it will help them heal should be up to them, but it's certainly not ridiculous to believe it could.
But it's an opportunity that very, very, few would take (as they don't as it stands elsewhere).
