Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case: Survivors offer words of wisdom

Elizabeth Smart unites a group of women survivors to give hope to Jayme Closs, and others like her, in Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case.

Lifetime takes a break from its typical Saturday night thrillers to offer up a different kind of television special regarding the Jayme Closs case. If you aren’t familiar with the Jayme Closs case, it occurred in October last year.

Closs witnessed her parents murdered in front of her before she was abducted and kept in captivity for 88 days. The perpetrator was a 21-year old man named Jake Patterson. In January of this year, Jayme Closs was discovered and reunited with her family.

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The story is a heartbreaking one. In the hour-long documentary-style film, Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case, Elizabeth Smart tries to empower Jayme and other survivors through wisdom gleaned from her own experience and by assembling a group of six other women who went through similar experiences.

What I appreciated about the feature is that Smart never tries to tell Jayme’s story. Yes, she does take us through the harrowing case details. She visits the cabin where Jayme was held hostage and goes through the public records about exactly what happened but she never tries to describe Jayme Closs’s experience or speak on her behalf. As a victim herself, Smart recognizes the choice should be Jayme’s, if/when she decides she wants to publicly talk about her story.

In addition to Elizabeth Smart, the other survivors who agreed to come together to talk about their shared traumatic experiences and offer wisdom to Jayme were the following women:

• Gina DeJesus: She was held in captivity for more than 9 years.
• Sarah Maynard: Held captive for 4 days in addition to having her family murdered in front of her, similar to Jayme’s case.
• Denise Huskins: Held captive for 2 days
• Katie Beers: Kidnapped for 17 days and kept in an underground bunker by a family friend.
• Alicia Kozakiewicz: She was lured by a predator on the internet and held for 2 days.
• Kara Robinson: Kidnapped by a serial killer and held for 2 days

During the last part of the hour, all seven women sit down together to talk about how they’ve moved forward in the aftermath of their abductions. The central purpose of Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case is to offer a message of hope to not only Jayme but also to other women who have been through the same thing.

Smart emphasizes how hard it was for her to create a “new normal”. Once she was reunited with her family, she wanted to go back to being the person she once was but it was impossible for her to do so. While they are not defined by their traumas, they undeniably alter the foundation of their lives moving forward.

I found it interesting to listen to each woman talk about their differing perspectives on forgiveness. Some had forgiven their captors because it simply took too much energy to be angry every day. I can’t blame them. While I can’t imagine what they’ve gone through I can see why they would rather try to forgive instead of wasting more of their precious time dwelling on these men. Each survivor also got a moment to share their own personal wisdom with Jayme should she ever watch Lifetime’s The Jayme Closs Case.

This was a project Elizabeth Smart took on with the family’s blessing. She had the chance to speak with Jayme and her family but was unable to film the interactions for the documentary because of the possibility it could interfere with continued court proceedings.