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October 17, 2003
Justice for youth offenders
Restorative conferencing method facilitates the resolution of
conflict.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
A child threatens a classmate and brings a pellet gun to school,
another steals something from a store. What is the appropriate response
to such behavior? What will satisfy the victim and prevent the offender
from committing another such act? A program run by the John Howard
Society of the Lower Mainland (JHS) could provide the answers.
The JHS's U12 restorative conferencing program began as a one-year
pilot project directed toward children under 12 (U12) who exhibit
behaviors that would be chargeable under the law if they were older.
The philosophy of the program is that criminal behavior is a violation
of people and relationships, yet the conflict is an opportunity
for positive change for everyone affected by an incident. The type
of offences involved include theft of property, threats involving
a weapon, vandalism, physical assault, verbal threats, bullying
and arson.
Stephen Morton is the co-ordinator of the U12 program. Morton, who
is Jewish, has a counselling background. He has been a youth worker
and counsellor in a number of settings and has been in the restorative
justice field for the last four years. He described restorative
justice as a focus away from crime and offences to rebuilding relationships
and "to healing communities by giving people a voice and providing
an opportunity for restitution and for forgiveness."
"The idea of building community and being part of the Jewish
community here and seeing how important that is [has influenced
what I do]," said Morton. "Also recognizing that the Jewish
community here is in some ways very scattered too, the sense of
community really appeals to me and that's an ideal that fits right
into the idea of restorative justice. The ultimate goal of restorative
justice is to build stronger, safer communities again."
Morton began using the conferencing technique – which was being
used in Australia – while working in the school system. He
and a couple of colleagues developed this approach to conflict resolution
and now they are part of a company called Proactive Resolutions,
which provides conflict resolution and communication services to
workplaces.
With regard to the U12 program, the conferencing process begins
with a referral to the JHS, usually by police, schools or a community
agency. Morton screens the case, with the criteria for participation
being that the child acknowledges being involved in the incident
(admission or at least no denial); the child agrees to participate
in the conferencing process; and the child lives in Greater Vancouver.
Once the screening is complete, all individuals affected by the
incident are contacted. There is an initial meeting with the victim
and a separate meeting with the offender, followed by an initial
meeting with all of the individuals affected. This meeting is to
inform everyone of what will take place during the conference that
will follow. At the conference, there is discussion and an agreement
is reached, with terms ranging from formal apologies, formal reparations,
action plans for anger management, counselling and class presentations.
After the conference, there is a follow-up and evaluation, and the
process is complete once a report is made to the person or agency
that made the referral.
One case with which the U12 program dealt was well publicized earlier
this year. A Grade 6 student who had posted a message on the Internet
threatening to kill a classmate brought a pellet gun to L'Ecole
Bilingue elementary school this spring. The U12 conference allowed
everyone involved to better understand why the incident took place
and resolve it to participants' satisfaction.
In the year that the U12 program ran – July 2002 to July 2003
– there were 11 successful referrals that resulted in negotiated
agreements and the program served a total of 113 participants. Based
on surveys and evaluation forms, the conferencing seemed to benefit
all of the people who were affected by an incident. According to
an evaluation of the program, there were high levels of adherence
to the conference agreements and there were reduced rates of repeat
behavior. Nonetheless, funding for the pilot project, which came
from the Department of Justice Canada Youth Justice Policy, has
not been renewed.
"We can't rely on governments for money any more," said
Morton. The program's future depends on whether it gets additional
funding from alternate sources, he said, such as businesses in the
community that are affected by such acts as vandalism.
"We had one referral from Superstore, which was a case of theft,"
explained Morton. "Two kids went into a Superstore and stole
a bunch of stuff. The mentality of the people at Superstore, people
who work in loss prevention, is basically, that this is the cost
of doing business."
But Morton says there's another option.
"You need to show to these kids that there is a cost when this
happens, in terms of manpower in dealing with these cases and the
actual cost of having the goods stolen," he said. "They
need to hear that. If they don't hear it, you may see them at your
store again. But if we sit down and we talk about it, they can tell
you what happened, what motivated them to do what they did, and
you can tell them how it felt to have stuff stolen from your store....
You're not likely to see them in your store again and, if you do,
it's probably not going to be about theft."
And the conferencing approach is not only applicable to youth issues
or workplaces. At a recent restorative justice conference, Morton
said there was a delegation in attendance from Israel that was interested
in the technique and how it could be applied to deal with the community
conflict that exists in Israel
"It doesn't mean that they're entirely optimistic about a process,
any process, that may be able to manage what's going on there,"
said Morton, "but at least it's a start or at least it's a
shift in thinking, which, I think, is encouraging."
For more information about the John Howard Society's U12 restorative
justice program, call 604-872-5651, ext. 307, or e-mail [email protected].
To contact Morton or to get more information about the services
provided by Proactive Resolutions, call 604-732-3302 or e-mail [email protected].
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