Restorative-justice program holds offenders accountable

The Flathead Valley is on the verge of having a restorative-justice program for teens that goes well beyond offenders picking up trash and painting park benches as part of their sentence.

With money from the Montana Board of Crime Control's Best Interests of All Grant, the local Youth Service Network has begun a Balanced and Restorative Justice Program and recently hired Ted Berg as coordinator.

Restorative justice is a victim-centered response to crime that provides opportunities for those most directly affected by a crime - the victim, offender, their families and members of the community - to be directly involved in responding to the harm caused by the crime.

"The question becomes not what the punishment is, but what will the offender do to make it right for the victim," Berg explained.

To get his point across, Berg uses the analogy of an elderly woman whose garden is torn up by two teenage boys. Under a retributive, more traditional form of justice, the boys would be charged and sent through the youth-court system, and a police officer would be the only one communicating with the elderly woman.

Using a restorative-justice approach, a police officer would notify the restorative-justice team, and team members would work with the elderly woman to determine fair compensation.

"Maybe in this case, the garden is more than just a bunch of flowers being pulled up," Berg said. "Maybe her husband died last spring and he loved to garden and this garden is her connection to him.

"Restitution is frequently a concern, but we would ask, 'Is there something these boys could do for her?'" he said. "One important thing about balanced and restorative justice is that the victim is brought to the forefront of the justice process. We're making sure the victim's needs are met."

Parents of the offender are involved in restorative justice, too, Berg said. For example, if a teen is mandated to completed community service at the local food bank, a parent might have to accompany the teen.

"Punishment for the sake of punishment doesn't work," he said. "Sending a kid away to Pine Hills [a state reform school for boys] isn't the answer. If you thought he was angry before, he's livid now and ready to make people pay. We haven't done anything to restore his sense of belonging."

In addition to direct mediation between victims and offenders, another alternative to retributive justice is to develop a community restorative board. Instead of victims dealing directly with juvenile offenders, a cadre of victim advocates would be trained to represent victims, Berg said.

Elements of a restorative-justice program have been used in Flathead County for years, such as community-service requirements for offenders, said Pat Warnecke, the county's chief juvenile probation officer. Occasionally there is dialogue between the victim and offender, and face-to-face apologies are made.

The stumbling block to having a full-blown restorative-justice program has been a lack of time and money. A burgeoning caseload in recent years, spurred in part by the population growth in the Flathead, has made it difficult for youth-court staff to keep up, let alone find the time to pursue restorative justice, Warnecke said.

"It takes time and coordination to do victim-offender dialogue," he said. "Ted is an important component to developing the victim-offender mediation."

The grant will pay for a three-day, comprehensive training session Feb. 2-4 that will teach volunteers to be mediators. Representatives from agencies involved in restorative justice, such as law enforcement and youth court services and public education, will attend.

Berg, who has been part of the community policing program in Kalispell, did site visits in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Spokane recently to learn about restorative-justice programs in those cities.

Restorative justice doesn't diminish or eliminate the legal requirements for juvenile offenders. A teen committing a criminal assault, for example, would likely be jailed, even though he or she may go through a restorative process, Berg noted.

Holding people accountable for their crimes is an ancient philosophy, Berg said.

"There's a long-standing sentiment that public order is a function of government. Real justice is a function of community," he said.

Berg is available to speak about restorative justice to local groups and organizations. Anyone interested in signing up for the February training can contact him at 257-7400, or e-mail tgberg@centurytel.net.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com

Grant helps Youth Service Network put plans into action

The Daily Inter Lake

A portion of the state grant that's springboarding the local restorative justice program will be used to bolster the Youth Service Network.

Nancy Bowman was hired July 1 as director of the Youth Service Network. Under her leadership, a Web site has been developed (www.youthservicenetwork.org) and monthly newsletters have been published. Bowman also heads up network and child-information team meetings.

"We're putting a lot of infrastructure in place," Bowman said. "We're partnering with the state of Montana to dovetail our efforts as the statewide effort [to help at-risk teens] progresses."

The Youth Service Network began in January 2001 as a collaborative effort among several agencies dealing with children.

"At that time it was felt that communication between various community entities around the needs of children was often sadly lacking," Bowman said. "As a result, children didn't receive the services they needed."

The network received a planning grant in its second year to work toward filling the gaps in the system of care for at-risk teens. The latest grant of $119,000, which has an option for a second-year grant, will allow the network to put its planning into action.

The development of a local child-information team has been one of the most significant accomplishments of the network. Created two years ago, the team brings together agencies and care providers to help at-risk teens.

"Under the old system, someone would give the parent a list of phone numbers if they were having trouble a teen," Bowman said.

Now, if a school counselor observes a student "falling through the cracks," the counselor can contact the network to activate the child-information team.

Team members include law-enforcement officials, Child Protective Services, mental-health providers, school officials and other agencies that deal with children. While the team can help direct the care and treatment of a teen, it's not a crisis line, Bowman noted.

"We can point parents in the right direction," she said. "This is pretty different than how it was done in the past. Groups like this are springing up all over the state. We're seen as a leader and a resource."

Monthly training meetings at The Summit in Kalispell, at noon on the fourth Monday, are open to the public.