This article was published on the front page of the Louisiana Weekly
Turning Toward Compassion:
Restorative Justice works to develop youths' conscience
By Amanda Furness
Louisiana Weekly Staff Reporter
It isn't enough just to boss them around.
Parents, teachers and court authorities have found this statement
to be true in their dealings with many of today's youth - often
losing their children to the system after forced discipline fails
to work. A method recently introduced in New Orleans called the
"restorative justice" movement is hoping to revolutionize
the relationships between youth and their communities by exhibiting
the most basic human emotion. Love.
Many definitions of the word exist, but mediators at Turning
Point Partners seem to view "love" as showing of concern
for another's humanity. That means, listening, sharing your own
perspectives and experiences, taking time to consider the issues
of others and moving toward action in making a whole community.
The lack of this respect, compassion and consideration of others
is one of the root causes of social decline, according to Jean
Handley, who heads up Turning Point.
"We have an obligation as human beings to make what's wrong
right, " Handley said.
The current emphasis nationwide on punitive rather than rehabilitative
emphasis when dealing with youth is something that she definitely
considers "wrong." Handley maintains that many youth
upon pairing up with TPP are not aware of the consequences of
their actions on others and are note conscious of the fact that
they must take responsibility for the choices they've made.
This "youthful ignorance" is confronted by TPP in their
initial mediation with youth who find themselves in court on
non-violent charges. Handley and several of her peers at TPP
take the commitment of getting involved in a young person's life
seriously and are willing to begin the process at once.
This is how the process works: a youth is arrested and brought
before a judge. The case is then referred for jail time, probation,
TPP or some other sentence. If the referral means TPP, Handley
or another mediator will hold a Victim/Offender mediation that
allows the two to compare notes.
"The victim is rarely in the picture," she said. "With
TPP, the offender is brought into court and made to look their
victim in the face. It gives the victim a voice, enables them
to explain to their offender what long and short-term effects
of their crime have been on that person. Mediation allows the
offender to tell his or her story, too. This helps the victim
to see that the youth is a person as well. What this process
also does is allow young people to understand their own victimization,
with the purpose of building empathy for their victims."
"Asking who is the youth's community/family is important.
Many kids from New Orleans don't have a lot of family. It's important
that they have support people. Who can support and see value
in them? We try to bring together family, community members,
pastors, and teachers - anyone who might be concerned about the
well being of a particular child. Then we ask those people to
look at some ways that we can resolve the situation so that everybody's
content with the outcome. What would restitution look like? When
an offense is committed it also affects both families. What have
these affects meant for the families? Shame, loss of work, distress.
The youth needs to take all of this into account and ask themselves,
'What is it that I could do?' The whole premise of restorative
justice is that it is an internal process," Handley said.
Internal in that an offender must come to terms with his or her
own conscience and guilt, as well as with their victim's pain.
But Turning Point Partners is also about working together as
a community to bring about this introspection in the offenders
they service.
"It's a completely collaborative process, we all work together,
the family, the mediator, and the victim and the offender, "
Handley said. "Everybody has to be in agreement with the
settlement before we take it to the judge. We make a suggestion
to him based on our mediation regarding sentencing and it hopefully
serves as a way to allow the kids to give back to the community.
It's about putting all the pieces together and keeping a community
going."
Some of the agreements may mean community service, restitution
or paying the insurance deductible on a stolen car. Occasionally
a family is able to help out and find the youth a job that will
enable him or her to repay the debt in some way. About 1,400
organizations nationwide are currently using the restorative
justice method. So far, it has proven successful by reducing
the recidivism rate by thirty-two percent.
"We're showing that this is not just a theory," Handley
said. "It works. Most of these kids are not a serious threat
to themselves or society. We want to eliminate the need for juvenile
facilities. The biggest part of doing so is realizing that the
nature of our system is that it's based on shame. It makes each
person a little higher than the other; we have to change that
system. It took 250 years to get into, it's going to take time
to get out of, but we need to build a new, long-term foundation
to begin moving towards something different."
Handley sees that as consisting of safer, more secure national
and local communities that use restorative philosophies and practices
and promote justice for individuals and families, communities
and institutions. Currently, Turning Point Partners is working
with several juvenile correction facilities, the juvenile court
system and is doing some preventative working New Orleans schools.
Handley and her TPP counterpart, Lou Furman, just completed a
year at Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth, working to
develop reflection, communication, and empathy in each of their
charges. Community Building Circles are the foundation of the
work. Such "circles" are established during a three-day
training in which communication, expression, discipline and respect
are cultivated within the group.
Juvenile Judge Mark Doherty is referring cases. Although he's
the primary judge responsible for sentencing juvenile offenders,
Doherty nonetheless believes that entrance into the juvenile
justice system creates additional problems for many youth who
already came to the table labeled as disadvantaged.
"Their obstacles become exacerbated," Doherty said.
Turning Point Partners offers a real chance to counteract those
stigmas.
"I'm pleased with it, he said. "It provides an opportunity
for parents and youth that they otherwise wouldn't have, giving
them the support they need. It's almost like Turning Point Partners
helps them to find their way through the Byzantine system they've
been placed in. It's also helping them to find new behaviors
and makes them accountable to their victims. That way, hopefully
the experience will turn out to have been a learning experience
that will help them to get back on track."
Doherty said he knows that the system and even life have proven
overwhelming to many juveniles.
"They are faced with a multitude of city and state agencies
that they have to deal with, that both ask and demand them to
do something, without supporting them and actually helping them
to do it. The thing about Turning Point Partners is that the
'life purpose' of these people is to support these kids, to link
them up with the resources they need, to develop relationships
with them, to help their parents cope," he said. "Imagine
how hard it would be to deal with all this stuff, and then try
to raise two or three other kids and put food on the table? TPP
acts like the missing piece, and though initially the kids are
resistant, Jean and Lou earn the trust of both the youth and
their parents. At first it's like, 'Oh, no. What's this guy going
to do for me? But this trust, after the relationship is established,
is based on actions and performance, rather than just saying
'We're from the government, trust us.'"
Genuine concern may be the very thing that makes Turning Point
Partners so unique.
"This is where my heart is," said Lou Furman, also
a mediator with TPP. "In terms of what we do, we're working
to bring humanity into a society that has become sterile. All
I can do is try to be committed to the humans I meet on a one
to one basis. It's a shared growth; I grow with them."
This collective growth process and TPP's special attention to
detail and emotion have served to help them maintain long-standing
relationships with those they serve and have serviced, both past
and present.
"In some cases, young people will identify with those in
our organization and when they are finished with the process,
we stick by each other still," Furman said.
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