Welcome! Login | Register












Julia Steiny: Bringing Kids In Trouble Back From The Brink

Wednesday, July 24, 2013


Young people who have slipped into trouble may have a clearer way back through restorative justice programs, which features participating in "circles" or "conference."

Eight years ago, Elissa Bellinger was a happy freshman at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She'd never been in trouble, and never expected she would be. 




So in 2006, the town and the University agreed to divert offenders like Bellinger away from the expensive, ineffective court proceedings that wreck kids' records.  The University would handle their students' under-age drinking offenses, committed on or off campus.  The town's judicial system would expunge a kid's record if all terms were met.


Conventional courts determine guilt or innocence and then assign punishment.  Offenders don't learn much from the experience, which is why so many go back out and re-offend. 

Bellinger chose to participate in a "circle" or "conference." She had to describe what she'd done and hear community members express how her behavior had affected them and others in the town.  This process is usually uncomfortable for the offender, which is fine.  They need to know specifically how their thoughtless, selfish act felt to those on the receiving end.  Offenders don't quickly forget their shame -- thus restoration's low recidivism rates.  Then if the group agrees that the offender "gets it," they all craft a restitution plan.  Failure to meet the restitution plan sends the offender back to the courts.

Bellinger says she "knew nothing going into the circle.  But that was part of the beauty.  It was so new; they'd only just started the program.  But also keeping my record clean was a big pull.  The conference itself was intimidating, scary and enlightening.  It was a really different perspective to look at how I was impacting others.  I had to take responsibility for my actions.  That was powerful."




"I believe everyone deserves these second chances, and not just college students with clean records."

Today Bellinger is in Smith College's social-work program, determined to use her degree to help social-service systems, especially the justice system, adopt restorative-justice techniques. 

"My friends say I'm the only person they know who could get into serious trouble and turn it into a career and passion."

I certainly hope she's not the only one.  Restorative justice saves lives, reputations, families, college careers and communities.  As restoration gives more and more people a second chance, surely some of them will join Bellinger in trying to pluck others from the jaws of America's vengeful, destructive judicial system.  Meting out punishments doesn't help to mend an offender's broken life or re-knit the community she harmed.  Restoration does.




Related Articles


Enjoy this post? Share it with others.