John and Justin – Courtroom Judge or Restorative Justice Circle?
The boys were being boys and having their version of fun together. The confusion of living between childhood and being an adult was constant. ‘Act your age’ really seemed to mean that whatever you do you are not doing it right. So the boys who were also, at times, referred to as young men, were just hanging around, young men being boys.
They had noticed a dirt bike (motorcycle) sitting close to the front of an oft open garage door. Seeing it stirred the imagination, ideas of adventure referring to the many video games that glorified the dirt biker hero.
Enter Rob, a twenty something male, who told the boys many things concluding with he would give them money if they simply rolled the dirt bike out and along a path to meet him. Initially, no, but which soon morphed into the thrill thoughts of ‘let’s do it’. And they did. One mother saw her son being arrested, put in handcuffs and placed into an RCMP cruiser, in their driveway, as he returned home from school the next day.
The Restorative Justice process is an option available to the arresting Officer. It is a judgment call that weighs the severity of the offense, arrest history, plus other subjective tests. John and Justin were referred to the Restorative Justice (RJ) program where they were the Offenders. The Victim, the owner of the motorcycle, had agreed to the use of RJ, a fundamental criterion for an RJ file to be opened.
RJ is a legal process. Information that may surface is confidential. Both the Offender and the Victim may bring a support person with them to the conference preparation interviews and to the RJ Circle. In this case, both Justin and John were accompanied by their mother. The adult Victim attended alone. Each of these three people participated in a separate pre-conference session where the intent and the particulars of the process were explained. There are three basic declarations needed from each Offender. They are:
1. I did it and it was wrong
2. I am sorry
3. I am willing to in some way make retribution
The pre-conference listens to everyone affected. The intent is to establish what, from their view, happened and the impact upon them and between them, before the offence, during, at arrest and since.
If, in the opinion of the trained volunteer RJ Facilitators, there is sufficient expectation that a Restorative Justice Circle (called Circles after the ancient Tribal justice process, where the community worked together to repair harm) is likely to be successful, the Circle is scheduled.
Justin and his Mom wept openly at pre-conference, embarrassed, ashamed, contrite and came to a silence that deserved the respect and support of the two Facilitators. John and his mother, though not as demonstrative, also entered that deep silence place. The Facilitators waited. During the Circle, the Victim stated that his young children are still having trouble getting to sleep, as their bedroom is above the garage. Justin and John were shaken by this. Each Offender, along with the Facilitators, helped to co-design a suitable act of retribution, suitable to the Victim too. A contract is written and then signed by all parties.
Some weeks later, Justin rang the door bell at the home of one of the Facilitators delivering a package which documented the hours of volunteer public Service he had given and a letter of personal apology to be delivered to the Victim. As Justin headed back to Mom’s car, the RJ Facilitator called after him, saying, “you are a good guy.” Justin turned, smiled broadly, and said, “yeah, I think I know that now.”
Joseph Seiler
Restorative Justice Facilitator
Restorative Justice Week 2017 (November 19th to 26th).