With a team of nine certified facilitators and the support of the District of 100 Mile House, the 100 Mile Restorative Justice Program is just in need of its first case.
Donna Barnett, District councillor and lead facilitator, said she and her team are eager to get started. They anticipate they will receive their first case within the next few weeks and from there can start working to benefit their community.
“Hopefully this program will stop some of the vandalism going on but more than that I think it will help people who are first-time offenders understand how their actions affect their friends, their families and their community,” Barnett said. “First-time offenses are as dangerous as anything else because it can be the start of somebody doing more crime.”
The restorative justice program has been a year in the making, with Barnett first proposing it not long after she was elected as councilor and appointed to the safety committee. Several years ago while she was mayor she sponsored a similar program which fell by the wayside after she became an MLA.
Barnett said bringing it back was a priority for her as it proved incredibly effective at dealing with criminal offenses done by first-time offenders. She claimed that their success rate was close to 100 per cent.
“You would much rather come to this than have a criminal record. Once you get a criminal record you may not be able to get a job later, you may not be able to cross the border,” Barnett remarked. “When we had the program before it had a 99 per cent success. The success stories we’ve had (in the past) are great.”
To bring the program back Barnett had to secure the support of both the district and the 100 Mile House RCMP detachment. Staff Sgt. Kevin Smith, the detachment’s commander, said he fully supports the restorative justice program.
“It is an alternative response to crime, that focuses on addressing the needs of victims and the community with a strong emphasis on offenders taking accountability and repairing the harm caused by their actions,” Smith said. “It involves the victims, offenders and affected members of their communities taking part voluntarily in facilitated communication about the effects of the crime and what the persons responsible can do to be accountable.”
After RCMP support was secured, Barnett and the other facilitators took a two-day training course this summer to receive their certification. Next to herself, she said the other facilitators will remain anonymous to the broader public to help ensure impartiality and avoid outside influence on cases.
How the program works is that when RCMP officers pick up someone committing a first-time offense they can ask the courts to resolve it using the program, rather than waste a judge and a prosecutor’s time with litigation. These offenses include petty crimes such as vandalism, shoplifting and breaking and entering.
“The RCMP sign off on it and then give us the case and we get the victim and offender to sign a form to agree to come to a restorative justice circle,” Barnett said.
Barnett said the victim, perpetrators and their families/support teams will then go to an undisclosed location with two facilitators to sit down and talk their differences through. From start to finish the process is confidential.
At the meeting, victims will have a chance to outline how the crime impacted them, while perpetrators will get a chance to explain what led them to commit it. The facilitators will then suggest potential restitution options that satisfy both parties.
“It may be as simple as writing an apology or it may be 10 hours of community service, whatever it is they have to agree to it,” Barnett said. “If the victim and offender don’t agree to it, then it doesn’t happen.”
If the restitution takes place Barnett said RCMP will wipe the offense from the perpetrator’s criminal record. However, if the process fails it will be kept on file and should the offender offend again, that will also be taken to the court.
“It helps the community and also really and truly helps first-time offenders and victims. The victims know the offenders recognize what they did and how it has affected everybody,” Barnett said.
The RCMP are currently waiting for an appropriate case to emerge that they can give the group. Smith said they ideally hope to have them up and running by the end of February at the latest.
