Innovative Programs: Restorative Justice

RFW’s first seminar of 2007 was a repeat of the popular "Job Development for Offenders" which promoted ways of successfully placing ex-offenders into the workforce. Opportunities Inc., in Fort Atkinson, developed a program working with youth offenders called Restorative Justice. The goal of the program is to get youth back on the right path and ensure accountability. Opportunities takes youths referred from the county court systems into the program and offers a variety of youth restitution options:

• helping the individual find employment to enable he or she to pay restitution for a crime;
• providing oversight of community service
• offering victim/offender mediation
• holding a teen court of peers to determine appropriate consequences for a crime

All of the restitution options, help the youth feel more connected and part of the community. The program began in the early 1980’s and continues to grow. For more information about this program, contact Opportunities Inc.’s Gina Groskopf at (920) 563-2437 or visit them online at www.oppinc.com.

Spotlight: Teen Court

Teen court is a great opportunity for juvenile offenders to get back on the right path and ensure accountability. Upon entering the program many of the youth come in thinking that they are alone, that no one else in the program can understand their circumstances. About halfway through the program, connections and relationships develop.

The Jefferson County Teen Court has been operating since 1998. The common theme among volunteers, parents, educators, law enforcement, judges, human services and schools is that teen court works. The teen court program is proven to be a cost effective way of handling juvenile crime with a restorative justice approach. According to a 2005 study by UW-Madison, Lafollette School of Public Affairs, the Jefferson County Teen Court program resulted in a $75,000 net benefit back to its community.

Participants in the teen court program commented: “I liked the class. It really made me look inside myself and find things out that I didn’t know before.” “You learn things that you don’t learn in school.” “You are able to realize the reality of your decisions.”

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