“I didn’t give a darn about anything or anyone, but now I’m more responsible. Through the process, I realized I needed to change.” (17-year old teen charged with burglary and assault)
While BCRJP offers several different programs to help youth offenders resolve their crimes, they are all based on this common principle:
WITHOUT GOOD LEARNING…
…YOU DON’T GET GOOD RESPONSIBILITY
How would you define the word justice? What does justice try to accomplish? Someone might say that justice aims to teach a person a lesson, and in this sense you could say that a justice process is a learning process. Traditional punishment may be followed by, “That’ll learn ya!” but what exactly is the message being taught? It’s one thing to not repeat an offense out of not wanting another negative consequence for yourself. It is quite another thing to not repeat an offense out of respecting other people.
RESPECT TOWARD OTHERS
A restorative process aims to increase this awareness of respecting other people. It provides a chance for a deeper learning about how misconducts, violations and crimes affect others in the community. This learning, in turn, promotes a deeper responsibility for making better choices in the future. In the same way parents wants their children to grow in character as they correct them along the way, restorative justice gives opportunity for the same character growth for all youth offenders.
RESPECT TOWARD YOU
Along with this emphasis on respecting others, our aim is to show full respect to you as you go through our program. If you are an offender referred to our agency, our first step will be to meet with you and a parent so we can learn more about your situation and you can learn more about our processes.
