2005 Annual Report
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Note: As of January 2006, the Capital Community Justice Center (CCJC) has changed its name to the Montpelier Community Justice Center (MCJC).
Capital Community Justice Center
December 27, 2005 - Annual Report 2005
This document is also available as a PDF: CCJC 2005 Annual Report, 2 pages, 24 KB,
December 27, 2005 - Annual Report 2005
This document is also available as a PDF: CCJC 2005 Annual Report, 2 pages, 24 KB,
The Capital Community Justice Center operates on the premise that a healthy community is one in which people help each other find mutually agreeable solutions to conflict and respond to destructive behavior in constructive ways. To understand restorative practice, we ask people to look at themselves, at their own experiences, wherein they typically find that restorative practice is a sensible way through conflict and crime.
As an example, think of a time that you victimized or hurt another person in some way and tell your story by answering the following questions: What did you do? What did it feel like to hurt another person? What motivation did you have for what you did? What impact did this event have on your life? Is there anything you now wish you had done about it that you didn’t do then? What did you lose through this experience? What did you gain? Did you immediately take responsibility for your actions? If yes, what made it possible for you to do so? If not, what stopped you from doing it immediately? Pay attention to your answers to the last two questions. Ask others what they would say.
Now think of another experience, one in which you have been on the receiving end of another’s offensive behavior, and tell that story. What happened? How did you feel? What impact did this event have on your life? What did you need from the person who hurt you? What did you need from others? What helped you get what you needed? What got in the way? Pay attention to your answers to the last two questions and ask others what they would say.
A restorative response to wrongdoing draws in a community to help those people who are affected by wrongdoing get what they need (understanding, support, answers to questions, compensation, etc.) A restorative response also creates an environment where the community helps those who have done wrong to understand the harm done, take responsibility, makes amends, and make changes. When the person who offends is able to do these things, those who have been harmed have a greater chance of having their needs met. The person who has offended is less likely to repeat the behavior.
The Capital Community Justice Center had 77 referrals for restorative responses to crimes between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005 and served the people involved in 72 of those cases. Fifty-two of these cases involved identifiable victims and 41 of those people chose to be involved in the restorative process. In addition to making amends directly to victims by such acts as listening, answering questions, apologizing, paying restitution, doing compensatory work, etc., forty-seven of the people who had offended performed a total of 483 volunteer hours in the community to make amends to the community as a whole. If calculated at minimum wage, the value of this work amounts to $3,585. Some of the work done includes maintaining and repairing equipment for the City, helping design the new pocket park on Elm Street, working on trails in Hubbard Park, researching a gate design for Hubbard Park, setting up and cleaning up for baseball games, doing grounds work at the Cemetery, making a cautionary presentation to a DUI class, and volunteering with Meals on Wheels. Many of the people who did volunteer work to make amends told us that doing this work made them feel like part of the community. One man who was convicted of a second offense for driving intoxicated wrote in a letter, “I am confident when I say the number of second offenses would be greatly reduced if all first time offenders had to go through the reparative process. This part of the process has changed . . . the way I behave, the decisions I make, how I look at my family, and how I look at life in general.”
The Justice Center has spent the last year building a restorative justice program for people who have committed serious and violent offenses who are returning to our community after being incarcerated. In the process, we have partnered with many of the organizations that provide social, educational, employment, and housing related services. We have recruited volunteers to serve on community based panels to maintain strong expectations for lawful, responsible behavior on the part of the program participants, while providing the support and relationships that make it possible for them to think and act in accordance with these expectations. This program only serves those who have pre-existing ties to this community who are coming back to live here, irrespective of this program. We will work with people who are scheduled to come out of jail to serve the remainder of their sentence under close supervision by the Department of Corrections. Our goal is to make the reentry safer for everyone.
The Justice Center continues to be a community resource for bringing people together to talk through issues. In January we held a forum for students from U-32 and Montpelier High School to have a dialogue about how to maintain a rivalry in sports without hurting people. In February we held a gathering of over 100 people interested in working together to keep victims and the community safe when people who have committed serious offenses come out of jail. In response to multiple acts of property vandalism last summer, we held a meeting to give people a place to tell their stories and think together about how to prevent and respond to this type of crime.
Read more about who we are and what we do on our main webpage at www.montpelier-vt.org/justice_center. We are located in Suite 6 at City Hall. Give us a call at 802-223-9606 if you would like more information or to find out about volunteer opportunities or how we might help with a restorative response to a particular conflict or community issue.
Yvonne Byrd, Executive Director
Karen Blazer, Reparative and Justice F.Y.I. Programs Coordinator
Dee Rollins, Reentry Program Coordinator
Karen Blazer, Reparative and Justice F.Y.I. Programs Coordinator
Dee Rollins, Reentry Program Coordinator
Links
(This section is under development)
Contacts
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Montpelier Community
Justice Center
39 Main Street, City Hall, Suite 6
Montpelier, VT 05601-0533
(802) 223-9606
E-mail: mcjc@montpelier-vt.org
Yvonne Byrd, Executive Director
E-mail: ybyrd@montpelier-vt.org
Karen Blazer, Program Coordinator
E-mail: klblazer@montpelier-vt.org
Judy Gibson, Caseworker
Email: jgibson@montpelier-vt.org
Updated July 28, 2006
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