Bob Lancaster, store manager of Dillard's in Chattanooga, Tenn., could simply turn juvenile shoplifters over to the city's juvenile court system. But that would be too easy.

Instead, Lancaster takes matters into his own hands. Through the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), he meets with the store's first-time shoplifters outside of court to discuss an alternative sentence: a letter detailing their future plans in life.

"I enjoy the letters and I do read all of them," Lancaster said. "They shed some light on the thinking of today's youth and help them to solidify their goals."

Launched by the Chattanooga Kiwanis Club two years ago, VORP schedules and facilitates meetings between nonviolent juvenile offenders and their victims in the hopes of creating out-of-court restitution plans. For some victims, restitution comes in the form of monetary reimbursement, but for others, like Lancaster, letters and essays aimed at guiding juveniles back on track are the preferred means of compensation.

VORP Executive Director Berti LeWinter said one storeowner has asked that juveniles who shoplift there visit a library or conduct online research on any topic of interest and then come back with a one-page paper on their findings.

"[Most store representatives] believe that if these kids are shoplifting, they're obviously missing something in their lives, have too much time on their hands, or are crying out for help," LeWinter said. "They see it as an opportunity to make an impact on these children, so that maybe they won't commit the crime again."

Meeting the Requirements

All first-time offenders must be approved by Chattanooga's juvenile court judge Suzanne Bailey before entering VORP as an alternative to community service. A strong advocate for VORP since the program's conception, Bailey has referred 106 cases to VORP in the past year, 74 of which have successfully completed their restitution.

To be eligible for a referral, a juvenile offender must admit to being guilty of a first-time offense and the victim must agree to create settlement terms and meet with the juvenile to establish a plan. In addition, juveniles must have only committed nonviolent crimes, such as vandalism, shoplifting and burglary.

"We don't deal with anything that involves a weapon, alcohol or drug-related issues," LeWinter said. "We feel there are other people in the system that are better able to help those kids than us."

After both parties consent to a meeting, a trained VORP facilitator is assigned to the case. Facilitators, who must complete 20 hours of role-play, shadowing, lecture and video training before receiving their first assignment, are responsible for ensuring smooth conversation between parties, which requires them to establish a neutral meeting place and resolve many misunderstandings.

"Facilitation involves a lot of interviewing skill, with redirecting and rephrasing," LeWinter said. "The facilitator must be tuned in enough to notice if the victim is getting upset and then they may call for a break."

The Meeting

According to LeWinter, facilitators will set up most meetings in public places with the juveniles' parents present. However, she stressed that meetings are set up in a way to encourage discussion strictly between the victim and offender, with the parents sitting on the sidelines.

"A lot of the times, we'll have the parent's chair scooted away from the table, with the facilitator sitting at the end of the table and the victim and offender sitting across from each other," LeWinter said. "We want the meeting to be between the victim and offender only and then we'll ask the parents if they'd like to add something."

During these meetings, LeWinter said most victims are simply searching for an answer as to why the offender committed the crime.

"Usually, victims just want to know why it happened to them, why that day, why my store, why me," LeWinter said. "But most of the time teenagers don't know why they did it; it's usually just a random act for first-time offenders."

Humanizing Crimes to Reduce Recidivism

Rather than looking for answers, VORP encourages victims to help the juvenile humanize the crime by putting a face on the offense.

"Instead of seeing vandalism as just damage to a mailbox, we want them to see Mr. Jones who has arthritis and can't build a new mailbox for himself," said LeWinter, who promotes restitution plans that might prevent the juveniles from re-offending. 

According to Rev. Carter Paden of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, who originally pitched the idea of VORP to the Kiwanis Club, the program is so effective that he estimates participants are half as likely to ever return to court compared to non-participants.

In addition to reducing recidivism, the program also reduces costs. According to Paden, incarcerating a single juvenile in Tennessee costs between $34,000 to $60,000, implying that the program poses a large savings for state correctional facilities as well.

"I feel that one of the things harming us in society is that we've allowed the court system to become so overloaded," Paden said. "We're not using our common sense to get the two people together and find reconciliation and responsibility."

The Future of VORP

Though VORP is still fairly new to the juvenile court system, Paden said facilitators are already receiving "more cases than they can handle." For this reason, VORP has hired a new part-time program coordinator, freeing up time for LeWinter to travel around the state and make presentations.

"I like to do a lot of community education, so that we can increase our referrals," LeWinter said. "One of the biggest things we're hoping for is that the program will have a ripple effect throughout the entire community, where participants are having a positive influence on their peer groups."

In the meantime, victims say VORP is at least changing the attitudes of those juveniles who they've met.

"In 95 percent of the cases I've seen, I am confident that there has been a character change," Lancaster said. "It opened their eyes to the full impact of their actions."

Resources:

For more information about VORP, visit: http://kiwanischatt.org/vorp.htm.