Sitting in a circle, surrounded by important people in her life, one young female offender who is part of Minnesota's Girls Restorative Justice Program had a chance to confront her abusive brother.  With talking piece in hand, she took that opportunity to tell him how his actions had affected her.  When his turn to talk came, he took responsibility for what he had done.

Before talking to her brother, who she had not seen in years, the young offender had resisted any kind of therapy.  After participating in that restorative justice circle, where she had an opportunity to air her feelings and hear him take responsibility how he had harmed her, she was able to move on with her life. 

"That was some kind of crucial something in her brain," said Katya Goodenough Gordon, Restorative Justice Specialist for AMICUS, the non-profit agency that provides restorative justice services to a handful of serious and chronic female juvenile offenders who are committed to the state DOC.

The Girls Restorative Justice Program, which was the focus of a workshop at the recent American Correctional Association in Chicago, Ill., started in 2000 as a partnership between the DOC, AMICUS and a private residential facility for juveniles.  Its goal is to provide specialized services to young female offenders to meet their unique rehabilitative needs and better prepare them for their reentry into the community.

"What we really wanted to do was to make sure they transitioned well into the community because we don't want to keep them forever," said Mary Scully Whitaker, a justice consultant who was the DOC's Planner for Female Offenders when the program was launched. 

Scully Whitaker, who played an instrumental role in getting the program off the ground, said that once AMICUS came on board, she was confident that the agency would "pull the right people together to make this happen."

"[We] needed to get the right people together to address the issues of these girls and their families," Scully Whitaker said.  "They're connected to their families or they're carrying them in their hearts."

Because their families play such an important part in these young offenders' lives, they are invited into the girls' restorative justice circles, which are a key component of the program, along with group and individual trauma counseling.

Exploring Issues in Circles

The program uses different types of restorative justice circles, including Circles of Support, which bring together significant people in an offender's life, such as family members, friends, probation officers and social workers.  Together with these important figures in their lives, the girls work through issues like family problems, grief and abuse and neglect.

Another type of circle that takes place, depending on the victims' willingness, are Victim-Offender Circles, where the offender, the victims, and both of their support systems all sit together and discuss the offender's crimes.

The circles are held in a juvenile's home community both before and after her release from custody and allow people to discuss their feelings freely.

"The circle is a safe place where people are brought together to talk openly and honestly," Goodenough Gordon said.  "We spend a lot of time in the circle laying out the guidelines of how we're going to be."

In the circle, a talking piece is passed around and, only with that in hand, are people allowed to speak without interruption.  According to Scully Whitaker, this helps to preserve calmness in the circle and control the juveniles' reactions to other people's comments.

"Girls tend to be trigger responders," Scully Whitaker said.  "If you practice circles, you can't just be a trigger responder.  You have to be thoughtful."

The strict circle rules about responding also help to protect the victims who agree to sit down with the offenders and their families to describe how the juveniles' crimes have impacted them, Scully Whitaker said.

This process can be complicated, Goodenough Gordon added.

"This is a tricky business to involve victims in restorative programs," said Goodenough Gordon, noting that victims are not brought into this process unless they are fully prepared and willing to do so.  "I would never drag someone into an experience like [this]," she added.  "I really believe the victims' needs are paramount in restorative services.  I try to really empower victims and their support [systems]."

Involving victims in the girls' circles is important for two reasons.  First, it gives the victims an opportunity to confront the offenders and ask questions about the crimes.  It also ensures that the juveniles are directly accountable to their victims.

"I think it's really good for the offenders to hear [how their actions impacted their victims]," Goodenough Gordon said.  "It's just amazing what the circle process will do, especially if you get the right people in there."

Trauma and Grief Counseling

In addition to the circles, girls in the Restorative Justice Program go through extensive individual and group trauma and grief counseling at Woodland Hills, the residential facility where they live.

"[The girls] need a lot of time for one-on-one counseling and group counseling," said Louise Wolfgramm, President of AMICUS.  "We see this trauma counseling as really primary."

During group trauma counseling, which takes place in the context of a weekly Girls Group, the juveniles deal with issues surrounding the past abuses they have suffered.  The girls also receive intensive individual counseling to deal with their past traumas.

"The Girls Groups is a psycho-educational group about trauma," said Wolfgramm.  "The girls really set the agenda for that group."

And that is true for the circles as well - the girls, their families and the other circle participants essentially drive those, too. 

"We're really just there to clear the path for them," said Goodenough Gordon, who facilitates many of the girls' circles, acting as a Circle Keeper.  "If you really do it well, then you're not the hero.  You're not anything." 

The ultimate goal of the program, through counseling and a series of circles, is to open the door for the girls to talk with their families and their victims about their own personal issues and the crimes that they committed.  Going through counseling and the circle process, hopefully, helps the girls to feel connected to their families and other community members to ease their transition back into society, Goodenough Gordon said.

"One way of helping people not to reoffend or offend in the first place is [by] connecting them to people in the community," Goodenough Gordon said.  "[The goal of the program] is really to connect [the girls] to people permanently."

Resources:

To learn more about the Girls Restorative Justice Program, contact Wolfgramm or Goodenough Gordon at (612) 348-8570

Scully Whitaker (651) 433-3896 or scullywhitaker@msn.com