WASHINGTON _ Two teenagers walked into McGuckin Hardware in downtown Boulder, Colo., grabbed a $600 power saw, and shoved it into a backpack, only to be apprehended by a security guard in the parking lot.
Both teens were charged with theft. Then their paths diverged. One teen's parents hired a high-priced Denver attorney to fight the charges in court, beginning a legal process that dragged on for months. The other opted for "restorative justice."
As part of that process, the second teen sat down with his parents, someone from the hardware store and a facilitator to talk about what he did and how each of the parties had been affected by it. After a few hours, the group came up with a plan for the teen to make amends: make good grades, meet weekly with a counselor and pay back his half of the stolen saw.
"The whole encounter was very positive for him. He felt bad. He met with people from McGuckin. He moved on," said Boulder district attorney Stan Garnett. "He didn't spend time in prison and he didn't spend time meeting other kids always coming in and out of the system.
"The other kid whose parents hired the lawyer for him _ it took months to get it adjudicated," Garnett said. "They spend all this time filing motions and arguing whether we violated the Fourth Amendment by searching the backpack instead of thinking, 'Should I have stolen a power saw?'"
Boulder is one of many places around the country turning to restorative justice as an alternative to prosecution and possible imprisonment. Instead of fighting the charges in court, offenders selected for restorative justice agree to accept responsibility for their actions, meet face-to-face with victims, and come up with a plan to repair the harm they've caused.
Some jurisdictions are even using the strategy with adults, incorporating it into their probation for those who avoid prison time.
Thirty-five states have adopted legislation encouraging the use of restorative justice for children and adults both before and after prison, though many local law enforcement departments have for years relied on local nonprofits to perform the sessions without an official blessing from the state.
As states step back from mass incarceration, restorative justice is becoming more widespread and formalized. Last year West Virginia set aside funding for restorative justice and other alternatives to incarceration in the juvenile justice system. Some states, such as Vermont and Colorado, have passed laws that encourage the use of the strategy statewide by creating agencies that oversee or even provide the service.
