A Restorative Justice Program for Merchants, Community and Juvenile Shoplifters

HOW DOES IT WORK?

When a youth is referred by Juvenile Court, 191J, a RESTORE intake form is completed. The youth and a parent or guardian attend two RESTORE sessions and complete a contract, as described below.

RESTORE Session #1 has three parts and will take approximately 2 to 2½ hours.

Part 1 – During this session, the youth and their parents will listen to speakers discuss the impact of shoplifting on the merchant community, as well as the community-at-large. They will also hear other youth speak about how shoplifting has affected them, their peers, and their families.

Part 2 – Then, the youth and their parents will meet in smaller groups to talk about the shoplifting incidents they were involved in and how they have been affected by this incident. This group will also include other juvenile shoplifters, their parents, community member, peer representative, and merchant representative, and will be facilitated by RESTORE Volunteers.

Part 3 – When the group sessions are complete, each youth and with his/her parent or guardian review and sign a contract to repair the harm to the victim, the community, their family and themselves, including community service. They will sign up for a contract completion date and time to return to the RESTORE Council. 

The amount of time to complete the contract varies from 12 to 20 hours, depending on the types of projects chosen by the youth.

RESTORE Session #2 will take approximately one half hour.
The youth will return in one or two months to present their completed contract results and projects, including verification of community service and other contract items.

BY PARTICIPATING IN THE RESTORE PROGRAM, YOUTH CAN:

1. Learn more about shoplifting and how it affects victims and the community
2. Repair the harm done by the incident in a meaningful way
3. Make choices about the consequences for their actions
4. Have their theft charge dismissed upon successful completion of the program.

A Restorative Justice Program for Offenders and Victims

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In a facilitated session, offender and victim discuss the specific crime, typically vandalism, theft, burglary or graffiti, its impact, and agree on actions to repair the harm; follow-up assures completion of the agreement. These sessions are scheduled at the convenience of facilitators and participants.

Parent-teen mediation is available for families served by VORP.