Celebrating 10 years of Restorative Justice

While Circle Sentencing is, in part, why Yellow Medicine County has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual out-of-home placement costs over the past decade, the true value of the program is tough to quantify.
After all, how do you put a value on a life changed for the better?
You can’t. But you can feel it. And you can also revere it––and that’s what Yellow Medicine County Circle stakeholders and volunteers did during Thursday’s 10 year celebration of Restorative Justice at the Prairie’s Edge Casino Resort banquet hall on Thursday.
At its heart, Restorative Justice is  the process for repairing relationships between individuals, families and communities.
Unlike traditional crime and punishment, wrongdoings in Restorative Justice are viewed as “a violation of people and relationships rather than a violation of systems and statutes,” says former YMC Restorative Justice Coordinator Julie Marthaler. As such, transgressions are dealt with outside of the courts and without the traditional form of punishments characteristic in the legal system.
“The Criminal Justice System’s focus is often on offenders getting what they deserve, whereas Restorative Justice is focused on victims, and an offender’s responsibilities for repairing the harm,” said Marthaler. “This is not to say that criminal justice doesn’t have a place in our society, because it does. They are just two totally different approaches.”

Circle Sentencing
Circle Sentencing is the most pervasive form of Restorative Justice in Yellow Medicine County and has grown increasingly relevant over the past 10 years. More recently the Restorative Justice method has been expanded to include two Family and Community Circles and one Circle of HOPE, which is geared toward aiding those fighting substance abuse.
On November 8, 2001 a single Sentencing Circle began forming in Granite Falls, but through proven success, has grown to include five  spread throughout the county today.  
The specifics of Circle Sentencing will vary, but overall concepts remain the same. In YMC Circle Sentencing is available to juveniles who are referred to the program after committing a crime while under the age of 18. It is a requirement that they convey a desire to change and also admit guilt.
Referrals typically come from stakeholders, made up of those from the legal system and family services, while the Circle itself is comprised of a Circle Coordinator, trained community volunteers, the offender and the victim.
Working with stakeholders the Circle develops an appropriate sentencing plan that addresses the concerns of, and gives a voice to, all involved parties, including the community. The goal is to find a constructive resolution to a transgression that heals all those affected at the deepest level.
Meeting one to two times per week, juveniles might remain in circle anywhere from six months to two years, according to Marthaler.
Once all conditions are met – and this may entail meeting financial obligations, drug-free testing, community service and often out-of-the-box responsibilities such as a weekly dinner with family members – the offender is allowed to leave Circle with their criminal record wiped clean.
Those a part of the process assert that Circle is as, if not more, demanding than the legal process. If obligations are not met individuals are referred back to the system.
“It is a privilege, not a right,” said Marthaler. “It is an opportunity.”

The beginnings
Circle itself is not a new concept, said one of the evening’s keynote speakers, Terry Anfinson. It is a method that has long been used to repair rifts within the community by indigenous cultures.
Anfinson is the retired Director of the Anishinabe OIC on the Milles Lacs reservation as well as a Circle Keeper and Trainer. He brought the first Circle to Minnesota in 1996 after he was coached by three indigenous trainers and Judge Barry Stuart, a former Canadian judge of the Yukon, credited with creating the first Circle. He was also integral in training local stakeholders and community volunteers.
Through state grants to the children’s mental health and family services collaborative, PACT4 (now PACT for families), the program was instituted in Kandiyohi county before being made available to Yellow Medicine County in 2001.
In 2007, Yellow Medicine County commissioners agreed to financially back the county’s own full-time Restorative Justice Coordinator, a previously shared position under the direction of PACT4.
Marthaler has served as the county’s first full-time coordinator over the past four years, and has managed to do so with grant funding to the benefit of the county. After announcing her resignation from the position in October, the county is presently seeking her replacement. Marthaler said she intends to continue developing circles, albeit on a part-time basis for Lincoln, Lyon and Murray County Human Services.

Much praise
During the banquet, those in attendance listened to Marthaler, Anfinson and retired Judge Bruce Christopherson on the effectiveness of Restorative Justice and its growing influence worldwide.
Marthaler heaped praise on stakeholders, and stakeholders on Marthaler. Both cited the roughly three dozen present, and many past, volunteers of the county as the backbone of the program.
“You have to have invested, humble innovative stakeholders and diverse, compassionate, honest volunteers. You have got to have both,”  said Marthaler. “If you have one without the other you’re probably going to have a hard time getting a Circle program underway.”
With his vast experience – he has provided Circle training as far away as Egypt – Anfinson was able to provide perspective on the level of community and stakeholder support in the county.
“The resources you have to draw from here are unbelievable. Much more than the rest of state,” he said. “You have yourselves to credit for that.”
Of all those who spoke, perhaps the most effective at displaying the impact of the program were two former Circle referrals, William Sturgeon and Kyle Duis, who deemed their experiences at Circle life altering.
“Thank you to Julie and all of Circle members that supported me. You helped me change my life and turn it around,” he said. ”It’s just good to know I got all these people backing me.”
Duis said he has been sober for a year, in large part due to the influence.
Circle taught me it wasn’t about saying no to drugs, it was about saying yes to everything else. “Avis back there, she got me into yoga,” he said of the four year Circle volunteer, Avis Freitag, drawing a hardy laugh. “Yoga is definitely not as easy at it looks.”

Worthwhile
Since its inception a decade ago, 67 youth have been referred to Circle Sentencing, eight of whom are still currently enrolled. A total of 39 have successfully completed the program.
Of those claiming that honor, there has been a zero percent recidivism rate.
Marthaler ponders this and wonders aloud about the extent of the chain reaction that might result from the community support through Circle. “I’ve never seen one sibling of a graduate have to be referred to the program... was that Circle?” she asked rhetorically.
Again, it’s tough to quantify. It’s something you feel. It’s a faith that a life, held accountable, yet supported by the community, has been made better.
Boiled down, Marthaler says Circle is a “safe place to have a difficult conversation” while Anfinson says it is about “transfering community values.” Freitag, though, might have summed it best. “It’s about making worthwhile community members,” she said.