Doroga: Sovinto
(April-September 2005)

This project created a victim-offender mediation program for resolving juvenile crimes based on the principles of restorative justice. Methods of restorative justice transfer conflict management from legal institutions to the people themselves. Such programs give young offenders a chance to take responsibility for their own actions and participate in determining their own punishment and rehabilitation programs. Restorative justice improves the chances that juvenile delinquents will re-integrate into society and the project gained official approval from the Petrozavodsk Juvenile Committee and the Vice-Mayor for this new method of dealing with juvenile crime.

Training courses were held for young volunteers, who are students of philology and psychology, to teach them how to be mediators. Volunteers gained knowledge on restorative justice and developed mediation skills through role-playing and other sessions. Information about the program was disseminated both to recruit volunteers and to inform parents and children about this new judicial option. A pager number was set up so that schools, police, social centers, the Juvenile Committee, and individual people could refer juvenile crimes to the mediation program. For each case, a mediator will develop a plan for resolving the situation—in collaboration with the victim, the offender and the offender’s family—and will provide the Juvenile Committee with proposals for the social rehabilitation of the offender.

A pilot case that was used to test the system involved a 12-year old boy who set a fire in a kindergarten. The mediator helped the boy realize the consequences of his actions and negotiated an agreement with the director of the kindergarten that allows the boy to compensate for the damage by making new decorations for the kindergarten. Both sides thanked the mediator and said that this program is very important for young people because it gives them a chance to take responsibility for their actions and correct the situation through their own efforts.