The Innisfail Restorative Justice Society received an award celebrating 10 years of its youth justice committee arm during a recent conference.
At the beginning of November, the group received a plaque, which was made by prison inmates, from the solicitor general's office marking the anniversary.
J.J. Beauchamp is the chair of the Innisfail society, the Alberta Restorative Justice Society and the recently elected chair of the Canadian Restorative Justice Consortium.
“Innisfail is I would say the elite one in Alberta,” he said of the program here.
Restorative justice in Innisfail takes the form of the perpetrator of a crime, the victim and a panel from the community deciding what steps the accused will take to make restitution to the victim and the community.
Beauchamp said cases are recommended to the program by Crown prosecutors and by the RCMP. They handle youth and adult cases.
“We've done both,” he said.
The effort that sets the Innisfail group apart is mentoring, he said.
“Mentoring makes a big difference,” he said.
The kids who go through the program are assigned a volunteer they have to report to every week. The volunteer looking after the file keeps in touch with different parties, like the school, to see how the youth is doing.
Beauchamp said knowing someone is checking up on them can motivate the youth to do better at school.
“The kids are not stupid,” he said.
The weekly checkup is a good tool, he said.
“We got a very good batting average because of that,” he said.
Sometimes, the youth keep calling even after their time is up – finding a mentor in the volunteer.
“Some of those kids, it's all they have. They turn around and now they've got an anchor somewhere,” Beauchamp said.
When the program first started, they had a hard time finding places for the youth to serve their community hours. Now, Beauchamp fields phone calls from different people and organizations looking for help.
“Over the years it's worked out well,” he said.
In addition to the recognition and a recent grant for the youth justice committee, the restorative justice society is busy gaining recognition for its work and being asked to help out other groups just getting started, as well as being invited to give talks about its efforts.
“We're gaining so much momentum,” Beauchamp said of the restorative justice movement.
