?Empty cell is a good cell?
Community justice speaker addresses valley law agents
By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer
An assembly of community leaders gathered for a workshop in the HUB at the Community Campus in Hailey last week to discuss restorative justice with Oregon consultant Dennis Maloney, president of Community Justice Associates.
The event was organized by Teresa Espedal, chief probation officer for the county, and Catherine Anderson, of Twin Falls, who is coordinator of the Young Offender Demonstration Project, a two-year, $600,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant, which helped to sponsor Maloney?s visit to Blaine county.
Maloney spoke to the group of at least 50 law enforcement officers, educators, justice system employees, city and county government leaders, attorneys, health and welfare councilors, youth workers and parents about crime prevention and restoration.
Maloney advocates a balanced approach to pursuing justice, leveraging the threat of imprisonment by offering those who break the law service opportunities to work off their punishments. Maloney offered many examples from his own experience working 16 years as director of the Deschutes County Department of Community Justice of Oregon. Maloney has been honored with several awards for his work in community corrections and juvenile justice and is a national speaker on restorative justice, known for his creative ideas for applying the powers of the justice system. He has even gone to the House of Lords in England to help determine ways for that country?s leaders to settle some of their scores.
Maloney?s approach to community justice is not the status quo, which he said advocates ?trailing, nailing and jailing? public offenders. Maloney pushes communities to develop a system of guidelines that seeks to repair harm, reduce risk and build community.
Maloney said the key to success is to get crime victims involved in a dialogue about what has happened to them early in the process.
?Participation will trump prescription any day,? he said, recommending an alternative to how justice is routinely applied in the U.S., which he said, pushes the community out and creates cynicism ?I think the best way to restore peace is to hear the victim.?
Maloney?s philosophy is that if criminals and victims are participants in the restoration of justice most people will want to participate favorably. The result will be a healthier community.
Maloney shared the example of Bend, Ore., a high growth community in Deschutes County that had a unique approach to dealing with juvenile justice. The community built a $8.5 million 58 bed juvenile facility, which serves five counties and has never been over 50 percent full.
?We haven?t settled for widespread incarceration,? Maloney said. ?An empty cell is a good cell.?
Some people must be confined, he said. If people know jail is an alternative they will be more motivated to fulfill community service obligations.
Maloney said the key to getting the building constructed was to get the business community involved. He said Bend business leaders recognized that a reduction in crime was good for business. Combining the facility with widespread, self-sustaining service projects helps keep youth out of the facility. Turning young people away form destructive habits with creative projects, like the maintenance of the Skate Park in Hailey helps them to become productive members of the community.
Maloney gave examples of how young people in Bend have helped to clear campgrounds of dangerous trees or distributed wood to elderly people, thereby breaking down stereotypes that build in the minds of seniors and youth. He gave compelling examples of how youths and seniors ultimately developed strong connections through the process, which he said, is part of the goal of restorative justice.
Maloney commended St. Luke?s Wood River Medical Center for taking over YAK, the Youth Adult Connection. He said the hospital?s recognition of the program as an asset is an example of a restorative program that is already working in Blaine County.
Engaging a number of the workshop participants? questions, Maloney talked about how to convince the community about the need for a new public safety center and how to convince the state to support restorative justice at the county level. Some of Maloney?s final comments focused on the importance of early childhood development.
There is no social vaccine to cure the criminal element in society, he said, but research shows early childhood development is the closest remedy. Part of the solution is shift money that might go to building more jails and putting it toward schools and early childhood development.
Participants in the workshop said the event created positive energy that the community would do well to harness, voicing a strong interest in seeing the public dialogue about restorative justice continue in the Wood River Valley. Espedal said that meetings were scheduled for the near future and would involve the public.
