Circling toward justice
THE "SUPER predator" is back. The image of the out-of-control, pathological teenager, which made headlines and dominated talk shows in the early 1990s, has resurfaced amid the recent rise in juvenile crime. But when we see our young people as something "other," as aliens and monsters, it is easy to distance ourselves from them. Once we lock them up and throw away the keys, nothing more is demanded of us -- or of them.
Long-term change is much harder work, but in Chelsea there are adults and young people committing themselves to it. At Roca Inc. , a youth agency there, "peacemaking circles" are being used to resolve disputes within a family and to provide alternative forms of sentencing for criminal defendants.
"As an alternative sentencing process, the defendant has to plead guilty and must be sincerely committed to personal accountability and to real change," says Saroeum Phoung, coordinator for special projects at Roca. "That type of change is not what traditional sentencing demands of the defendant."
When used in alternative sentencing, a peacemaking circle includes the victim of a crime, the defendant, and families or supporters of both. Also present are police, court authorities, and other agencies -- such as child welfare agencies -- with an interest in the life of either the victim or the perpetrator. All may be heard.
Still, the circle honors the victim especially, who can participate in a more comprehensive way than in a criminal court proceeding. In an alternative sentencing circle, all participants must come to a consensus on the punishment of the offender, within the law. "That doesn't mean that jail time is off the table," Phoung adds. The group, including the defendant, might still decide there is no remedy other than prison.
Peacemaking circles are part of a nationwide movement toward restorative justice, which is based on the idea that an offense to any individual is something that impacts the whole community. The goal of the circles, based on an aboriginal system of justice taught to Roca by the Tagish Tlingit people from Canada's Yukon Territory, is to restore the community, to make it well again.
"This is not about being soft on crime," says Phoung. "Many who have participated say that jail time is easier than the real accountability in facing the people you've hurt, the community you've done harm to, or even yourself." Roca founder Molly Baldwin says the group is finding partners among police, judges, and prosecutors who are tired of things that don't work.
Circles have uses beyond restorative justice. Roca is now using them in a program for former prisoners or juvenile inmates. The program works with them and the communities they are reentering, to ensure accountability for offenders and community support to those who want to change.
"Peacemaking circles helped me to find a way to be in the world," says Erica, 21, who was originally sent to Roca by the courts at 13 for assault and battery. Having dropped out of school and become pregnant, she participated in mediation circles to resolve the very big problems in her young life -- with her mother, her school, and recently her boyfriend. She ended up working in Roca's community service program, Youthstar, and today is attending Bunker Hill Community College to get her degree in human services.
"Hector," 22, spent his teens running the streets. After dropping out, being involved in fights and drugs, and being hit by a stray bullet, he was tired of it all. But before walking into Roca he hadn't seen other possibilities. "I needed a better point of view," he says. "The most important thing I've learned from the circles is how to forgive. "
With some of the state's highest poverty rates, Chelsea was long viewed as a place of deficit. Yet the city also brims with a vibrant mix of immigrants -- Central Americans, Southeast Asians, Bosnians, and Somalis. How fitting that it is here we find such openness to new ideas.
"At Roca we try to see opportunity where others see a problem," Baldwin once told me. That type of outlook has made peacemaking circles a successful beacon in a world where, far too often, we see young people as a problem to fix.
Michael Patrick MacDonald, the author of "All Souls" and "Easter Rising," is a guest columnist. 
