A Team Effort

Obviously the kind of work Genesee Justice does requires an incredible amount of cooperation between individuals and agencies. It means finding agencies and sponsors to aid both the victims and offenders, to provide assignments for community service, to provide treatment and sentencing plans. Getting all parties to agree without fighting turf battles—particularly because most agencies are publicly funded—is no simple task. The glue that holds it all together is mutual goals—and mutual respect.

What makes the program successful? “We can identify common goals and work toward those goals,” says public defender Gary Horton. “There are goals that I think anybody, no matter what angle they’re coming from, can agree on. Because we’re public defenders doesn’t mean we don’t want to see a safe community or that we don’t want to see victims protected or a jail not overcrowded. But we also want to see programs that give our clients an opportunity, presuming they have offended, to break the cycle they’re in and avoid re-offending in the future. And that’s where we can establish some real common ground on alternatives and restorative-type programs.”

Justice for Children

Nowhere is the need for team support more evident, perhaps, than when crimes are committed against children.

When a child is abused, the damage doesn’t necessarily end when the crime is reported. Suddenly people in uniforms are asking questions. People in white coats are asking questions. Mommy’s crying. And the child has to keep telling all these people what happened. And remembering how much it hurt.

Genesee Justice looked for a response pattern that would reduce the additional trauma caused to children by the very system that was designed to protect them.

Nancy L. Simmons is the coordinator of Genesee Justice’s Justice for Children program, developed in 1993. Coordinating the program requires great organizational skill—there are 16 different agencies involved. But they have all come together to determine, on a case-by-case basis, what responses will go furthest in healing the child victims and preventing trauma. Perhaps the most tangible symbol of their cooperation is the Justice for Children Center, located on the first floor of a comfortable old house on a residential street in Batavia.

Children are brought here for interviews and noninvasive medical examinations. The homey atmosphere is “better than a police station,” Simmons says, and affords opportunities for taping children’s testimonies for use in court so they can avoid the additional stress of facing the abusers again.

Resolving a child-abuse case involves so many facets-police investigation, prosecution, medical care and counseling for the victim, and support for nonoffending parents. All these issues can be dealt with at the center, designed to be a safe haven for victims and their families.

But Genesee Justice’s work doesn’t stop there. When appropriate, Genesee Justice will also facilitate treatment for offenders.

Simmons works both with victims and offenders—“It keeps you balanced,” she says. But she never works both sides of the same case. “I tried it once,” she confesses, “and I was so torn I said never will I do this again.”

The center is symbolic of Genesee Justice’s holistic response to crime: reaching out to both victims and offenders to repair the harm that’s been done. But there are times when Wittman’s office can aid only half that equation.