JF on Twitter
Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
|
 Print
The following story is an excerpt from the article "The Way of the Just," by Tamela Baker.
"Ryan" and "Toby" and two other teens thought they were cool last spring when, after partying at one boy's house, they broke into their school and, in Toby's words, "we started smashin' stuff." Thousands of dollars' worth of "stuff." "We thought we got away with it," Toby says. "Then some people started talkin',"
Ryan, Toby, and the others were arrested on felony charges. One of the boys was incarcerated for his actions, but Ryan and Toby were referred to Wittman's office. With the approval of their families, the judge, the prosecutor, and their attorneys, Ryan and Toby were handed a number of assignements and conditions through Genesee Justices' pre-sentence diversion track that kept them out of a juvenile detention facility and may clear their records.
Each was given community service work to complete-Ryan at a religious retreat center and Toby at a nursing home. They had to pay for the damage they'd done at the school. They were given a 10 p.m. curfew and subjected to random checks by local police; they were assigned to write an essay on "why you should respect other people's property," and - the toughest part-they were to go before their classmates at the school and admit what they'd done. "I was nervous," Ryan says. "But we've been treated really well, actually, by the school, which is what I was really hoping for." The exercise has changed their whole outlook on "stuff."
"It's made me way more responsible," Ryan says. "All of our restrictions...I kind of turned it all around and instead of making it a bad thing, I made it a good thing" by hunkering down and getting a summer job in addition to his community service assignment. "And that's why I have a brand-new car now."
"I didn't really like having to be home at 10 o'clock every night, but I know it was a punishment for what I did, so I kind of respected that," Toby adds. "It taught me a lesson."
"I feel a lot closer with my parents now," Ryan says, "because before this happened I was never home."
And Toby says he can open up to his parents now in ways he couldn't before. High school seniors, both boys want to continue their education. Ryan wants to be an architect, and Toby wants to work in construction or be a police investigator. Their grades have improved dramatically since last year, and both say that without the Genesee Justice program, they would still be getting into trouble. "This program gave me a chance," Toby insists.
|
|
