Circle Sentencing

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Circle Sentencing is a community-based prevention, intervention and restorative justice initiative that gives youth an opportunity to take responsibility for their behavior while remaining within their community. The mission of the Circle program is to restore the health and repair the harm for the victims of crime, their community and the offenders themselves. The primary purpose is to get youth connected to caring adults in their community and prevent unhealthy behaviors. The Circle Sentencing program works with at-risk youth in the community who have committed a felony or gross misdemeanor offense in Chippewa County. Circle group members include caring volunteers from the community, the victim, the offender and the circle coordinator. The program employs one full time coordinator and relies on 25 community volunteers and interested school staff to offer the program to more than 1000 youth in our county in both community and school settings. Youth who have successfully participated in the program have stopped committing crimes, increased their school attendance, have long term educational and vocational goals for themselves and are becoming an asset to themselves, their family and the community. In addition, the program has expanded into the school setting to include more than 1,000 students. Multiple graduates now attend college, and the GPA of Circle participants has risen from a C- to a B average. None of Circle Sentencing’s graduates have re-offended in the two and a half years the program has been running.