Welcome to the Brattleboro Community Justice Center

Our pre-charge program is up and running as of mid-March. We have eight volunteers and three staff trained in Conferencing Circles, the model of intervention we will be using in Justice Alternatives. In this restorative process, two facilitators follow a script in a conference which involves the victim (or victim advocate) and the offender. Other people involved in this meeting include affected others, support people for the offender, a community volunteer who has been trained in conferencing circles, and a representative of the local police department. Through a guided process, the victim and offender are able to speak directly to each other, and with assistance, are able to come to an agreement about how the harm that was done can be made right. As in any reparative agreement, the participants are charged with deciding how to repair the harm, and whose obligations these are.

On other news fronts, several volunteers and staff at the Justice Center have recently been trained to facilitate Victim Impact Panels. This will enable the frequency to pick up considerably, so that panels can be held with much smaller groups of offenders convicted of drunk driving. The smaller the group, the more effective and meaningful the impact.

Volunteer Training May 19 & 26 - Click Here!