Restorative Justice

Overview

The Winona County Restorative Justice works with youth age 10 to 18 in a variety of settings. Our primary function is juvenile diversion programming. The goal of Restorative Justice diversions is to hold youthful offenders accountable while repairing harm for victims and the community. This is done through the Circle Process. Additionally, Winona County Restorative Justice offers many other services including Community Work Service supervision, a one-on-one community-based mentoring program, a Life Skills course, truancy intervention programming, and a multitude of Circle processes.

Restorative Process

Restorative Justice is an alternative way to address criminal behavior. There are three components that guide the Restorative Process.

• Healing for Victims
• Accountability for Offenders
• Safety for Community

The philosophy behind Restorative Justice sees crime as a violation of people and relationships. Those violations create obligations to restore relationships between all affected stakeholders. Within the Circle Process, these obligations are determined. The goal is to offer compassionate responses to harmful actions. All participants in the process have a voice in repairing the harm. This powerful experience shows that bringing people together to speak with one another rather than pitting people against each other, provides long-lasting, positive results.