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'As we were walking down the street we decided to go "car shopping" which is where you go into a car and take stuff out of it.' Restorative Justice letter
As part of the Lakes Area Restorative Justice Project, juvenile offenders are accountable for their actions and come face-to-face with victims of their crimes, who also have a voice in the process. For restorative justice organizers, the program links actions and consequences with juvenile offenders taking responsibility for their actions. The Lakes Area Restorative Justice Program points to studies that show such programs can be effective in reducing repeat offenses. As part of their process, juveniles involved in stealing an item from a vehicle, wrote a letter about their experience. The following is one such unedited letter:
On a dark, stormy, winter night my 2 friends and I were on a nice stroll through the brisk winter night. As we were walking down the street we decided to go "car shopping" which is where you go into a car and take stuff out of it. We happened upon a truck with no motion light on it, my 2 friends popped in, one came out empty handed, and the other came out with a portable heater. I looked at him, puzzled "what are you going to do with that?" I exclaimed. "I don't know!" my friend said. As we got to the end of the alley way he tossed it aside. As we walked back to my house we saw a police officer about a block away from my house, so we kept walking. When we arrived at my house, we went upstairs, when I jumped into bed I realized my heart was pounding! I felt exhilarated, scared, guilty, paranoid, and a pure adrenaline rush! As I forced myself to sleep I started feeling more scared of getting caught, but finally my eyes shut and I fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of my dad shouting "wake up, the police want to talk to you" I woke up and shook my friends to wake them. So me and the one friend of mine that did wake up went downstairs. The police officer asked us what we were doing, so we told him, just walking around, then he came out and asked us "where's the heater" so we explained to hem what really happened after we got our other friend. So we strolled over to the truck to retrieve the heater, as we walked I started thinking about the consequences of my actions. I didn't really realize how much of an impact our actions had until I went to the guy's house the next morning to apologize for what we had done. I could tell the guy was just really frustrated, I just felt like I couldn't apologize enough. Later on at the meeting I realized how it has affected not only him, but also his wife. He said that his wife was afraid of something being stolen again, I just felt terrible.
So all in all I really regret my actions that night, and wish I could reverse them, but I think I've learned something from this, which I will definitely use again and try to pass onto others, so they don't do something stupid like this.
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