Caribbean Net News: Alternative forms of punishment in Suriname

I wish to commend the decision to utilize alternative forms of punishment for youths in Suriname. I believe in restorative justice and am aware of the difficulties in creating a cultural shift not only from the citizens, but internally in the police departments as well.

I am a mediator and worked for the juvenile courts. My role was to facillitate vicitim/offender mediation. Based upon my experience working with youth offenders, I learned some valuable lessons.

Restorative justice is not punitive in nature, but rather utilizes alternative forms to hold youths accountable and responsible for the harms and the impacts that their actions have caused the victims and the community.

Community service is almost always one of the things the youths do. Some of them found that service to others and to their community, increased their self-esteem, reduced absences and tardiness in schools, and in general, when surveyed, found the programs to be beneficial to them.

However, not all youths do well in alternative programs and end up as repeat offenders in spite of the programs utilized.

Experience has shown that the youths most likely to benefit tend to be young (10-14 year range), are in the program because it is there first offense, have strong support from their families and due fairly well in school. The older the child gets, the more difficult it becomes.

Restorative programs are used for first and second misdeamnor crimes and first time felonies. The contract the offender enters into allows him/her to be held accountable and responsible to the victims and the community. This is in lieu of a jail sentence. The offenders are given a timeframe to complete all the assigned training and services and are assigned a probation counselor who monitors their success. Upon completion, they no longer have to meet with probation counselors. If the youths continue to not re-offend until they reach the age of 18, there records are expunged. However, it they do re-offend, it is considered a violation of their contract and they are remanded to the custody of the juvenile court to serve the remaining time on their sentence in juvenile prison.

There are many success stories. Some of the youths pay restitution to companies where perhaps they commited vandalism; by working for that company until the damages are paid. In fact, some companies will hire the youths and many others will give them a good job reference.

I applaud the hard work and dedication that Suriname is showing by beginning a process that may well take years before it is recgonized culturally. Restorative justice does work. While the process has been implemented for many years in the United States, the cultural shift is still one that requires continuous efforts.

Best wishes to those who are implementing this very important program.

Linda Petrusi
Portland, Oregon
USA

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