Peru's pilot project in restorative justice for offending teens, a bid against jail time

[31 July 2006] - Sixty-eight per cent of Peruvian teens who commit petty crimes, according to official data, are put behind bars, sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment. This despite Peru’s own Child and Adolescent Code, a progressive piece of legislation in accord with international treaties that recommends interment only as a last resort and for brief periods of time, as well as proposing alternative sentencing options such as remission, community work, assisted liberty, and open custody.

“The fact is that, in practice, non-custodial alternative sentencing is not adopted in the majority of cases,” wrote Jean Schmitz, a representative of Terre des Hommes Lausanne Foundation in Peru, in the first issue of  “Justicia para Crecer” (Justice for Growth) a publication specialized in Restorative Justice for Juveniles, that came out February of 2006.

In early 2005 a pilot project in restorative justice was launched in an attempt to revert this scenario, bringing together the non-governmental organisations Terre des Hommes Lausanne and Encuentros – Casa de la Juventud, in collaboration with Peruvian public and private entities. The result was a model experiment on restorative justice as a show-case of the social, economic and legal benefits to be reaped in contrast with punitive or custodial based juvenile justice.

One of the project’s goals was to strengthen an “immediate defense” system from the outset, from the youth’s first contact with law enforcement and policing, as well as developing non-custodial sentencing that promotes reparations for victims and the restoration of bonds between teenage offenders and victims and/ or with his or her community.

Oscar Vásquez Bermejo, director of Encuentros – Casa de la Juventud said that “It is vital that teenage accountability be developed as part of his or her education in citizenship, from the perspective of individual rights it is important the child take responsibility for his/her acts.”

Two interdisciplinary teams lead the project’s activities: the Immediate Defense team and the Educational Follow Up team. The first comprises a lawyer, a psychologist and a social worker, responsible for monitoring and protecting the rights of detained teens. The team carries out case by case evaluations under the three perspectives and recommends as appropriate, remission, alternative sentencing or incarceration.

“One of the objectives of this project is to prevent cases of less import from being over-judicialised,” said Oscar Vásquez Bermejo. “Both the Attorney and the Judge rely on reports and technical evaluations recommending remission or alternative sentencing measures.”

The Education Follow Up team, comprising an education professional, a social worker and a network coordinator, is in charge of establishing a relationship with the young offender based on educational goals that foster responsibility and the skills necessary to restore bonds to his family and community.

The Education team is also in charge of strengthening support mechanisms within the offender’s family, as well as helping the teenage offender access to job opportunities and the educational system, through partnerships to private and public entities present in the community, (termed Reception Units by the project).

“We want to make it easier for teens to serve their communities, to join specialized treatment programs for drug addiction or domestic violence, as well as educational services and leisure,” adds Jean Schmitz.

The three year long project is a first step to reproducing it across the country. Project managers hope by monitoring and evaluating this phase, to derive the greatest benefits from the experience, generating the data and knowledge necessary for acquiring greater momentum in the social and political environment of the nation.

“Justice professionals who took part in the pilot project show a growing interest in restorative justice for juveniles, in gaining more in-depth knowledge, specialisation and in making their own contributions,” said Oscar Vásquez Bermejo.

The director hopes to create the appropriate conditions for training specialists able to pass on their experience and replicate the project in other regions of Peru.

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