The Community Juvenile/Youth Arbitration Program is a community-based program that provides fast track accountability for first-time youth offenders charged with committing nonviolent crimes. These youths are diverted from the formal justice system to an arbitration hearing or conference conducted in or near their communities. Trained volunteer arbitrators conduct the hearings/conferences and monitor the youths’ progress throughout the program, which is authorized to operate by Solicitor’s Offices in all 16 judicial circuits in South Carolina and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
On average, more than 4,000 individuals are successfully diverted every year through this program.
The three goals of the Arbitration Program are:
- To hold youth accountable for their actions and for the harm they cause to their victims and communities.
- To increase the competency and learning of young offenders so they can become productive, law-abiding citizens.
- To ensure public safety by strengthening a community’s capacity to prevent and control crime.
The Arbitration Program is an excellent example of balanced and restorative justice (BARJ). Citizen volunteers guide the development of common-sense solutions to divert at-risk youths from the justice system.
The youth’s participation is voluntary and requires an admission of facts or guilt. After determining the facts of the case, the arbitrator works with all participants to establish agreeable and appropriate sanctions for the youth to complete, ensuring that he or she repairs the harm caused to his or her victim(s) and community and learns from the experience. These actions may include:
- Paying monetary restitution
- Performing community service
- Making a charitable donation
- Attending educational programs
- Participating in counseling
- Writing topical essays
- Apologizing to the Victim(s)
- Attending substance abuse programs
- Participating in victim impact panels
- Visiting correctional institutions or making other appropriate field trips.
Successful completion of the Arbitration Program allows the youth to make amends for his or her actions and avoid formal prosecution in court. If the youth does not successfully complete the program, he or she is referred to court for prosecution.
The Arbitration Program does not accept:
- violent offenders,
- previous diversion program participants,
- or truants and other status offenders.
Get Involved
Participants in the arbitration process include a trained citizen volunteer in addition to the youth, their parents or guardians, the crime victim and the arresting officer.
Volunteer arbitrators are the lifeblood of the program. To become a volunteer, you must:
- Be 21 or older
- Have graduated high school
- Be screened by SLED and DSS
- Receive 21 hours of training through the Solicitor's Office or Sheriff's Department
- Receive 9 hours of follow-up training for each year of service