A Jefferson juvenile performing community service at Jefferson Village School last month related to a criminal case against him has prompted concern in the community and a call for new policy or procedure for any future court-ordered community service at the school.
The juvenile, who was 16 years old as of last summer, was arrested in August and charged with burglary, theft, and criminal mischief for allegedly breaking into Ollie’s Place with another juvenile and stealing cigarettes, beer, and other items, according to The Lincoln County News archives.
The same juvenile was arrested about week later for allegedly attempting to break into a Jefferson home occupied by a husband, wife, and their two children. The family has since moved to another town as a result of the incident.
Vickey Jones, who owns Ollie’s Place with her husband, Ralph, said the juvenile pleaded guilty to charges in both cases on Dec. 23, which The Lincoln County News has been unable to confirm. Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Jones, the prosecutor in the case, said she is prohibited by Maine law from releasing conviction information in the case.
According to Vickey Jones, the juvenile was required to perform community service as part of his participation in the Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast. The program provides alternatives to hold offenders accountable while promoting healthy decision-making to reduce the likelihood of re-offense, according to its website.
The community service was related to the his alleged break-in at the store, but not related to the alleged attempted home invasion, Jones said.
It was after the juvenile started his community service work, washing windows at Jefferson Village School one afternoon in December while students were present, concerns started being raised.
According to Chris Jones, the court diversion coordinator for the Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast, the juvenile is quite good at math, and the idea was he would do some of his community service tutoring at the school.
“We try to look at an individual’s strengths and put those strengths to use … in the community where he caused harm” to make it a positive interaction, building self-esteem for the individual and allowing the community to see the individual in a different light, Chris Jones said.
Vickey Jones said she started calling school officials after she found out the juvenile was performing service at the school, which is located across the street from her business.
Vickey Jones said she was insulted to have him doing the work across the street from the business he allegedly broke into, was insulted for the family whose home he allegedly attempted to break into since their children could no longer attend the school as a result of the alleged crime, and was concerned for the safety of students at the school with him being there.
“It was a slap in the face to have him there washing windows,” Vickey Jones said.
Vickey Jones was so affected by the situation she threatened to pull the business’s support of the school’s sports programs if the juvenile was allowed to continue his service work there, she said.
When the issue came up in discussion at the Jefferson School Committee’s meeting Jan. 5, committee member Forrest Bryant said there should be a procedure in place for the committee to be notified of and approve of anyone doing court-ordered community service work at the school.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations in the last couple of weeks with a lot of very, very, very, unhappy people, and I think there needs to be … a procedure,” Bryant said.
Committee member Maria Solorzano said there should be some sort of approval process.
“We’ll bring something back to talk about,” AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said.
Both Bryant and Solorzano brought up the issue of safety in having offenders performing community service in the school.
In an interview Jan. 6, however, JVS Principal Peter Gallace said he and Bailey did not have safety concerns about the juvenile being in the school, as Bailey had been in contact with law enforcement and the Restorative Justice Project about the juvenile, and the juvenile was supposed to be supervised during the work.
“Obviously if we thought he was a risk, he wouldn’t be in the school,” Gallace said.
“In terms of the decision to have him do some service work at the school, if he had ever had any incidents with young children, or anything like that, there is no way that that would have happened,” Chris Jones said.
As Gallace understood it second-hand, the juvenile was supposed to be accompanied by someone from the Restorative Justice Project during his service work. That turned out to be incorrect, and so two school staff members supervised the juvenile instead, Gallace said.
The juvenile did end up being unsupervised for a short time that afternoon – around 10 to 15 minutes, Gallace gave as a rough guess – and though Gallace was not aware of any issues with the juvenile’s behavior at the school, Gallace recognized the concern others had about that unsupervised time period.
“If we can’t account for it, then that’s a problem,” Gallace said.
Gallace is hopeful the school committee can adopt a policy on court-ordered community service in the next few months, but is in support of such service work as long as student safety is accounted for.
“Our primary concern is for student safety, but we also want to make it a positive situation for everyone,” he said.
According to both Bailey and Gallace, after concerns were raised, the school asked for the location of future community service work for the juvenile to be changed.
“He was scheduled to be here more, but I made the decision, that being a Restorative Justice situation, the fallout from that – meaning the upset it was causing within the town – was not restorative, it was more a destructive practice,” Gallace said. “It was going to burn bridges, not build bridges for him.”
Gallace also recognized Vickey Jones’ and the other family’s concerns about the juvenile doing his service work at the school.
“I understand where they’re coming from, certainly, and from what I understand of the process for Restorative Justice is a lot of that is supposed to be aired at the Restorative Justice meeting,” Gallace said.
Vickey Jones decided not to attend the Restorative Justice meeting with two juveniles involved in her store’s break-in after an issue arose with one of the second juvenile’s parents.
If the service work being performed at the school in particular was an issue, that could have been voiced at the meeting, Gallace said. If a victim does not feel comfortable in attending, there should still be some communication before any plans are finalized, he said.
“The victims still need a voice if they’re not comfortable in the meeting,” he said.
“It certainly wasn’t meant, on our part, to rub it in anybody’s face,” Gallace said. “It was meant as a learning opportunity for the student to give back to the community and realize that he had done wrong.”
According to Chris Jones, though there were some issues with the process in this case, there are alternatives for victims to give input. Also, those who may not choose to participate in the beginning of the process may join in later on, he said.
Both boys are now doing their community service out of the town, Chris Jones said, and he expects both will pay Vickey and Ralph Jones the $3,800 they owe in restitution.
“I’m hoping at the end she’ll be satisfied, and I think that she will,” he said.
