Lakes Area Restorative Justice Program (LARJP), a juvenile offender program, was recently awarded the 2022 Operation Round-Up® Impact Grant of $12,000 to expand their offender program to wrongdoers ages 19 to 26.

LARJP offers an alternative to normal punitive measures used by the correctional system. The process called Restorative Group Conferencing (RGC), gives the person who was harmed (the victim) a voice, and the person who caused the harm (the offender) an opportunity to be held accountable in a restorative way, rather than in a punitive way.

LARJP gets a case referrals from the County Attorney's office and six area Police Departments as well as the schools in Crow Wing County. The program currently serves on average 40-50 cases per year and has been working in our region for 16 years. The request to expand service to serve offenders to age 26 was made by law enforcement agencies throughout Crow Wing County,

The RGC process enables those victimized to express their feelings about the impact of the harmful behavior and to get answers to their questions. It helps offenders understand the true impact of their actions on the victim, their family, and the community as well as hold them accountable for the harm they have crossed.

Offenders complete a contract designed by themselves and the victim on how the harm will be repaired. By completing the contract and repairing the harm, the person that caused the harm is then able to learn from that mistake and hopefully continue in life making better choices. 

Crow Wing Power's Operation Round-Up® program has been a strong supported of LARJP since its inception in 2005.