Advocacy
Through Advocacy, we seek to change systemic oppression. We are doing this through policy reform and coalition-building with other youth legal organizations, and by ensuring that the youth we work with: 1) Have their voice heard on issues that are important to them and impact them and 2) Have their views considered when decisions are being made about their lives.
House Bill 1373 Signed Into Law
“From 2016 to 2020, more than 200 juveniles in Colorado were ordered to pay more than $3.57 million in restitution fees to insurance companies. Now, that practice is over with the enactment of new legislation that immediately prohibiting courts from ordering juveniles to pay restitution to insurance companies, though it still allows the courts to mandate juveniles pay restitution to victims.
Gov. Jared Polis signed that measure, House Bill 1373, into law on Tuesday.
“For the young people we work with every day, this bill means hope,” said Mirror Image Arts, a Denver theater organization that works to rehabilitate juvenile offenders and which inspired the creation of the bill. “It is a step in the right direction for young people having a second chance and breaking cycles of crime, violence and poverty.””
By Hannah Metzenger, The Denver Gazette
Click the image to read the full Denver Gazette article!
Juvenile Restitution
We seek to affect policy changes that reform or eliminate restitution fees that impact youth in Colorado. Restitution fees are intended as a “restorative practice” that helps repair harm to those affected by a crime. It’s also believed that restitution fees allow those responsible for the offense to re-enter their communities, having taken accountability and learned the consequences of their choices. However, restitution fees offer little repair to the harmed people in their current iteration. They add crippling financial punishment to youth (some owe over $250,000) who have already worked through the youth legal system. Currently in Colorado:
Restitution is mandatory when pecuniary damages are suffered.
There are no restitution payment caps.
Restitution payments to third-party payors are required.
Parents are liable to make restitution payments unless the court finds they have made efforts to prevent or discourage the juvenile from engaging in delinquent acts.
Restitution is a condition of probation or parole.
Interest accrues at 8% per year for any unpaid restitution once a young person turns 21 years old. Interest is not waivable by a judge.
Restitution imposed on someone as a minor can be discharged only in adulthood by filing for bankruptcy.
While diversion programs are offered to youth in addition to restitution, Colorado does not provide alternatives to financial restitution when restitution is required.
This document highlights broad themes identified by speakers and participants at the Reimagining Restitution for Youth by Debt Free Justice:
Five formally incarcerated young people and Restorative Theatre Alumni come together to participate in restorative theatre and share their stories.
On April 7th, Mirror Image Arts hosted a conversation about Restitution and Young People in the Youth Legal System.
Community Partners
A just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression.
Mission
Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC works with communities and partners worldwide to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace.
Resource. Empower. Liberate.
Fully Liberated Youth seeks to restore dignity and foster secure attachments with incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and high-risk young people through redemptive and restorative relationships that are focused on healing, mercy, mutuality, tenderness, and kinship.
Mirror Image Arts is grateful to have received funding from the Rose Community Foundation Policy Advocacy Grant to support our advocacy efforts surrounding restitution. We seek to affect policy changes that reform or eliminate restitution fees that impact youth in Colorado.
The Casey Fund has a vision much greater than just helping the community. The fundamental goal is to develop a legacy of building people up, to empower them to break generational barriers. This will result in future generations being able to leave lasting legacies for generations to come. When you have a strong platform, you have to use it to maker a better world for everyone.
#DebtFreeJustice is a national campaign dedicated to ending the harmful and unjust fees and fines imposed on youth in the justice system and their families.
The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) believes in the incredible power, agency, and wisdom of youth. Driven by their voices and experiences, we have worked for more than 50 years to transform government agencies and public systems so that they Center Youth with equity, dignity, and care.
Our work has led to foundational shifts in policy and standards of practice in communities and states nationwide.
The Root Causes Network provides a permanent infrastructure to build the capacity of human service nonprofits to advance inclusive and community-centered policy