Alaska's interesting experiences with circle sentencing

This interesting new AP piece, headlined "Alaska courts taking new approach to rural justice," reports on a state's willingness to keep trying a non-traditional sentencing process in the hope of achieving better outcomes for all involved.  Here are the details:

Alaska Magistrate Mike Jackson of Kake first heard of "circle sentencing" in the mid-1990s, when alcohol-related problems in his village were burgeoning.  Kake had higher rates of accidental deaths, child abuse and suicides than just about anywhere in the state.

The idea of forming circles, Jackson learned, was for a moderator to bring together family, friends and others who know a victim or offender to help a judge hand down a fair sentence by considering local history, community beliefs and other views of a defendant's background.  It was used after a guilty plea or a conviction.

He tried out the idea in 1999 with a woman convicted of crimes related to her alcohol addiction.  She had previously refused in-patient treatment.  At the circle, state authorities told her it was her last chance before losing her kids, and her friends and family persuaded her to get help.

"She came back and was sober," said Dinah Aceveda, who helped organize that circle and 66 others since.  "She changed her life from that.  When you have good people around you in that circle, in that community, that's what can happen."

Circle sentencing is about to be used for the first time in a felony case in Alaska.  Jackson said the system recognizes Tlingit traditions and approaches to justice used since time immemorial in ways lost on state courts.  "What matters most under state court is punishment and control," said Jackson, who also is a tribal court leader.  "Determining guilt and punishment for the offender is the focus, but under circles it's holistic in views of the community and the victim."

In 2003, researchers from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University visited Kake and decided to honor the southeast Alaska community for its efforts at justice reform.  A report on the town said the circle's successes were occurring where the state court system had repeatedly failed....

[C]ircle justice most often involved cases related to domestic violence, child neglect and minors consuming alcohol, and has expanded little.  Concerns have been expressed about unequal punishments for similar crimes, with some worried that people will get off easy. There are specific cases when circles proved ineffective that serve as fodder for critics....

Galena Magistrate Christopher McLain has advocated bringing courts to rural communities and using circles when possible since he took the bench in 2008.  He said those familiar critiques miss the point.  Judges follow state sentencing guidelines and make the final decision when circles are used, McLain said. And at least as many examples of ineffective outcomes exist in state courts, he said.

"(Circles) let me take community recommendations and craft a sentence that's rehabilitative," he said. "But people don't get off easy.  Many times they end up with a harsher punishment, but the point is we realize that we need each other to survive out here, and we're going to have to live with each other after the punishment is over."