CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres Molano
Geopolitical location of space:
1211 E Alder St
Seattle, WA
Extant? Yes
Architect:
Not specified
Open: July 2016. Activities are ongoing.
A specialised space inside of the King County Juvenile Court Youth Services Center where Family Intervention and Restorative Services (FIRS) are offered to youth arrested for family violence incidents.
The Center works when a youth is picked up by the police for alleged violence against a family member. FIRS social workers, trained in family violence, contact the harmed family member and ask if they and the youth involved are interested in receiving intervention services. If the family agrees, FIRS develop a restorative agreement and safety plan with the participants. Before FIRS, youth and families had to go through the formal court process before they could access services such as the Step-Up Program.
Yes, this is a restorative service centre for youth offenders as an alternative to detention.
It is a non-secure facility that eliminates the need for detention bookings on the majority of family violence cases. This space provides restorative justices practices and non traditional approaches.
The detention space was redesigned and decorated to create a more harmonious environment, where private and collective listening activities can be implemented. Listening between the youth and their affected family members is fundamental for the RJ process.
Youth involved in domestic violence incidents who have been picked up by the police for alleged violence against a family member. Both the youth and their affected family members participate in the RJ process.
This is a juvenile Court Youth Services building, property of King County, Washington State.
The section dedicated to FIRS is evidently different from the rest of the facility. While the entire centre has a traditional detention center architecture, the FIRS has been redesigned to become a less institutionalised and formal space, where youth can feel safe and have a symbolic distance from the formal judicial system.
An area of 10,200 square-foot of the Children and Family Justice Center was converted to a non-detention youth program space. The King County converted an unused portion of juvenile detention, initially intended to hold 32 detention beds, to create the Youth Services Center.
The main room of the Center includes a TV, board games, books, and food.The space was renovated with a bright interior design concept. Furniture was replaced with more colourful and comfortable options. The design created a welcoming living room and homey atmosphere that included brightly patterned quilts, pillows and rugs outfitted for each unlocked dorm. The King County services were looking for “spaces that look more like a college dorm than a jail.”
The main room was painted by youth through paid “Urban ArtWorks” internships. A Seattle city and forest-themed mural created a more welcoming environment for visitors.
The program provides an overnight rest center instead of secure detention. Youth involved in domestic violence incidents have the option to stay at the FIRS Center and be followed by mentoring and counselling services such as the Step-Up Program. The space was created to contribute to the County objective “in the Road Map to Zero Youth Detention.” The King court system has prioritised searching for racial equality to address the racial disproportionality in the juvenile legal system. This space was part of the strategy to identify and eliminate policies which contribute to racial inequities.
Youth Family Violence is the largest category of violent juvenile offences in King County. They represent 15% of all cases in juvenile court and 32% of all new bookings into juvenile detention. This space has provided services for the youth population in the following rate: 40% White, 37% Black, 12% Hispanic. Within a year of its start, the juvenile domestic violence cases dropped by 62%. Before the creation of the space, youth and families had to go through the formal court process before they could access services.
Step-Up Program:
– A skills based and restorative practice group intervention for youth and their parents/caretakers that focuses on non-violence and respect between family members.
– The program includes a youth group, parent group, and multi-family group with youth and parents together.
Note: Other RJ programs have been implemented in the Detention centre, following a trauma-informed approach to care. They started using Restorative Justice practices for youth that committed serious offences. In 2016, The King County Juvenile Court and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office tried its first felony case through a peacemaking circle. During the circle, victim advocates, mentors, family members and community leaders participated in a transformative mediation.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
