Week 10- November28

This final week at CMS has been so informative for me. I finally feel like I have learned how to master the MadTrack data input program. I feel so much more comfortable with all the cases and where they need to be filed. Monday I sent out a few pre-intake letters to offenders, called and reminded an offender of his restitution agreement, and called mediators to check up on their case development. I am very eager to come back and gain more hands on experience in observing a victim-offender mediation. I am also excited to help my advisor make some streamlining changes. It is now important to the program that every document is as user friendly as possible as well as excluding information that is unnecessary and keeping info that is. I  have truly appreciated the experience this opportunity has given me in such a short time, and I know I will only learn more in the future months volunteering there.

Week 9- November 21st

For this week's time at CMS I focused on expunging cases, finding mediators, locating offenders, and observing my first intake. It was an exciting week. I am very excited to be able to follow a case from beginning to end. This case also happens to have several offenders and will be able to offer me a good grasp of what actually happens in mediations in RJ. The mediators are experienced and will show me many techniques that I can choose to use for myself. I was also happy to have worked with the school to track down an offender we have been trying to find for weeks. Today I was also able to allot a mediator to a new case that came in last week. I am so eager to get in there and learn. I am also going to be closing more cases and expunging their files.This process is nice, it reduces the paperwork down to the necessities. Overall, I had a very informative and eventful week. I hope there will be many more like it!

Week 8- November 14th/15th

This week was great for me. I was able to open a new file from the beginning. I think this will help me in remembering who is who by active participation from the get-go, rather than catch-up like I have been doing for a while. Another activity I enjoyed was closing cases in Madtrack. There is a definite feeling of completeness when you print out the closing letter, and you know that the offender has done what they needed to do to fulfill the agreement. I also drafted and recorded some important letters to victims and offenders. We are planning on keeping a binder of important documents on hand, to make things easier in the future. I was also happy to hear positive progress with some of the offenders I spoke with. Receiving restitution was another task I had yet to do. I have learned much about this process and how it works at CMS. I feel like I have finally turned the corner on understanding tasks and duties of the job. I am also very excited about the opportunity to observe an intake and potential mediation next week! Good week.

Week 7- November 7th

This week's mission was to complete the follow-up surveys to the best of my ability, which I did. I went through all of the surveys and had a large number of people willing to talk with me about the mediation process. The surveys will be used to compile data statewide on how mediations are effective and the general feelings of those involved. I got to hear many uplifting stories about offenders who have been doing much better since the mediation and victims who were greatly satisfied with the process. Most of the victims were happy to see youth taking accountability for their actions and a certain level of responsibility in completing the agreement. Many of the parents felt similarly. It was somewhat discouraging to hear stories that were negative about the process, but it seemed to me that those were mostly outliers to the general population. Other tasks I conducted were drafting last chance letters, scanning and documenting apology letters, mailing out surveys, and closing cases in MadTrack. Closing cases are important when it comes to the monthly DYS report. I was happy to try and close a case on my own and learn the basics of how to do that on MadTrack because it is somewhat of a complicated process.

Week 6- October 31st

For this week I spent the majority of my time entering case updates into the MadTrack system. To do this, I had to go into each of the cases and look for an update then transcribe that update into the system. Each offender has an ID number that is used to find their case in the system. At times, no update it available, so I must copy and paste the previous update from the past month into the current month's update. This is to let DYS know the last known event that has happened. The updates are then compiled into a monthly report that is given to DYS to track closed cases and progress for each case.

Another task I was given was to go through all of the old cases, dating back to 2009 even, and call victims, offenders, and support persons for surveys. There were upwards of thirty cases that needed to be looked at. I began this long process and quickly realized that there needed to be a more organized way of keeping track of who answered my calls and who had completed the surveys for each case.

Week 5- October 24th

This week I worked on finishing the drafts for last chance letters for our services. If the offenders or their parents, depending on the age of the youth, do not get back to us in the allotted time frame, we are then forced to send the case back to DYS. This option will place the offender at the hands of the system and will  most likely not give them an opportunity to have the offense expunged from their records.

I also created a slip that would go into a piece of mail sent out to the victim with the offender's apology letter inside. This slip would alert the victim that the apology letter is attached and from which offender (in cases of multiple offenders). The process can take longer than expected, and sometimes so long that the victim may lose track of what happened or if they participated or not. It is important to include slips to remind them of the agreement date and which offenders were involved.

Week 4- October 17th

This week I learned how to code and enter files into an excel document that will be the quarterly report for CMS. Each stage of the process once a case is given to CMS from DYS has a numbered code that will be given to the case in excel. This report is used as a way to keep track of which cases are at which phases of the process and make sure things are moving along appropriately. It also shows which cases are closed or still active. I worked on this task for both days solid. In order to do this duty, it was required that I go through all of the cases to assess what stage they were in. In doing so, I was able to become better acquainted with the names and cases. The entering of data was a little dry, but it was very nice to become more familiarized with the cases. Another task I had was to begin drafting some letters to offenders for last chances to participate in the program. I now have a better understanding of where all the documents can be found and which document goes with what stage of the process. I also tried to answer the phone as much as possible to better myself at responding to calls for each program at CMS.

Week 3- Oct. 10th

For today's work, I began learning how the phone system works. At times I will be the only person there to answer calls and it is necessary to have a good grasp of how to take messages appropriately. Many people receive calls and organization is important. I made a couple calls to mediators inquiring about case updates. I am enjoying the communication aspect of this position. I am required to stay in contact with many individuals to ensure things are on schedule. For a majority of my time at CMS I was taking old files and calling the victims and offenders to ask them if they were willing to participate in a brief survey on their experience in their mediation- how the process was for them. I think I only spoke with about 7 out of 20 cases, but I was able to get an array of responses. The responses ranged from being highly positive about the mediation process to be extremely disappointed with the process. Both of the parents in those examples had extremely different views based on the situation of their child. One response from a father who had been present at the mediation with his son made me feel very warm-hearted. The father explained how happy he was to see his son take accountability in his actions and look his victim in the eye and come up with his own ideas for reparations. It is amazing to see the benefits that come out of this process, not just with the juvenile offender, but the victims and the parents.

Week 2- Oct. 3rd

Today we went over case files; how they are created, how they are organized, and what is included. I was very interested in the police reports that come with the DYS files on the juvenile offenders. It is nice to see the facts as they appear to the police versus what the children have to say about their stories. I noticed that many of the cases are boys, not all but a majority. This seems like an obvious implication, that boys are more deviant that girls. I wonder if there is a structural flaw in our society that influences young boys to act in mischievous ways. The cases I observed and discussed with Lysbeth that involve girls, often are related to issues around the boyfriend or ex-boyfriend of one of the girls. I am learning what cases are commonly sent to CMS and how CMS decides who will mediate them. Pairing up veteran mediators with new mediators is common practice and I am eager to observe and get one step closer to mediating myself.

Week One- Sept. 26th

For my first day of interning Lysbeth went over my expected duties, how the office runs, and what will be expected of me over the next ten weeks. I became acquainted with the case logging system used there, known as MADTrack. The system is used to track offenders and victims and take down notes about the case's progress. Ultimately, CMS will publish a monthly report to be given to DYS as a way for them to track how the cases are progressing. I think MADTrack is a bit complicated to use, but I appreciate its purpose in tracking cases and keeping us accountable in staying on schedule with cases. I am very eager to experience a case from start to finish and sit in on the mediation itself. After experiencing the mediation training, I am very excited to be able to witness an actual mediation between offender and victim. Even after a short day in the CMS office, I find myself feeling very appreciative in my small role and what this program does for the community.