The Youth Arbitration Program is a community-based program that provides fast track accountability for first-time youthful offenders charged with committing a nonviolent crime. These youths are diverted from the formal justice system to an arbitration conference conducted in or near their communities.  Trained volunteer arbitrators conduct the conferences and monitor the youths’ progress throughout the program, which is authorized to operate by Solicitor’s Offices in all 16 judicial circuits in South Carolina. A Richland County Deputy Sheriff coordinates the program. 

The three goals of the Arbitration Program are:

• To hold young offenders accountable for their actions and for the harm they cause to their victims and communities.

• To increase the competency and learning of young offenders so they can become productive, law abiding citizens.

• To ensure public safety by strengthening a community’s capacity to prevent and control crime.

The Arbitration Program is an excellent example of balanced and restorative justice. Volunteers from the communities in which the youths and victims live are the lifeblood of the program. The citizen volunteers guide the development of common-sense solutions to divert at-risk youths from the justice system.

Participants in the arbitration process include a trained citizen volunteer, the youthful offender and his or her parent(s)/guardian, the crime victim, and the arresting officer. The youth’s participation is voluntary and requires an admission of facts or guilt. After determining the facts of the case, the arbitrator works with all participants to establish agreeable and appropriate sanctions for the youth to complete, ensuring that he or she repairs the harm caused to his or her victim(s) and community and learns from the experience. 

Successful completion of the Arbitration Program enables the youth to make amends for his or her actions and avoid formal prosecution in court.  If the youth does not successfully complete the program, he or she is referred to court for prosecution.

The Arbitration Program does not accept violent offenders, previous diversion program participants, or truants and other status offenders.

is a response to crime that allows for active participation of victim, offender, and community in the justice process. It is a values framework which recognizes that justice is be achieved by building, or rebuilding, relationships between crime victims, community, and offenders.