Nome hosts United Youth Courts of Alaska conference

Over 60 students from across the state gathered in Nome last weekend for the annual United Youth Courts of Alaska, or UYCA, conference.
On the stage of Nome Elementary School cafeteria, Sigvanna Tapqaq, the Nome Youth Court coordinator, lit an seal oil lamp and explained to the gathered students that oil lamps were how the Indigenous people of the region heated their homes. “It’s also become a symbol that connects us back to our ancestors and to our ways of life,” she said. “When we light this, we like to think of our ancestors and people who have had a positive influence on us.”
Youth courts are a system where first-time youth offenders can be referred to a court run by their peers.
Alaska Supreme Court Justice Aimee Oravec, the conference’s keynote speaker. explained that youth courts are a way for kids to understand the legal system and to involve young people in their communities. “The more the community is part of the solution and addressing problems, the better off we are as people in the state, but also as community and neighbors,” she said.
Oravec was supposed to arrive in time for a keynote address Saturday morning, but her flight was delayed due to inclement weather. Tapqaq instead called Nome-Beltz Middle High School students and UYCA Co-Presidents Sara James and Angela Omedelina to the stage. The three of them taught a few words and phrases in Inupiaq. Keeping with the theme of sharing local Indigenous traditions, a feast of traditional subsistence foods was laid out: muktuk, akutuq and ugruk.
Tapqaq explained to the crowd gathered at the elementary school that in addition to a mock trial on the following day, there would also be a mock circle sentencing. Circle sentencing is a form of restorative justice that the Nome Youth Court has started practicing in recent years.
In an interview with the Nugget, Tapqaq said that circle sentencing is less about punishment and more about discussing the causes of why a young person made the wrong choice and how to prevent it from happening again. “The reason I like doing circles as compared to the more formal, Western style hearings, is it’s bringing community together to support the young person who’s gotten into trouble,” she said. “It’s really the community coming around a young person saying, ‘We care about you. We’re holding you accountable.’ It’s from a place of love.”
With a Youth Court circle sentencing, the Youth Court members will sit down with the young person and try to get to know them as a human and not just an offender. “We’re trying to get a whole picture of a young person,” said Tapqaq.
When the circle is convened, it includes positive influences in the young person’s life. That can mean community members, Elders, foster families, teachers and counselors. “A lot of it will incorporate their parents, and we’ll ask for their tribal members to be involved as well,” said Omedelina. “We do this so they’re able to grow rather than be pushed down from their mistakes.”
With circle sentencing, the first step is to discuss the negative situation. Then, instead of jumping to a sentence, the circle switches into brainstorming mode. “We try to figure out, so this happened, how do we make it right? How do we fix this and restore balance into the community?” said Tapqaq.
The sentence in circle sentencing is not punitive. Instead, it focuses on righting the wrong that was done. That varies from situation, but can be an act of service, an apology or both. “We’ll go around as we’re kind of brainstorming these ideas, and ensure that it’s workable for the youth, that everybody thinks that it’s fair, including the victim,” said Tapqaq.
The “fix” can differ depending on circumstances. Young people may be obligated to perform acts of service such as hauling water, taking trash out to the dump or gathering subsistence foods. “It could be hunting and fishing, berry picking,” said Tapqaq. “We also know that when kids are connected to their culture and have a strong sense of identity, they’re less likely to engage in risky behaviors, to have suicidal ideation.”
James and Omedelina feel that circle sentencing is restorative. “You get to build them up instead of lock them away because they’ve done something bad,” said James. “That’s not you. You made a mistake that doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“I think circle sentencing is just a lot better, because you’re able to have a conversation, instead of just blaming them for what they have done and then getting an opinion,” said Omedelina. “Youth Court does a great job at restoring youth, but I think circle sentencing allows you to continue to grow.”
Nome Magistrate Judge Pamela Hess was involved in Kotzebue’s Youth Court when she was in middle school, and she said conferences like the one last weekend helped her get interested in the law. She said that circle sentencing can be a way for a person to address their actions with their community members. “It’s powerful and meaningful for the individual to reflect on what happened,” she said.
Oravec said that circle sentencing can help reconcile everyone involved in a negative action, not just the perpetrator. “It also reconciles the people that saw the behavior or impacted by the behavior to the person that did the conduct,” she said. “It doesn’t mean the thing didn’t happen, but in a sense it is restorative. It’s restoring the relationships.”
Overall, Oravec said that Youth Court can help improve communities. She said it can prevent people from committing more crimes.
“Everyone is interested in a good result, not that people evade punishment – the best result is that someone corrects their behavior and they don’t reoffend,” she said.