On February 22, 2014 a group of three Armenian legal-judicial professionals - judge of the first instance court of Aragatsotn Marz Ruzanna Barseghyan, a defense attorney Inessa Petrosyan, Professor of Law Artur Ghambaryan, accompanied by the AM CALLS Program manager Dzyunik Vanesyan arrived to the State of Vermont to participate in a study tour for expanding their awareness of best practices in administration of Restorative Justice for juveniles.
On February 24th the group visited the Chittenden County State’s Attorney Office to meet with their U.S. colleagues and discuss the prosecution and adjudication process of a juvenile case in Vermont. An overview of Armenian judicial system was delivered by the Armenian delegation, followed by a detailed presentation of juvenile case management process by the US participants, Chittende County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan, Superior Court Judge Martin Maley, Deputy State’s Attorney-juveniles Andy Strauss, Public Defender Luke Collins, Burlington Police Dep. SRO Bonnie Beck, Community Corrections District Manager Deb Thibault and the Director of Burlington Community Justice Center Karen Vestine.
For next few days the Armenian delegation will have a chance to visit Chittenden Regional Correction Facility, as well as the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. The group will also visit the Center for Court Innovation in New York City, to observe the restorative justice activities of Red Hook and Harlem Community Justice Centers.
This study tour aims to develop the capacity of the Armenian delegation for developing future training for their Armenian counterparts through a professional exchange to the U.S where they explore the best practices of juvenile justice administration, with a focus on investigative structures, courts and probation process, and establish partnerships with an experienced U.S. judges and defense attorneys for the design and develop of future training module.
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