CRIMINAL MEDIATION

Conceived by Nueces County Court at Law #4 Judge E. Klager, this concept could be called a mediated plea bargain for misdemeanors. This process brings together the County Prosecutor, the defendant, either with his/her attorney, or pro se, and the Mediator to discuss the case and the recommended punishment. The uniqueness of Criminal Mediation is that the defendant is part of the process, and is face to face with the Law (the Prosecutor), therefore, realizing the seriousness of his/her crime. The initial motivation for Criminal Mediation was to take the load off the Courts.

In our Criminal Mediations, we found that the defendent realized that s/he could not manipulate the Law and must pay the consequences for their action. Because of the face-to-face arrangement, we were convinced that this process would help deter them from making the same mistake again, particularly for first time offenders. Sometimes circumstantial evidence would cause the case to be dismissed or would alter the Prosecutor's recommended punishment. At no time did the defendant "get off" from having committed the crime. An agreement was reached in 73% of the cases and was then taken to the Judge, who approved it 99% of the time. This program provided a significant financial savings to Nueces County. It took cases off the books faster than if they had gone to the Courts and with much less cost. The County Commissioners approved the costs of this program. One of the redeeming aspects of this procedure was that it was a complete process because the defendant was present to tell the "whole story." This usually does not happen when a case goes to trial.

MY TRAINING IN THIS AREA

• As we were establishing Criminal Mediation, I conducted them myself with then County Attorney Carl Lewis, as Prosecutor.
• I held trainings, giving the Mediators material we had developed just for this process. The Mediators were required to meet certain requirements before they were allowed to mediate alone.
• I spoke to the Sam Houston Criminal Justice Symposiums, along with Judge Klager, on two occasions about this new program.
• Carl Lewis, County Attorney, and I spoke to the Criminal Attorney Conference.
• Carl Lewis and I also spoke to the MADD group and received their endorsement of the program.
• Variations of this program have since been established in other Centers across Texas.