Community Accountability Programs Information ... - Ministry of Justice

Administering the program• Ensure that victims and offenders have given written consent forprogram volunteers to contact them. Police should obtain consentbefore they refer the case to your program.• Be aware of the potential for conflict of interest. For example, in somecases, a program volunteer may know the family of either the victim orthe offender. Establish policies to deal with such situations before theyarise.• Enforce policies to safeguard confidentiality and privacy.♦ Confidentiality is a key ethical issue for service providers. Policies onconfidentiality must be in place, and all volunteers should be awareof and understand them. Observing strict rules of confidentialitywill help you protect your program and the people it serves.♦ Be aware that there are limits to confidentiality, and inform programparticipants accordingly. Non-judicial conference records, forexample, may be subpoenaed by the court. In addition, programvolunteers have a legal duty to report any disclosures of child abuseor neglect, or suspected child abuse or neglect.♦ Ensure that information on offenders participating in pre-chargediversion is not entered into police databases, such as CPIC andPIRS. Check with your local detachment about this issue. As amatter of policy, if offenders are being dealt with in a pre-chargediversion program, their case files should not be entered into thesesystems. If the file is entered as a matter of procedure, thedetachment should ensure that the offender’s record is not flaggedas a criminal record.• Establish and enforce records management policies. These policiesshould address issues such as where program files will be stored and forhow long, who will have access to these files, and what types ofinformation will be documented. More information on recordsmanagement concerns is provided on page 41.• Ensure that your program has adequate insurance coverage. Limitedinsurance coverage is available to programs across BC through theprovincial government. For more information, see page 42.Restorative Justice: Promoting Community-Based Responses to Crime 17