Lit by fluorescent lights in a basement tucked under the offices of the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce, an ancient form of community justice is hashed out several nights a week by a group of people seated in a circle.

"It's about community involvement and repairing the harm done not only to individuals but the community itself," said Mark LaPointe, the keeper of the circle. "We have a responsibility to help those individuals repair the harm and to know what harm it is they caused."

With the agreement of all parties, an offender can enroll in the circle process rather than go through the normal court process. And in turn, the circle can dole out punishment and probation.

LaPointe, a 61-year-old man with white hair and a white beard, has led circles here since 1998. This form of justice involves gathering community members and a criminal offender in a circle of chairs to discuss the crime, the damage it's caused and its consequences.

LaPointe spends his days as a building services supervisor in Dakota County, a job from which he'll retire at the end of September. But as many nights and afternoons as he's needed, he's leading the circles, either in Dakota County Juvenile Detention Facility or with the Cottage Grove circle.

"I really feel like we've got a responsibility to [offenders] to help them out," he said.

The Cottage Grove circle is one of several empowered by the Washington County District Court system to deal with cases as serious as gross misdemeanors. Most of the cases handled by the Cottage Grove circle involve domestic disputes, LaPointe said.

One of the first cases the Cottage Grove circle ever took involved a 23-year-old man on his third offense for domestic violence.

The circle decided that the man needed mentoring, so he went to live with LaPointe and his wife, Kay Longtin, for six months.

As soon as the county probation and court staff got wind that the offender was living with LaPointe, they called to tell LaPointe that wasn't allowed.

"I said, 'What do you mean we can't do that? You can't do that because you are part of a system that says you can't do that. We're community members. We can do that,' " he said.

The man turned his life around, LaPointe said.

"My wife was able to give him good pointers on how to treat women and have a healthy relationship," he said. "And I was able to help him in establishing good practices with his children and with dealing with conflict."

Prior to working with circles, LaPointe and Longtin opened their home to high-risk foster children in Washington County.

Soon, the county started using circles for restorative justice and asked LaPointe and Longtin if they'd be interested. In 1998, the couple journeyed to the Yukon to train in the American Indian tradition.

Since then, the two have led many circles and trained others to do the same around the state, country and even in the Ukraine.

"He's had so much experience with so many different cases and situations that he's kind of the elder of our organization," said Bob Storlie, who is a circle keeper in Woodbury and serves on the Washington County Community Circles Board with LaPointe.

LaPointe served in the Vietnam War, where he earned a Bronze Star.

When he returned home, he faced another battle.

"When I came back from Vietnam I had both feet in the bottle," said LaPointe, who now has been sober for 34 years. "Because of that experience in recovery, you kind of learn that our responsibility is to help those that have the same problem."

Today, his circle in Cottage Grove meets two to five nights a week, with each night dedicated to one case. For many offenders, it is a novel experience.

"For a lot of them it's the first time that people have stopped long enough to hear what it is they have to say," LaPointe said.

The process works, said Gary Schurrer, a Washington County judge who helped start the county's program. It usually has a lower rate of recidivism than traditional probation.

Those results come not only from the process, he said, but also the dedication of volunteers like LaPointe.

"They could be doing anything else at night, and instead they are sitting in a circle working with someone who has made a poor choice and they are trying to help them make better choices," Schurrer said.

"It really is Mark's way of life. It's who he is."

Peter Cox is a St. Paul freelance writer.