The Restitution Incentive Program (RIP) is a unique and innovative concept which couples community service and crime victim compensation.  RIP, which has been in existence since 1990, allows youthful offenders, who are not gainfully employed, to perform community service, which will then be credited toward restitution owed to victims.  For each hour of service completed, the juvenile is credited with the current figure of minimum wage toward his/her outstanding amount of restitution.  A by-product of RIP is that local non-profit organizations reap the benefit of over 20,000 hours of community service manpower.

 

RIP is totally funded by youthful offenders without any taxpayer dollars.  The RIP budget has steadily increased since 1990.  RIP fines, certified Magisterial District Court Judges summary fines, and youth who buy back their community service generate a portion of the money in the RIP Fund.

 

This chart depicts the amount of money mailed to victims since the RIP Program's inception.

RIP YEAR	TOTAL PAID OUT BY RIP
1991	$4,000.00
1992	$4,777.56
1993	$8,617.71
1994	$10,040.62
1995	$9,019.74
1996	$16,109.35
1997	$21,517.88
1998	$17,546.10
1999	$24,408.43
2000	$41,931.00
2001	$37,245.00
2002	$51,120.00
2003	$58,356.00
2004	$75,943.76
2005	$100,914.90
2006	$101,870.09
2007	$163,594.00
Total	$747,012.14