Sometimes you walk into a conference workshop, see just a smattering of people, and know it's going to be a long hour. Sometimes you stay, and realize your instincts are overrated.

Fewer than 10 people saw the presentation on community conferencing, a very inexpensive alternative to court that has thrived in Baltimore recently (a city where lately, the words "juvenile" and "thriving" rarely make each other's acquaintance). But I guarantee all 10 are headed home to discuss bringing the program to their jurisdiction.

Lauren Abrahamson, executive director of Baltimore's Community Conferencing Center (CCC), described the approach best: "It's simple but it's not easy." Here's how it works:

The center will get referrals from the court, police, the school police or the school administration.

Yes, you read that last paragraph correctly. Baltimore has a separate police department for its schools. 

Next, a CCC coordinator will call both parties (the victim and the offender) and see if they'd be willing to resolve the conflict through a community conference. If both agree, they are prepped for the experience by the coordinator and asked to bring anyone in their support system with them.

So, for example, let's say a kid stole a car. He might show up with his mom, his aunt and his pastor, and the car owner might come with her husband and an insurance agent who could explain the damage or cost incurred by the theft. In the end, the idea is to create a contract through which  the offending party can make direct restitution to the victim.

The facilitator of this conference, trained by CCC, is there only to keep things civil and productive. Ideally, he or she will have as little to do with the outcome as possible.

Thus far, the results in Baltimore are hard to argue with. The number of cases referred to CCC has jumped from 267 in 2005 to 453 in 2009. And in each year, more than 95 percent of the agreements between offender and victim have been complied with. CCC-referred youth reoffend 60 percent less than the average youth involved in the JJ system, according to stats from the state's Department of Juvenile Services.

I ask what kind of crimes they have been referred, and what types they believe they could handle through conferencing.

"No drugs or murder," said David Williams, a CCC coordinator. A lot of cases stem from thefts, robberies, simple assaults and auto-theft. Abraham said they will not take any referral for a case that CCC decides should never have been processed in the first place.

Could they - do they - want to try handling a homicide through conferencing? "Yes," Williams said flatly. "We very much want to take on more serious cases," Abrahamson said. 

The guess here is that you won't see a murder resolved in Baltimore at a community conference until Judge E. Sterr Bunny is sworn in to handle such cases. But there is no question that what CCC is selling, audience members were buying.