Population: All populations
Legal Features: Admissibility Confidentiality
Law Type: Statute
Excerpt of Relevant Text:
(b) Statutory Bars on Use of Evidence from Community-Based Restorative Justice Programs.
(1) Participation in a community-based restorative justice program as defined by G. L. c. 276B, § 1, shall not be used as evidence or as an admission of guilt, delinquency, or civil liability in current or subsequent legal proceedings against any participant.
(2) Any statement made by a juvenile or an adult defendant during an assignment to a community-based restorative justice program shall be confidential and shall not be subject to disclosure in any judicial or administrative proceeding.
(3) No information obtained during an assignment to a community-based restorative justice program shall be used in any stage of a criminal investigation or prosecution or civil or administrative proceeding.
(4) Nothing in this subsection shall preclude any evidence obtained through an independent source or that inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means from being admitted at the proceedings referenced in Subsections (b)(2) and (b)(3).