Restorative Justice Laws Database

The National Center on Restorative Justice’s Restorative Justice Laws Database was created as a resource for restorative justice advocates, practitioners, and researchers as well as policy-makers across the United States. Our aim is to organize and display in an easily navigated format the ways in which states have codified the use of restorative justice approaches.

Thank you to Shannon Sliva (University of Denver) and Thalia González (UC Law San Francisco) for their advisement and expertise throughout the process of creating this database. Thank you to Karen Sheu and Anna VanRoy for their data collection work.

This Restorative Justice Laws Database builds on an earlier legislative directory created in 2014 by Shannon Sliva in partnership with Carolyn Lambert (Georgia State University College of Law) and hosted by the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work from 2019 to 2024. 

The laws included in this database were identified by conducting a search in Westlaw and LexisNexis using the terms visible under “Form of Practice” in the database search options below. Only laws that feature one or more of these terms are included in the database. Use of the terms in the text of the law does not necessarily mean that restorative justice practice is occurring in the given jurisdiction.

The NCORJ is committed to continuing to update this database. If you see something that is missing or a correction is required, please be in touch. For more information about the development of the database, to get assistance navigating it, or to request a copy of the raw data for research purposes, please contact Lindsey Pointer (lpointer@vermontlaw.edu).

Massachusetts Minnesota Montana North Dakota Hawaii Idaho Washington Arizona California Colorado Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Wyoming Arkansas Iowa Kansas Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma South Dakota Louisiana Texas Connecticut New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont Alabama Florida Georgia Mississippi South Carolina Illinois Indiana Kentucky North Carolina Ohio Tennessee Virginia Wisconsin West Virginia Delaware District of Columbia Maryland New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Maine Michigan Alaska

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  • Form of Practice

46 results found

Wisconsin - Alternatives to Incarceration

(2) The department of justice shall make grants to counties and to tribes to enable them to establish and operate programs, including suspended and deferred prosecution programs and programs based on principles of restorative justice, that provide alternatives to prosecution…

Washington - Restorative Justice Funding and Research

(36) (a) $200,000 of the general fund – state appropriation for fiscal year 2022 is provided solely for research to determine the use and effectiveness of restorative justice, including for hate crime victims and individuals who commit hate crimes. Researchers…

Vermont - DOJ Powers

(10) to charter, establish, and fund through grants such municipal entities or nonprofit organizations as may be required for providing crime prevention and restorative justice programs for offenders, victims of crime, and the public.

Vermont - Criminal Justice Investment Trends

H) the funding for, and utilization by, individuals served through Justice Reinvestment II and related initiatives, including: (i) domestic violence intervention programming in the Department of Corrections, including the results from the evaluation framework between the Vermont Network Against Domestic…

Texas - School Safety Development and Restorative Justice Implementation

(3) school safety and security measures, including: (A) active shooter and emergency response training; (B) prevention and treatment programs relating to addressing adverse childhood experiences; and (C) the prevention, identification, and management of emergencies and threats, using evidence-based, effective prevention…

Tennessee - Development of Community Based Programs

(a) Community corrections funds can be used to develop or expand the range of community punishments and services at the local level. Community-based program options may include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Noncustodial community corrections options that…

Rhode Island - Social Equity Funds

(3) To implement and administer programming for restorative justice, jail diversion, drug rehabilitation and education workforce development for jobs related to cannabis cultivation, transportation, distribution and sales.

New York - Funding for Restorative Justice in the State

For services and expenses of community safety and restorative justice programs, which include but are not limited to, support for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, gun violence prevention, legal services, alternatives to incarceration, community supervision and re-entry initiatives, gang…

Minnesota - Office of Restorative Practices

Subdivision 1. Definition. As used in this section, “restorative practices” means a practice within a program or policy that incorporates core restorative principles, including but not limited to voluntariness, prioritization of agreement by the people closest to the harm on…