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

228 results found

Ohio - Juvenile Restorative Justice Orders

The use of any restraints, such as handcuffs, chains, shackles, irons, or straitjackets, is highly discouraged. The routine use of restraints on juveniles is a practice contrary to the philosophy of balanced and restorative justice and undermines the goals of…

Ohio - Impact Statements Use for Delinquent Youth

If a child is adjudicated a delinquent child for committing an act that would be a felony if committed by an adult and if the child caused, attempted to cause, threatened to cause, or created a risk of physical harm…

Oklahoma - Alternative Dispute Resolution

At any stage of the proceedings, the court may order, or the parties may voluntarily participate in an alternative dispute resolution process which may include: 1. Family group conferencing; 2. Mediation; or 3. A settlement conference. B. If a court…

New Jersey - Restorative Justice Educational Fund

There is established within the Department of Education a fund to be known as the “Restorative Justice Education Fund.” The fund shall be used to provide grants to participating schools pursuant to subsection c. of section 4 [C.18A:37-41] of this…

New Jersey - Definitions

An Act concerning restorative justice in the public schools and supplementing chapter 37 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

New Mexico - Law Enforcement Restorative Justice Practices

take appropriate measures to discipline a law enforcement officer, including facilitating mediation or other restorative justice measures, when it is determined that the law enforcement officer violated the provisions of Section 2 [29-21-2 NMSA 1978] of the Prohibition of Profiling…

New Mexico - Restorative Justice Funding

twenty-five thousand dollars ($ 25,000) to develop and implement a restorative justice program as an alternative method to deal with school-based offenses in the Santa Fe public school district;