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).
(c) Informal adjustment under this section may include, among other suitable methods, programs, and procedures, the following: […] (11) Participation in a restorative justice program where the child and the child’s parents or guardian, and other supporters of the child,…
(10) “Diversion” means an alternative to formal prosecution of a juvenile offense. Diversion describes intervention approaches that redirect juveniles away from formal court processing in the juvenile justice system while applying the principles of the balanced approach and restorative justice.…
The purpose of this Article is to create the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide treatment and services through a comprehensive continuum of individualized educational, vocational, social, emotional, and basic life skills to enable youth to avoid delinquent futures and…
The Department shall design training for its personnel and shall enter into agreements with the Department of Corrections or other State agencies and through them, if necessary, public and private colleges and universities, or private organizations to ensure that staff…
(b) Each county or circuit participating in the Redeploy Illinois program must create a local plan demonstrating how it will reduce the county or circuit’s utilization of secure confinement of juvenile offenders in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice or…
The corporate authorities of each municipality may: (a) Conduct programs and carry on and coordinate activities for the prevention, reduction or control of juvenile delinquency within the municipality; (b) Cooperate, coordinate or act jointly with the State of Illinois or…
(b) By the start of the school year beginning in 2021, DCPS shall adopt a school security personnel training curriculum based on the positive youth development philosophy. The curriculum shall focus on training supervisory and on-site personnel to provide security…
(2) The strategic plan shall include recommendations for adopting and implementing inter-agency programming by District agencies to address the following: […] (C) Best practices in restorative justice for victims, youth offenders, including for youth offenders convicted of violent offenses, and…
(a) The Office of the State Superintendent of Education shall provide an array of supports to assist local education agencies and schools to achieve the goals of §§ 38-236.03 through 38-236.05 and to adopt trauma-informed disciplinary practices. The OSSE shall…
(1) Definitions.–For purposes of this section, the term: (a) “Board” means a Restorative Justice Board established by the state attorney pursuant to subsection (3). (b) “Center” means a Neighborhood Restorative Justice Center established by the state attorney pursuant to subsection…