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).
(e) Hate crime sentencing goals. When sentencing a defendant under this rule, the judge must consider the principal goals for hate crime sentencing. (1) The principal goals for hate crime sentencing, as stated in section 422.86, are: […] (C) Restorative…
(a) The department shall establish and maintain a Victim Offender Dialogue (VOD) program. (b) The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for restorative justice processes between victims, survivors, and next of kin of victims of crime and people…
(4) District attorneys’ offices or the office’s designees shall: (a) On and after January 1, 2021, conduct a risk screening using a risk screening tool selected pursuant to section 24-33.5-2402(1)(c), as it existed prior to its repeal in 2022, for…
(b.5)(I) Except as otherwise provided by subparagraph (II) of this paragraph (b.5), any defendant who, in the determination of the court, is a candidate for an alternative sentencing option and who would otherwise be sentenced to imprisonment pursuant to paragraph…
(5)(a) The division of criminal justice, in collaboration with district attorneys or diversion program directors who accept formula money and programs providing juvenile diversion services, shall establish minimum data collection requirements and outcome measures that each district attorney’s office, governmental…
(17)(a) “Diversion” means a decision made by a person with authority or a delegate of that person that results in specific official action of the legal system not being taken in regard to a specific juvenile or child and in…
(b) Grant funding shall be provided to not-for-profit organizations wishing to expand programs that they are currently providing in other California state prisons that have demonstrated success and focus on offender responsibility and restorative justice principles or to not-for-profit organizations…
(b) The board shall form an executive steering committee that includes, but is not limited to, a balanced and diverse membership from relevant state and local government entities, community-based treatment and service providers, and the formerly incarcerated community. The committee…
(3) Funds allocated to probation pursuant to this act shall be used to provide supervision and rehabilitative services for adult felony offenders subject to local supervision, and shall be spent on evidence-based community corrections practices and programs, as defined in…
(B) Grants shall be awarded to fund programs that provide insight-oriented restorative justice and offender accountability programs that can demonstrate that the approach has produced, or will produce, positive outcomes in department facilities, including, but not limited to: (i) Increasing…