Restorative Justice

Restorative justice peacemaking circle

Initiatives

  • Peacemaking Program

    Building on a traditional Native American approach to justice, the Center’s peacemaking programs focus on healing and community restoration rather than punishment.

  • Project Reset

    Project Reset is a diversion program offering a new response to a low-level arrest that is proportionate, effective, and restorative.

  • Manhattan Justice Opportunities

    Manhattan Justice Opportunities helps build a more effective and restorative justice system by providing comprehensive services as alternatives to traditional responses to crime.

Publications & Digital Media

  • Publication

    Fact Sheet: The Family Healing Project

    The Family Healing Project uses restorative practices to offer supportive spaces for individuals and families, after incarceration. Evidence shows that strong social support is positively correlated with stable housing and that stable housing greatly reduces the risk of re-arrest amongst formerly incarcerated people. Yet support for people coming home is often narrowly focused on material needs, while heads of households, primarily women of color, shoulder the emotional, psychological, and spiritual challenges for all.

  • Video

    Changemakers in Action: Kellsie Sayers

    “This job has really shown me our deep ability as human beings to be connected to one another.” Kellsie Sayers is the director of restorative practices where she oversees the design and implementation of restorative justice programming. Kellsie joined the Center for Court Innovation four years ago to lead the restorative justice in schools project, a four-year pilot looking at the impact of restorative practices on school culture.

  • Audio

    Restorative Justice is Racial Justice

    Restorative justice is about repairing harm. But for Black Americans, what is there to be restored to? This special episode of New Thinking features a roundtable with eight members of our Restorative Justice in Schools team. They spent three years embedded in five Brooklyn high schools—all five schools are overwhelmingly Black, and all five had some of the highest suspension rates in New York City.

See All Publications and Digital Media 

News

  • Taking A Restorative Approach To Youth Justice

    WNYC

    WNYC Radio Rookies reporter Deborah Ugo-Omenukwa worked with the Center to explore restorative justice in youth courts. She spoke with our Brownsville Community Justice Center to learn more about restorative approaches to the legal system, and the difference between punishment and consequences.

  • When Drivers Kill, Victims' Families Feel Let Down by Justice System in San Diego

    KPBS

    Those who have lost loved ones in traffic accidents often feel the legal system fails to hold drivers accountable. Highlighting our driver accountability programs that use the principles of restorative justice, KPBS radio in San Diego quotes our Amanda Berman, "Having to confront [the impact of your actions] and reckon with that is much more powerful and much more likely to change behavior."

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