By Michael Bielawski
According to a new Justice Reform Advisory Council report, the ticket/fee model for financing restorative justice programs is not working and needs more stable public funding.
The report states, “the Council believes it is necessary that a sustainable funding structure be established to support state and local community-based programs that further the goals of justice reinvestment and restorative justice practices. Currently, such programs are supported, at least in part, by fines and fees, such as court diversion and programs that support crime victim services.”
The Council’s report was mandated by legislation, Act 40 passed in 2023, it’s titled, “An act relating to a report on criminal justice-related investments and Trends.” The report was sent out on Nov. 6 to the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee, the House and Senate Committees on Judiciary, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, and the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions.
“The Council was directed to consult with State and local partners to use a data-driven approach that improves public safety, reduces correctional and criminal justice spending, and reinvests savings or redirects funding in strategies that foster desistance or decrease crime, delinquencies, and recidivism,” the report states.
Restorative justice programs allow convicts to reduce or avoid incarceration by using local support groups that help with job searching, finding a home, and re-establishing relationships. Sometimes, there will be in-person meetings between the offender and the victim.
The report states, “The Council believes these programs are integral to improving public safety, reducing correctional and criminal justice spending, and decreasing crime, delinquencies, and recidivism. Since these programs are supported through fines and fees which are not consistent, there is an instability in the programs related to employee retention and annual fluctuations in appropriations.”
It goes on to say that the services they offer are impacted by the financial situation.
Legislation coming next?
The letter recommends that policymakers, “consider proposing legislation that moves identified fines and fees to the general fund, moves program support from specials funds to general funds, and also establishes the base amount of general fund dollars needed to support the identified programs.”
Is restorative justice helping?
A study out of England’s Restorative Justice Council says yes. It states, “The evidence shows that restorative justice meets the needs of victims and reduces the frequency of reoffending.”
It further states, “Restorative justice reduced the frequency of reoffending, leading to £9 in savings to the criminal justice system for every £1 spent on restorative justice.”
Not everyone believes restorative justice is always helping. Fox News reported in June that the Washington DC Attorney General’s Office hired special counsel for Juvenile Justice Reform Seema Gajwani in 2015, who in 2027 created a restorative justice program that was used to keep violent criminals on the streets.
“We have successfully used restorative justice in stabbing cases, in carjackings and burglaries, all instead [of] traditional prosecution. We are focusing on serious violent crime,” Gajwani said in a 2021 webinar.
A 2007 Georgetown University Law Center study suggests that restorative justice is a philosophy that can take many forms.
“What began as an idea to reduce the punitive nature of conventional criminal punishment (especially for juvenile offenders and victimless crimes) and to improve the outcomes of criminal justice has developed into a social and political movement seeking to use restorative or reparative sensibilities to heal not only single acts of misconduct, but civil wars, genocides, and international, multi-ethnic, political, and religious conflict.”
Council may expire
The Council itself may cease to continue, by its recommendation.
“Given the relatively low dollar amount of funds at play, complex financial details, and administrative demand of convening the Council, it is the Council’s view that the State and its taxpayers would be better served by dedicating the remaining Justice Reinvestment funds in FY26 and future years— which comprise approximately 0.23% of DOC’s overall budget — as base funding,” the report states.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle