Grantee Cohort Spring 2022
Impact Justice dares to dream of a humane and restorative system of justice in America. While its approach is anchored in research, policy, and advocacy, the organization also prioritizes innovation to forge a new path to a justice system that is fair to all. Its Restorative Justice Project (RJP) works to make improvements on what is already considered a progressive reform. Knowing that referrals to typical diversion programs often replicate the same racial disparities known to plague the criminal legal system overall, Impact Justice’s model of restorative justice diversion is explicitly designed to ensure that offenses and neighborhoods driving the highest number of referrals for youth of color are prioritized. Additionally, its model bridges the gap in diversion services widely available across the country by specifically targeting high-level misdemeanor and felony offenses where there is an identifiable person(s) harmed. Since 2011, it has also provided training and technical assistance to sites across the country through a National Restorative Justice Diversion cohort, which includes community-based organizations and leaders from the criminal and juvenile legal systems who are working to introduce pre-charge restorative justice diversion programs to meet survivors’ needs that are not reliant on youth criminalization.
