Contra Costa DA announces restorative justice program U.S. DOJ found to be moderately effective or worse
By Allen Payton
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office announced, last Friday, their new Neighborhood Restorative Partnership program. It is a neighborhood-focused restorative justice initiative addressing root causes of criminal behavior, reducing recidivism, enhancing community relationships, and promoting public safety and quality of life. The NRP is a program in which eligible individuals are given an opportunity to take responsibility and repair the harm they caused through a community-based process, instead of a courtroom.
This program is:
- A community-based pre-filing program.
- A program designed to give individuals an opportunity to take responsibility and repair harm they cause.
- And will consist of community volunteers trained as panelists to find solutions that help address the harm caused by these offenders and by focusing on restoring all who have been impacted.
U.S. DOJ Study Found “Moderate” and Lower Program Results
A U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs study, published in 2017, that “systematically reviewed all available research that, at a minimum, compared participants in a restorative justice program to participants processed traditionally by the juvenile justice system”, found that such programs had a “moderate reduction in future delinquent behavior” and the “results were smaller for the more credible random assignment studies”.
“Abstract – The distinctive feature of restorative justice programs is the objective of addressing the causes of the offender’s delinquent behavior while remedying the harms caused to the victims. A fundamental component of restorative justice programs is some form of dialog or interaction between the offender and the victim or a victim surrogate, with some programs extending participation to family and community members. Examples of restorative justice programs include victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, and sentencing circles. Also, some routine practices of the juvenile justice system such as restitution are consistent with restorative justice principles, and some programs incorporate some aspect of the framework, such as teen courts. This systematic meta-analysis of evaluation research on restorative justice programs identified 99 publications, both published and unpublished, reporting on the results of 84 evaluations nested within the 60 unique research projects or studies. From these studies, the meta-analysis extracted results related to delinquency, non-delinquency, and outcomes for the youth and victims participating in these programs. Overall, the evaluations of restorative justice programs and practices showed a moderate reduction in future delinquent behavior relative to more traditional juvenile court processing; however, these results were smaller for the more credible random assignment studies, which raises concerns about the robustness of this overall result. Additional high-quality research of such programs is warranted, given the promising but uncertain findings. 14 tables, 30 figures, and search notes”
Questions for DA Becton & Program Coordinator
Both District Attorney Diana Becton and program coordinator and Janet Era, Assistant Investigator/Facility K9 Handler with the DA’s office, were asked the following questions about the program on Monday:
Do you have more details about the Neighborhood Restorative Partnership that you can share?
How will the community-based process work? Is it just for juveniles or adults, too?
How many panelists per neighborhood panel? When and where will the panels meet?
How can you assure an individual that is the focus of the effort will actually attend their meeting with the neighborhood panel?
What percentage of individuals assigned to such programs actually show up for their neighborhood panel meeting? If they do, what are the kinds of assignments that can be ordered by the panel for the individual to “to take responsibility and repair the harm they caused”? Who provides the enforcement to ensure the assignment is completed?
Are the assignments based on a negotiated agreement with the individual and victims?
What if there are costs involved to repair the harm they caused will the individual be required to pay those costs? What if they can’t afford to do that, will the costs be paid for by the program?
Once the assignment is completed, what happens next? Is their record expunged?
How much will the program cost?
Finally, are you aware of the US DOJ study published in 2017 showing such programs for juveniles have a moderate impact or less?
Program Coordinator Responds
In an email response received, today, Era wrote, “The Neighborhood Restorative Justice Partnership (NRP) is an adult diversion program. NRP provides an opportunity for the participant to resolve their case in the community as opposed to a courtroom, by utilizing restorative justice practices. Offenders are given an opportunity to take responsibility and repair the harm they caused through a community-based resolution process.
NRP provides an opportunity for the victim to be heard and for the community to participate in the resolution process. We anticipate three panelists per panel. Eligible cases are diverted by the District Attorney’s Office into the NRP program. While participation is voluntary, participants must be willing to take accountability for their actions that caused the harm. Each case is unique; therefore, panelists will prepare individualized obligation plans for each participant.
Upon successful completion of the program, criminal charges will not be filed. NRP will track recidivism of the participants who complete the program for a period of 24 months. We have shadowed other agencies in other counties, including Yolo County, Los Angeles City Attorney, and San Francisco County. These counties have published a high rate of success at reducing recidivism. If the individual does not complete the program, criminal charges will be filed by the District Attorney’s office.
The procedures, guidelines, and logistics for the Neighborhood Restorative Justice Partnership are still under development. Participation is voluntary and confidential. There are no program fees, however there may be costs associated with repairing the harm caused by the individual.”
Program Contact Information
If interested in becoming a panelist with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, please complete an application and send to:
Contra Costa County
District Attorney’s Office
Attn: Janet Era
Assistant Investigator/Facility K9 Handler
Contra Costa County Office of the District Attorney
Neighborhood Restorative Partnership
900 Ward Street, 2nd Floor
Martinez, CA 94553
Click on this link for a copy of Application
Click on this link to view NRP Flyer
the attachments to this post:
Neighborhood Restorative Partnership Program CCDA
