Impact Justice — Restorative Justice Project (2019)

[Criminal Justice Reform] Grant investigator: Chloe Cockburn This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. Impact Justice staff also reviewed this page prior to publication. Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $4,000,000 over three years to Impact Justice to support its Restorative Justice Project, under the leadership of sujatha baliga. This project partners with local community organizations in cities around America to support the introduction of restorative justice diversion, before the filing of any charges in a case, to completely remove cases from the conventional justice system. The project focuses intensively in seven cities (growing to 10), and has created a toolkit and response capacity to support community leaders in many other locations to implement this solution to the question of how to address serious harm without prison. In the view of our criminal justice reform team, answering this question is key for progress in criminal justice reform, as a political and practical matter. Our criminal justice reform team believes this project is the only one in the United States to pilot restorative justice in multiple jurisdictions at once. This funding will support the project's existing programs and facilitate its expansion into additional cities. This follows our December 2016 support and falls within our focus area of criminal justice reform.