Carolyn Lambert, director of programs for the Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, along with Shannon Sliva, assistant professor of social work at the University of Denver, published a compilation of state statutes referencing restorative justice from the U.S. Restorative Justice Legislation Database on the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice’s website.
Carolyn Lambert
The full database, available on CNCR’s website, includes references to statutes, regulations, and administrative code from throughout the United States. Links to the full text of the items is included where available.
“The database is intended to support both researchers and practitioners in the field of restorative justice by providing ready access to legislative data in one place,” Lambert said. “It may be used to seed a conversation regarding new legislation in a particular state, or to draw comparisons between states regarding how they approach restorative justice in criminal and juvenile justice.”
The compilation was prepared for the Sept. 25-27 Colorado Restorative Justice Conference where Lambert and Sliva will be presenting "Restorative Justice in State Laws: What Can RJ Laws Do For You?"
“The intent of the conference session is to gain understanding of whether and how legislative references actually benefit restorative justice practitioners,” Lambert said.
CNCR became involved in studying restorative justice as it relates to conflict management and resolution in 2008 and created the first comprehensive repository for resources related to restorative justice in the Southeastern United States. Lambert monitors Westlaw reports and the progress of proposed legislation through CQ State Track to provide the most current summaries of state legislation available for CNCR’s online database.