About JusticeWorks
JusticeWorks is a non-profit community justice organization dedicated to the advancement of programs and practices that secure right relationships between offenders, victims, and their communities. “Rightness” in relationships implies safe, equitable, and respectful treatment for all with regard for individual differences and the need to repair harms suffered. JusticeWorks seeks to incorporate evidence-based practices into traditional responses of the justice system for more effective justice outcomes.
JusticeWorks incorporated in May 2004 following more than two years of planning by 110 volunteers who contributed more than 550 hours to conceive a new vision and develop the framework for a community justice organization. Today, a Board of Directors leads the corporation with a membership who represent the following sectors: business, clergy, community/housing, justice coalition, law enforcement, legal, higher education, schools/youth, service, treatment, invested citizens (offenders, victims, citizens at large) and both rural and urban communities.
What is Restorative Justice?
Restorative Justice emphasizes the ways in which crime hurts relationships between people who live in a community. Crime is seen as something done against a victim and the community—not simply as a violation against the state. Crime may be any wrong, even a non-criminal offense that weakens relationships between people or harms community living. In Restorative Justice, the offender becomes accountable to those he or she has harmed.