Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $3,700,000 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 Open Philanthropy's criminal justice reform team, answering this question is key for progress in criminal justice reform, as a political and practical matter. Open Philanthropy's 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 Open Philanthropy's December 2016 support and falls within its focus area of criminal justice reform.