DA Larry Krasner, Community Partners Highlight Restorative Justice Pilot Program That Repairs Harm to Survivors, Reduces Criminalization of Youth
CONTACT:
Dustin Slaughter, 215–686–8713, Dustin.Slaughter@phila.gov
PHILADELPHIA (July 12, 2021) — DA Larry Krasner joined community partners today to highlight the launch of a groundbreaking, juvenile-focused, and pre-trial restorative justice pilot program, Healing Futures. Launched in June with support from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) and Impact Justice’s Restorative Justice Project, Healing Futures uses nationally-recognized best practices to help ensure that juveniles who cause harm are truly held accountable by allowing survivors to identify steps the juvenile can take to help make the survivor whole again. Healing Futures will also help youth accused of causing harm avoid the trauma that can be inflicted by involvement in the legal system.
The program, currently run by the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project (YASP), includes certain felonies and high-level misdemeanors. Cases are identified for referral to YASP by DAO staff trained in survivor support and restorative justice best practices. Once the survivor and youth consent to a community conferencing process, cases are sent to YASP for face-to-face meetings involving the accused juvenile, the survivor, and other affected community members. Participants then agree on a plan to repair the harm that was caused, and once that plan is completed, the DAO will file no charges and the case is considered closed. Firearm offenses are currently not included in the pilot program.
Research indicates that juvenile restorative justice dramatically reduces youth recidivism and sharply increases satisfaction among survivors who engage in the process. A 2017 study of Alameda County’s restorative justice efforts indicated a 44% reduction in recidivism for juvenile participants, and approximately 90% of survivors described the process and outcome as beneficial for their healing and recovery. The latter is perhaps not surprising, however: a recent survey conducted by the Alliance for Safety and Justice of crime victims nationally indicated by a 3 to 1 margin that survivors generally prefer holding people who commit crime accountable through rehabilitation, treatment, and other means rather than incarceration. The same study also found by a margin of 7 to 1 that survivors prefer investments in crime prevention, including programming for at-risk youth and other non-punitive measures, over the use of jails and prisons. Restorative diversion is also exponentially cheaper than juvenile facility placement.
“Victims of crime are often not made whole by a defendant being convicted. Restorative justice seeks to enhance healing and repair for both survivors and defendants — something the criminal legal system too often fails to do — by allowing people who have been harmed to directly hold the person or persons who caused that harm accountable,” said DA Krasner. “The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is delighted to have selected YASP to carry out this important work, and is proud to lend governmental credibility to important community-based solutions to public safety and mass incarceration like the Healing Futures program. We also look forward to working with our community partners to greatly expand access to Healing Futures for more crime survivors and juveniles.”
“With the Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project’s Healing Futures program, we’re recreating what public safety looks like. We’re changing the narrative of crime and punishment that our communities have been trapped in by addressing harm with accountability, healing, and hope,” said YASP Healing Futures Program Director, Kempis “Ghani” Songster. “On a personal level, as someone who had been involved in causing irreparable harm to someone else as an adolescent myself, and having served over 30 years in prison, it’s an honor and blessing to now help young people receive what they need to help repair the harms they’ve caused and to succeed in life. It means more to me than most might imagine to also help people who were harmed to heal and be safe in their community.”
The Healing Futures pilot program, developed over four years, was funded in part through an anonymous donation to Impact Justice of $280,000 as well as a $55,000 grant, secured with assistance by the DAO, from The Spring Point. In partnership with Impact Justice, YASP was chosen by the DAO to administer the pilot program after a competitive selection process. In addition to monetary support, Impact Justice also provided comprehensive training and critically important guidance for the program’s creation. The DAO and community partners believe that sustained funding from the city will help continue to move restorative diversion programming forward and help it expand in the future.
“I am so excited that after what has been a long journey of planning, preparing, problem-solving, and organizing, Philadelphia has finally launched a pre-charge restorative justice diversion program to respond to serious harm,” said Sia Henry, Senior Program Specialist for Impact Justice’s Restorative Justice Project. “For too long our criminal legal systems have deprived survivors of the ability to have their self-identified needs met, chosen criminalization over a vision of what childhood can and should look like, and denied communities access to the resources and processes necessary to achieve true safety. This has only perpetuated more harm and trauma. Restorative justice offers a way for Philadelphia to interrupt that cycle and I can not think of a better organization than YASP to lead this work.”
Healing Futures is part of a broader effort to move Philadelphia closer to becoming a more restorative city — a city better-equipped to help crime survivors heal, hold people who cause harm accountable, and reduce over-reliance on incarceration and the criminal legal system. Rev. Dr. Donna Jones, who leads the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia’s (MCCP) Restorative Cities Initiative, had this to say about the program:
“We at MCCP remain a proud partner of the Healing Futures initiative at YASP,” Rev. Jones said. “We are glad to see the work that so many Philadelphians have been advocating for, and working toward expanding ‘from the porch to City Hall’ to the aspiration that Philadelphia becomes a truly Restorative City. DA Krasner and the staff of the DA’s Office have been tireless champions of this work, and have courageously launched a true and collaborative process to foster a community where Philadelphia’s justice-involved youth have what they require and deserve — a future with hope. Data show that youth and adults who are given the opportunity to utilize restorative processes as a means toward ‘making things right’ in the aftermath of harm done promote accountability, reconciliation, and healing. We know that a city committed to such processes supporting peace with justice truly reflects Philadelphia’s motto — the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.”
The pilot program currently plans to process approximately 25 cases this year and anticipates expanding that number in 2022.
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The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually.
