LAST FALL, Gov. Maura Healey was quick to tout hundreds of thousands of dollars going toward restorative justice programs as a significant step toward a more humane criminal justice system, but her administration has once again left any chance for funding those programs in the Legislature’s hands.
The conditions aren’t terribly favorable. A late-in-the-budget-process ask and a shrinking revenue forecast could spell trouble for two state initiatives – a three-year-old community grant program and a bid to launch a dedicated statewide office of restorative justice.
Restorative justice is an alternative to the punishment-centric criminal justice process, bringing those who commit crimes together with the people their actions impacted, to have conversations about the impact and find non-carceral solutions to repair the harm.
Part of the sweeping 2018 criminal justice reform law created an advisory committee with a six-year timeline focused on restorative justice. In its 2023 annual report, the Restorative Justice Advisory Committee said an ongoing grant program, a partnership with Roxbury Community College to inventory community-based restorative justice programs across the state, and a proposed Massachusetts restorative justice office “represent the culmination of the [committee]’s work and are expected to result in new public policy that will strengthen the Commonwealth’s current commitment to restorative justice.”
But the grand plans have hit a snag. As committee member Rep. Simon Cataldo of Concord noted at the group’s February meeting, “the governor’s budget did not include any of what has been requested or proposed.”
For three consecutive years, the Senate successfully pushed a community-based, restorative justice grant program into the final budget.
When Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Marlborough, formerly the Senate appointee to the advisory group, began advocating for the grants on the Senate side with his colleagues, it was coming from “an equity lens,” he said. “The restorative justice groups that were essentially in well-off areas were able to raise money, but low-income or working class communities are where you really need restorative justice even more.”
Former Gov. Charlie Baker and Gov. Healey never included the grant program in their proposed budgets, and this year is no exception. Healey’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget takes the $400,000 grant program from last year’s budget down to $0, with a note that says “eliminated program.”
Also left off Healey’s list was a $3 million ask to cover salaries for eight full-time staff and grants for agency, court, and community-based programs. The state funding, according to the advisory committee’s annual report, would come from justice reinvestment initiatives and the Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund.
Healey’s office didn’t have much time to act on the state office pitch before rolling out her $56.1 billion budget proposal at the end of January. The funding request for the office was brought to the governor earlier that month.
In this fiscal environment, Cataldo and Eldridge noted, an entirely new expense creating a state office is an even harder lift than protecting the ongoing but relatively recent grant program. The governor is also facing blowback over other cuts to efforts aimed at reducing recidivism, such as reentry programs for formerly incarcerated people.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Administration and Finance declined to comment on the restorative justice budget recommendations. The administration has not indicated antagonism toward the programs, touting the last grant cycle in November.
“Restorative Justice practices can help those who have experienced harm and those who have caused it on their journeys toward healing and accountability. This grant program allows us to invest in community-based service providers as they deliver programming tailored to the needs of the communities they serve,” Healey said in a statement accompanying the grant awards.
This could be the moment to jump on momentum from one of the other branches, suggested Scott Taberner, special advisor for behavioral health and criminal justice with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The Supreme Judicial Court has its own committee on restorative justice, which is embarking on a three-year pilot program in four of the state’s courts.
“The courts are taking a very courageous step in terms of trying to pilot this in four locations,” he said last month. “It seems as if there could, in fact, be some joint effort here that the administration could get behind, that the courts could get behind, and I think our legislative colleagues could also embrace as we’re trying to figure out, how do we get a state office up and running? Can we get the resources to make this go?”
The funds are “not a huge amount of money,” he said, and the budget cycle seemed an optimal time to make the push.
“So far, I would say the Legislature and the judicial branch are the most excited, or putting their money where their mouth is,” Eldridge said, “and it’s unclear where the Healey-Driscoll administration is on actually funding restorative justice programs.”