Empower Victims through Access Restorative Justice

The bill makes changes to increase access to restorative justice practices (restorative justice) in Colorado, specifically by:

• Creating a victim-survivor right to participate in restorative justice in the criminal and juvenile justice systems;
• Requiring that victim-survivors be informed of their statutory right to restorative justice and how to exercise it;
• Creating a victim-survivor right to request restorative justice as an alternative to, or in addition to, prosecution;
• Establishing the victim-survivor's right to accept or decline participation in restorative justice, and the right to change that decision, at any stage in the proceedings;
• Creating a victim-survivor right to restorative justice with trained facilitators who adhere to the Colorado restorative justice coordinating council's code of conduct and standards of training and practice, as amended;
• Requiring that, in cases of domestic violence or unlawful sexual behavior, when a victim-survivor requests restorative justice, the victim-survivor has a right to restorative justice with a facilitator who has specialized training and experience to address the issues specific to those cases;
• Requiring that participation in restorative justice by a responsible party is voluntary;
• Mandating that restorative justice is confidential and information obtained through a restorative justice practice must not be disclosed by any party to the practice without the agreement of all parties involved;
• Requiring the state restorative justice coordinating council to develop, on or before August 30, 2024, 2 standardized forms to advise victim-survivors of their right to restorative justice in criminal and juvenile cases and a confidentiality agreement to use in restorative justice;
• Clarifying that the legal authority of a prosecutor to make decisions about prosecution is preserved;
• Creating a funding source for restorative justice through the offender services fund;
• Eliminating language in statute that prohibits the use of restorative justice in cases involving domestic partner violence, protective orders, stalking, and unlawful sexual behavior;
• Requiring the department of corrections to accommodate victim-survivor requests for victim-offender dialogues; maintain an accountability letter bank for inmates to send letters of accountability, apology, or remorse to victim-survivors; inform victim-survivors of the availability of such letters; and adopt policies requiring adherence to the principles of victim empowerment; and
• Eliminating outdated language related to fees for restorative justice in multiple statutes.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)