COMMUNITY HARM REPAIR PROGRAM

​RJP Maine’s Community Harm Repair Program provides an alternative path for community members who are entangled in conflict, perhaps have been harmed by crime or charged with a crime, caused harm, or are referred by law enforcement in lieu of summons or arrest.  While holding people accountable for harms caused, this process seeks to put decision making in the hands of those directly affected and offers the opportunity to work collaboratively towards creating an agreement for how things can be made as right as possible.

                                                 County Manager Contact Information:
       Tom Blatz                                              ​Emma Hirst                                    Afton Sinclair-Holland                                Bob St.Peter 
    Sagadahoc County                                 Lincoln County                                        Knox County                                        Waldo County
​tom@rjpmidcoast.org                 emma@rjpmidcoast.org                      afton@rjpmidoast.org                  bobst@rjpmidcoast.org 

If you would like to know more about the Harm Repair Program, feel free to reach out to your county's Harm Repair Manager. To make a community                                                  referral inquiry to the RJP Harm Repair Program, please fill out and submit the form below.

Referral Form

                                HARM REPAIR AGREEMENTS
Staff and trained volunteers facilitate conversations between impacted parties resulting in a concrete list of reparative tasks for the harming parties to complete, often with the support of a trained community volunteer mentor. These 'harm repair agreements' can include material reparations such as restitution or service work benefiting individuals and communities directly affected, as well as more thoughtful projects or activities that help rebuild safety and respect for all involved, reduce shame, and offer hope and companionship to those who need them. Our ‘high accountability/high support’ approach strives to convey 'you matter' to every participant.  92% of RJP Maine’s harm repair agreements are successfully completed.

                                 TYPES OF REFERRALS
Since its founding in 2005, RJP Maine has grown from early referrals for non-violent juvenile offenses to now accepting referrals of high-risk, multiple-times system-involved youth, as well as adult referrals for incidents ranging from shoplifting to vehicular manslaughter.  The top court-referred crime types referred to RJP Maine in the past five years for both juvenile and adult offenses include: larceny/ theft/ burglary, criminal mischief, and reckless conduct. 

                                   POTENTIAL BENEFITS
Overwhelmingly this process works: it gives people directly affected by wrong-doing and crime a voice in the process, increases insight of the person who caused harm into the wide-ranging impacts of offense, and engages the affected community in planning for rebuilding its own safety.  It may also reduce expensive jail time and long-term repercussions of system involvement. The economic impacts of restitution paid, decreases in post-traumatic symptoms, and increases in social capital that our harm repair processes offer yield significant individual and communal dividends.  The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports an 8:1 cost to benefit ratio in restorative justice investment.

94% of surveyed crime victims agree or strongly agree that they were treated fairly, and the process repaired the harm done. 95% of all participants (victims, offenders, family members, mentors, and community observers) indicate that they would recommend a restorative intervention to others in a similar situation.

In the last fiscal year (2022) RJP Maine engaged approximately 750 community members in Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, and Sagadahoc Counties in harm repair processes for the 47 adults and 60 juveniles that were referred to us for causing harm.  Trained volunteer facilitators and mentors supported more than ⅓ of the cases referred, while the remainder were facilitated and supported by RJP staff.

To learn more about RJP's Harm Repair Program, click the link below:

Learn More