Partnerships
Longmont Police Department
Longmont police officers are the primary referring agents for LCJP’s Community Restorative Justice program. In the city of Longmont, police officers have the option to make a pre-file referral of a case to LCJP rather than issuing a summons or making an arrest. In order for a case to be eligible for referral to community restorative justice, officers determine that offenders are taking responsibility for their actions and victims / harmed parties are willing for their case to go to restorative justice instead of the conventional criminal justice route. This pre-file diversion process allows offenders to participate in restorative justice without having a filed charge (i.e. conviction) on their record.
School Administrators, Counselors, and Resource Officers may make referrals to LCJP’s Community Restorative Justice program for incidents on school grounds. Such incidents may involve a pending criminal charge or school-based disciplinary action.
From 2010-2015, LCJP implemented a grant-funded Restorative Practices in Schools (RPS) program which involved coordination of Student Restorative Justice Teams at a high school and its two feeder middle schools in Longmont. Student team members became peer facilitators and community representatives in other students’ restorative processes, using a Solution Circle model. The process provided an alternative to punitive responses of detention, expulsion, or a summons to court. Its success was largely determined by empowering students to become the advocates and ambassadors for a school-wide restorative culture based in the 5 R’s. Learn more about this extremely successful implementation in the History of RPS document linked below.
Longmont Municipal Courts and Probation
LCJP is currently developing partnership with Longmont Court and Probation services so that youth and adult defendants may participate in Community Restorative Justice programming.
