Healing harm

CJP alumna leads Charlottesville restorative justice program

Erin Campbell MA ‘22 (conflict transformation) is using the skills she acquired from EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) to heal harms in her community.

Campbell is co-director of Central Virginia Community Justice (CVCJ). One of CVCJ’s programs is a partnership with the Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ offices in Charlottesville and Albemarle County and public defender’s office to divert criminal cases away from the courts and into a restorative justice process. CVCJ offers a way for people to make amends directly to those they have harmed as an alternative to prosecution.

Rather than focus on punishment, restorative justice (RJ) programs like CVCJ emphasize healing and safety. Trained facilitators with the nonprofit work with willing participants—those responsible for harm, those who were harmed, and anyone else affected—to share their experiences, acknowledge the harm done, and agree on a resolution to repair it. Proponents of RJ say the process encourages trust and accountability, supports the needs of those who were harmed, and results in lower recidivism rates than the traditional legal system.

“Instead of isolating people in jail or through a sterile criminal legal process, we’re connecting people to empathetic facilitators who treat everyone with dignity and who center the needs of the harmed person and the safety of the community,” Campbell said.

Since its start in 2022, CVCJ has successfully resolved about 35 incidents of harm. These include assault and battery, embezzlement, racialized vandalism, hit-and-run, and a DUI, among other felony and misdemeanor charges.

During her third year at EMU, as she searched for a practicum, Campbell learned about an RJ pilot program beginning to take shape in nearby Charlottesville. The pilot, which would later become CVCJ, sprung from a collaboration between Albemarle County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Neal MA ‘11, Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, and the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice at CJP. Tarek Maassarani, an RJ practitioner and visiting professor at CJP, served as an adviser to the project.

EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding is internationally known for its focus and expertise in restorative justice. CJP is home to the nation’s first graduate-level program related to RJ and attracts students from all over the world. The Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice is a program of CJP that hosts conferences, webinars and courses to facilitate conversations and cultivate connections around RJ. Its inaugural RJ Day was held in April and brought together participants to connect, build relationships, and share ideas and practices with one another.

Campbell started her practicum with the program in January 2022, just as it launched. The first cohort of facilitators received training in RJ practices over the next two months, guided by the experts at CJP, and began taking their first cases that spring.

Erin Campbell, co-director of Central Virginia Community Justice: EMU was invaluable in that pilot year. Amy Knorr MA ‘09 (CJP practice director) consistently served on our advisory council those first couple years. Jayne Docherty, who was CJP executive director at the time, wholeheartedly stood behind the pilot and considers our program one of CJP’s recent big achievements in the community. We had support from advisers like Dave Saunier MA ‘04, who ran an RJ program for youth about a decade ago, and other CJP grads like Isaiah Dottin-Carter MA ‘22 and Kajungu Mturi MA ‘18 who were involved in training and mentoring facilitators. Suzanne Praill MA ‘10, director of restorative justice at the Fairfield Center, spearheaded the training. Another CJP alum, Maggie Rake MA ‘21, facilitated cases with us in the early days.

Campbell said CVCJ is different from other diversion programs in ensuring that its services are offered at no cost and that its facilitators reflect the gender, race and age of participants whenever they can. The facilitators are also paid more than a living wage, she added.

“Many diversion programs only use volunteer facilitators, which typically means a select demographic of people… generally older, white, retired folks,” Campbell said. “Plenty of those folks make great facilitators, but the demographic doesn’t represent the diversity of participants we actually service.”

Each month, CVCJ adds one to two new cases, including noncriminal situations such as a conflict between teachers in a school or a harm that those involved in would rather not report to police. CVCJ is also starting to offer training in restorative practices to schools, organizations, and individuals.

“As we know, restorative justice moves at the speed of trust,” Campbell said. “We’re lucky to have the partners we have in the public defender’s office and in both Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ offices. Even with that, turning around a criminal legal system that’s existed for a couple hundred years is like turning around an ocean liner. Luckily, we’re patient people.”

Learn more about CVCJ at communityjusticeva.org.