In September 2025, the Office of Dispute Resolution’s (ODR) concluded the Juvenile Restorative Justice & Family Intervention Initiative (JRJFII), a federal grant project under the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. A key component of the grant initiative was to provide youth restorative justice programming through ODR-approved mediation centers. Goals included reducing recidivism and engaging families to address issues impacting youth success.

As part of the grant, ODR partnered with the University of Nebraska at Omaha Juvenile Justice Institute and the Center for Rural School Health & Education at the University of Denver for an external evaluation of youth restorative justice processes. The evaluation report examined descriptive, future system involvement (i.e., recidivism) and satisfaction data.

From July 2022 through April 2025, centers managed 1,531 cases involving 1,453 unique youths. The average referral age was 14.3 years (range 5 - 17). Of these youth, 29.1% (n = 446) were referred for assault or crimes against a person and 29.0% (n = 444) for truancy/school absenteeism. In cases resulting in a full or partial agreement (n = 1,137), satisfaction with the process was high.

Future system involvement was calculated for cases that closed between July 1, 2022, and March 16, 2024. During this time frame, youth reached a partial or full agreement in 655 cases. For these cases, only 15.0% (n = 98) had future system involvement within one year.

Read the full evaluation report: https://nebraskajudicial.gov/sites/default/files/publication-report-files/OJJDP-Eval-Report.pdf