Funding Restorative Justice Gives Survivors Options and Saves Money

Did you know that it costs between $136, 000 – $164,0001 to deal with a sexual assault that goes through the criminal justice system? And to incarcerate one man in Canada costs $126,000/ year. In CJI’s local community, the proposed 2025 budget for the Waterloo Regional Police is $253 million. This represents 30% of the Region of Waterloo’s portion of the tax bill, which is a significant collective investment. The traditional justice system is expensive because it is highly professionalized, with trained police officers, lawyers, judges, probation officers, prison staff, and other professionals.

The Canadian justice system is also overloaded. In fact, the courts have thrown out some backlogged cases of sexual assault because it has taken too long to get to them.

Policing and the court system hold a place in ensuring community safety. However, the traditional justice system is not the only tool for addressing harm and crime. “We need to pivot away from leaning so hard on the legal system and find other ways to meet survivors’ healing and justice needs,” says Kate Crozier, Interim Executive Director at CJI. Kate believes survivors need a menu of options—that includes Restorative Justice.

Restorative Justice equips ordinary citizens to facilitate simple but effective restorative processes that meet individuals’ needs for justice.

Through CJI, it costs approximately

$1200 to $2400 to provide a Facilitated Dialogue for people impacted by sexual trauma,

$1200/per participant for a 12-week psycho-educational group for people who have been offended, including 3 one-to-one sessions,

$2500/person for a support group for one year.

If more community members had the option to pursue a restorative justice process, the pressure on the traditional justice system could be relieved and societal costs reduced. Most importantly, people impacted by sexual trauma and other types of harm could have their needs met.

Unfortunately, Restorative Justice is not well-funded. “There are no government grants or agreements you can apply for to be funded as Restorative Justice program. It does not exist. It is hard to grow and thrive as an organization without stable funding,” says Kate. Until the government prioritizes Restorative Justice, we need community members to invest in these highly effective approaches.

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