Louisiana’s Catholic bishops spoke in favor of restorative justice policies in a 2002 pastoral statement “Let Justice and Mercy Meet.” The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections uses some restorative justice ideas and practices in its services, among them victim-offender dialogue.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society has been working for more than 200 years on behalf of people in jail and their families. It has a restorative justice program. William M. DiMascio is the executive director.

The New York State Community Justice Forum in Rensselaer, N.Y., provides training and assistance in community and restorative justice. The difference: Community justice works to prevent crime and promote community, while restorative justice works for reparation after a crime has been committed.

The Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast in Belfast, Maine, has worked with victims and offenders to seek apologies for victims and to help criminals turn their lives around.

The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, Ill. is dedicated to establishing a new type of research institute that studies the relationship of race and ethnicity.

The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. studies the issues on race, ethnicity and gender that are “essential to understanding the world of the 21st century.” Contact Director, Susan Reed.

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University in Providence, R.I. is dedicated to research, academic exchanges and scholarship on ethnic studies.  

The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University in New York is dedicated to promoting innovative thinking about race, ethnicity and other categories of difference to better understand their roles and impacts on society.

The Center for Reconciliation at Duke University in Durham, N.C. is dedicated to “shaping a distinctly Christian vision of reconciliation, with a desire to equip the Church for reconciliation, justice, and peacemaking in a divided world.”