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Wyoming will soon have a restorative justice program for adults

Wyoming is working on establishing its first adult restorative justice program. Restorative justice is a method of dealing with a crime that seeks to repair the damage done, rather than just punish the perpetrator, and to give more of a voice to the victim. It often involves a mediated meeting between victim and perpetrator.

There are already restorative justice programs in the state for juvenile offenders. But Victim Services Coordinator, Randi Losalu, says this is the first adult program she knows of in Wyoming. 

“It’s a little bit different because it’s post-conviction for adult offender, and so it is a little bit different than I think restorative justice on the juvenile side would be,” says Losalu. 

Four volunteers went to a restorative justice training last month to learn how to conduct sessions with victims and perpetrators. Losalu is currently working to finalize the program’s policies and procedures and says it should be available at the start of 2014.

Irina Zhorov is a reporter for Wyoming Public Radio. She earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from the University of Wyoming. In between, she worked as a photographer and writer for Philadelphia-area and national publications. Her professional interests revolve around environmental and energy reporting and she's reported on mining issues from Wyoming, Mexico, and Bolivia. She's been supported by the Dick and Lynn Cheney Grant for International Study, the Eleanor K. Kambouris Grant, and the Social Justice Research Center Research Grant for her work on Bolivian mining and Uzbek alpinism. Her work has appeared on Voice of America, National Native News, and in Indian Country Today, among other publications.
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