In 2013, the Colorado legislature established four restorative justice (RJ) juvenile diversion pilot programs, in part to assess the efficacy of restorative justice to reduce cost. This is a preliminary study of operational costs saved from moving juveniles through the RJ pilots versus the pre-pilot status quo, which varied by judicial district. This report presents an analysis of the RJ pilot cost and an initial investigation into the juvenile justice system and conventional diversion service costs which have been displaced by the advent of the RJ pilots.
