Restorative Justice can improve New Jersey’s economy

Restorative Justice can significantly improve the state economy. There are many people in New Jersey that have a criminal background and want to get jobs or stay employed. One way to help previously incarcerated folks is by focusing on restorative justice programs. This way they will be able to remain in the job market and pay taxes which will improve the state economy exponentially.

There are so many people in the world who have committed crimes, but get released from prison without being able to come back into mainstream society. When people are locked up, they stop being able to pay taxes. Restorative Justice is by far one of the best ways to make sure that formerly incarcerated people can actually be able to work and pay taxes once again.

In place of taxpayer dollars being spent on prisoners and prisons, those funds could be used for things such as:

• Public safety
• Education
• Job training programs for formerly incarcerated individuals.

Fair Chance Hiring, like Restorative Justice stimulates the state economy by allowing people to work many jobs that do not require a college degree. A survey on Restorative Justice has also shown to reduce crime and domestic violence. It is far better alternative to building more prisons. Restorative Justice could be a silver bullet to help others in the community to work together to keep each other safe.

Getting people back to work, by using their felony conviction as a reason to hire them, as opposed to not hiring them, is one way we can use restorative justice. The reason why this can be good for the state economy is because the state is not paying for those individuals to be incarcerated, therefore, the state is not losing money. The state is still gaining money because those people are being able to pay taxes. Additionally, since the workers are being able to pay taxes and thus receiving money from their wage earners, it will add value for them by allowing them to spend that money in that community or on themselves.

One sure way to stimulate local economies in Newark, Camden, Jersey City and Paterson by implementing restorative justice practices is through job training programs for employers and formerly incarcerated individuals, and creating guaranted job programs for the graduates from said programs. This makes Restorative Justice is by far one of the best ways to ensure that formerly incarcerated people can actually be able to work and pay taxes once again.

Restorative justice programs would offer many opportunities for people with a justice involved background to work and that in itself is an accelarant for local economies that depend heavily on sales, property and state income taxes. The creation of guaranted job programs for formerly incarcerated individuals along with training programs for employers that would hire them is a novel idea, but one that will put New Jerseyeans back to work and New Jersey’s economy back on track.