Welcome to our Web Site!

The San Diego Restorative Justice Mediation Program seeks to prevent the spiral of crime among juveniles in San Diego County through Victim-Offender Mediation and community training and involvement. Our program works at all levels of offense—the courts, the Probation department, the police and sheriffs, and schools and school districts.  

We are especially interested in helping those who are on the path to delinquency—they’ve not yet committed a crime, but their activities suggest to the adults around them that they may be headed in that direction. Early intervention is crucial. To that end, we are developing special projects in schools and communities. This Spring, we are training ninth graders at Granger Junior High in National City in mediation. These students will be peer mediators at Sweetwater High School next fall.  RJMP is also working with local law enforcement to find new ways to deal with truancy. And, we are beginning to establish a presence among the Native American tribes in North County—helping to bring peace on the reservations. 

The need for our Program is not in dispute. In 2006, 47 juveniles were arrested every day in San Diego County (SANDAG). Over the course of the year, that amounted to 17,155 minors entering into an overburdened juvenile court system. And, with tighter budgets at all levels of government, that means more work and more stress for teachers, police, and probation officers.  Right now, we offer our mediation services to these officials free of charge. 

Although RJMP has been around since 1993, in 2009, we are re-building our program. We are engaged in an awareness campaign that makes Restorative Justice a household name and a community practice. We’re hosting a series of Community Forums where folks can meet us face-to-face, ask questions about our program, find out ways they can help, and point us toward others they know who want to know about us. We also need your help: volunteer mediators (our 18-hour training is offered biannually), volunteer office workers, and, of course, people who will help us out financially. 

San Diego is the only major city in California that does not support an active Restorative Justice or Victim Offender Reconciliation Program.  We want to change that by the end of 2009. This is undoubtedly a challenge—and the kind of challenge that gets me excited.  Please join us as we keep kids out of jail by preventing the spiral of crime and making more peaceful communities. 

Peace to you,

Ben Conarroe

Executive Director