Agenda Item Request
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Authorization for the County Manager to enter into a contract between Cumberland County and Cumberland County Friends of Restorative Justice for restorative justice services for an annual renewable contract up to three years.
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Background and Purpose of Request
As presented in January, my office has worked to establish an expanded use of Restorative Justice in Cumberland County since I took office in January, 2023. To summarize, after using the former 10K/6 month renewable contracts that existed when I arrived and encountering performance concerns, I approved a new initiative with a nonprofit centered on Cumberland County community surrogates as no other RJ provider seemed to be doing work centered on accountability and community restoration in our area.
In January, we issued and publicly noticed an RFP (Attachment 1). Only one response was received in the 4 weeks open. This was the nonprofit we had begun to work with in 2025.
We reviewed the RFP and negotiated a proposed contract (Attachment 2).
This contract would enable the DA's Office to expand the use of restorative justice as has been discussed and proposed over the past 2 years.
Extensive work has gone into consideration of this proposal. Please see Attachment 3 for a fairly exhaustive presentation of that history.
Requestor
Jacqueline Sartoris, District Attorney
Funding Amount and Source
There is no impact to any County budget. Because we have completed the trial period in 2025 to establish the appropriate fees and anticipated County contribution, we believe that the County cost of this work will be within the $35,000 anticipated to be allocated in the next fiscal year.
However, as this will substantially increase our use of RJ, we will track expenditures and County contributions monthly, conduct a 6-month review to ensure our finances are on-goal for the year, and adjust referrals to RJ as needed. We will report back to the Commissioners at the 6 month mark.
Oth...
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