A free, two-day convening exploring what restorative justice can make possible in law, in community, and in the lives of people most directly affected by harm.
Restorative justice begins from a different set of questions than the ones our legal system usually asks.
01Who was harmed?
02What do they need?
03What accountability is meaningful?
04What would repair require?
Over two days, roughly 100–150 scholars, attorneys, judges, program leaders, students, advocates, and people directly impacted by harm and incarceration will sit with those questions together. The conference treats restorative justice as both an intellectual framework and a practical response to harm, with candid attention to its promise, its limitations, and the conditions required for meaningful accountability, healing, and repair.
Four perspectives · One sustained dialogue
The same questions, asked from four vantage points.
01
Scholarship & Thought Leadership
Restorative justice as a legal, moral, and institutional framework.
02
Inside the Legal System
The possibilities and limits of restorative approaches in courts, corrections, supervision, sentencing, and legal practice.
03
Community Practice
Relationship-centered programs, facilitation, implementation, and sustainability.
04
Directly Impacted Voices
Lived experiences of harm, punishment, accountability, healing, and repair.
The program
Two complementary days.
Day One · Thursday, October 29
Ideas, institutions, and limits.
Scholarship sets the frame in the morning. Legal-system actors then ask, candidly, whether restorative justice inside courts and corrections is possibility or illusion.
Day Two · Friday, October 30
Practice, lived experience, and next steps.
Community practitioners share what sustained programs require, directly impacted voices describe what justice felt like, and a closing conversation turns toward what comes next.
Professor of Law & James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation
UC Law San Francisco
Amy Dallas
Program Manager, Reshaping Prosecution
Vera Institute of Justice
Janelle Edens
Executive Director
Connection First
Julie and Michael McBride
Family Members Directly Impacted by Serious Harm
Lived Experience
Plan your visit
Getting here.
Location
MLAC 106 UF Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive Gainesville, FL 32611
Parking
UF regulates visitor parking during weekday permit hours, and a one-day permit may be required. Event-specific arrival instructions will be emailed to registered attendees.
Meals & access
Breakfast and lunch are included on both conference days. Request accommodations during registration or write to rjconference2026@gmail.com.
Registration is free. Students, faculty, legal professionals, practitioners, correctional and reentry partners, advocates, community members, and people with lived experience are all welcome in the room.
