Spaces for Restorative Justice

Creating an architecture for care over punishment

The dominant justice system used in the United States can be mapped by the spaces in which it occurs, such as courthouses, probation and parole offices, and jails and prisons. The design of these spaces is infused with messages, overwhelmingly punitive and adversarial, about the goals of justice and the participants in the justice process.

Restorative justice calls for a new justice architecture that communicates the values of and goals for meaningful accountability, harm repair, and the transformation of individuals, relationships, and community. With few such spaces in existence, restorative justice often occurs in spaces designed for the dominant justice system, which keeps restorative justice work literally and symbolically situated within that system's grasp. Without rooms, buildings, and community infrastructure for restorative justice work, the approach may never reach its full potential for individual, relational, and community transformation.

*Diagrams showing how a values-aligned restorative justice space varies greatly from spaces of adversarial justice such as courtrooms, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS). Images courtesy DJDS*

Restorative justice practices bring together people most affected by a crime to address the harm, hold the responsible person accountable, and support the well-being of those harmed. For over a decade, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) has been developing the infrastructure to expand restorative justice practices and philosophies. This includes mirroring our partner's service delivery practices by centering those closest to the problems, uplifting the voices of those who have firsthand experience living through violence, then building trauma-informed and care-based spaces in response. We evaluate these spaces and places to understand their impact, share our findings, and replicate their models. This is our theory of change.

An example of our model is the Restore Oakland building, a social justice hub for restorative justice and restorative economics with a dedicated Peacemaking Room. The building was designed with and for systems impacted youth and adults, potential tenants, and community members. The design of the project embedded their needs like spaces for community organizing, jobs creation, and peacemaking. Design features including colors, lighting, art integration, and biophilic elements were carefully chosen to support the emotional needs of those participating in restorative justice processes.

*Peacemaking Room at Restore Oakland, Oakland, California, 2019, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS). Photo © Ellyce Morgan*

After the building was operational for three years, we conducted our first Post Occupancy Evaluation focused on people's well-being rather than functional building systems. We learned that having art that culturally represents the community builds trust; service- oriented building operators can set the culture of the space and increase social cohesion; navigation and wayfinding need to be simple to reduce stress and increase a sense of safety; and most powerfully, dedicating space for peacemaking/restorative justice encourages expectations for how to act in those settings and changes behavior.

Learnings from Restore Oakland and other previous work were applied and expanded on in our most important project for restorative justice to date: the new headquarters for Common Justice. Common Justice is a US NGO, the first federally funded program to provide restorative practices for federal level violent crimes. The project began with rigorous evidence-based design research. We worked with the organization's staff, harmed parties, and responsible parties using virtual creative activities during the pandemic. As participants began to envision an ideal setting for what might be the most difficult conversations of their lives, we explored what it meant to create spaces that were welcoming, safe, and calm.

*Render of the welcoming reception for Common Justice’s Brooklyn office, New York, 2025, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS). Image courtesy DJDS*

Several key features emerged from the engagement: objects of comfort; private spaces to calm down after difficult conversations; soft electrical lighting and natural light; living elements with clear circulation and wayfinding for all parties involved in the peacemaking process (harmed parties, responsible parties, and staff); soft, diverse, clearly designated seating areas; and a dedicated space for restorative justice.

We developed a range of architectural strategies that responded to the way people wanted to feel in the space, integrating nature at every level. Surrounded by slightly curved, textured wall surfaces, each of the key gathering spaces represents one of the four elements (air, water, fire, earth) through the selection of art, lighting, material, and textures. Other features designed to calm the nervous system include color-coded spaces for easy navigation, soft indirect lighting, and window films that allow for both privacy and light penetration. Flexible seating and other moveable elements like drapery give occupants control within the environment, so anyone can change the space to their liking.

*Render of the Restorative Justice Room for Common Justice’s Brooklyn office, New York, 2025, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS). Image courtesy DJDS*

This project will be completed in January of 2025 and will be a critical space for showing the world how program and place strategies for restorative justice—even in the case of severe violence—can shift our way of addressing harm from the punitive to the restorative. The DJDS process and projects contribute to a growing body of knowledge of how to create architecture for care over punishment. Our community-engaged design and evaluative approach allows us to prove that these new programs and their values-aligned environments impact people's well-being and encourage their ability to resolve conflict and heal from trauma. These spaces are part of our mission to build a world without prisons and jails. We and our partners are showing the world what is possible, one space at a time.

Main image: Restore Oakland, Oakland, California, 2019, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS). Photo © Ellyce Morgan