Committee reviews H540 to consolidate post-adjudication restorative-justice rules

On Jan. 29 the Corrections and Institutions committee reviewed H540, a bill that reorganizes and clarifies statutory provisions governing post-adjudication restorative-justice programs, legislative counsel said.

Hillary Cheddar Raines, legislative counsel, told the committee the bill implements recommendations from the post-adjudication reparative program working group convened after 2024 Act 180 and largely moves existing statutory language into a single "one-stop" section in Title 28 while making drafting clarifications. "This bill makes a few changes that were specific statutory language recommendations from the post adjudicative, post adjudication reparative program working group," Raines said.

The bill’s central changes include moving sentencing references (now scattered in Title 13) into a consolidated Title 28 section that explains how restorative-justice referrals work; clarifying that referral may be either a standalone sentence or a condition of probation; and removing a provision that allowed referral to…