Institute For The Future

  • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • IFTF Vantage Partnership
    • IFTF Foresight Essentials
    • Forecasts
    • Workshops
    • Maps
    • Artifacts from the Future
    • Events
    • In the News
    • Media Center
    • Gallery
    • History of the Future
  • Our Work
    • Featured Projects
    • Global Landscape
    • People + Technology
    • Health + Self
  • Partner with IFTF
    • IFTF Vantage
    • IFTF Foresight Essentials
    • Research Labs
    • Partners
    • Jobs
    • Donate
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Future Now
  • Donate
Medium Facebook Twitter RSS
  • Global Landscape
  • People + Technology
  • Health + Self

The Restorative Justice City

  • Featured Projects
  • Global Landscape

    • Ten-Year Forecast

    • Food Futures

    • Work + Learn Futures

    • Workable Futures

    • Cities Futures

    • Governance Futures

    • Inclusive Futures

    • Socialstructing

    • Sustainability

  • People + Technology

    • Smithsonian Futures Beacons

    • Tech Futures

    • Work + Learn Futures

    • Workable Futures

    • Games

  • Health + Self

    • After the Pandemic

    • Centering Health

    • Health Futures

    • Health Care

    • Health Games

    • Aging

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT IFTF?

Contact us today »

Future NOW Blog

Identify Your Assets and Gaps: A Foresight Tool for Action

Oct 14, 2022

IFTF News from the Future #80

Oct 06, 2022

IFTF Equitable Enterprise Newsletter | September

Sep 28, 2022

Sparking a Sense of Hope & Agency

Sep 19, 2022

IFTF News from the Future #79

Sep 08, 2022

Browse all blog posts »

The Restorative Justice City

From Punitive to Restorative Justice

[Featured in the Urban Institute report, Exploring the Ways Arts and Culture Intersect with Public Safety]

Prisons and the criminal economy offer the same purpose: they absorb marginalized people who are systematically left out of the mainstream and the legitimate economy. They absorb the excess human capacity that traditional institutions including schools and employers can’t, or won’t. While prisons turn humans into “idle assets,” the criminal economy turns them into productive members, for better or for worse.

The Restorative Justice City mapThrough a complex ecosystem, today’s criminal justice system makes it near impossible for up to 7 million Americans to access the legitimate economy, systematically trapping more and more people inside prisons and the criminal economy.

2015 has been a landmark year for exposing the cracks in America’s criminal justice system and starting the conversation about reform. The deaths of unarmed men Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Ezell Ford at the hands of police sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and put a global spotlight on the inequality pervasive in America’s policing and prison system.

But where do we go from here? How do we push forward towards real change in our criminal justice system?

While some transformation is underway, we lack a systematic approach that links piecemeal innovations into a coherent process of positive transformation. The Restorative Justice City map is an attempt to reimagine the urban landscape through a restorative lens, bringing people out of prisons and the criminal economy, into productive and useful work in the service of their own communities. If executed well, we’ll unlock critical untapped human potential needed to rebuild our many blighted urban communities.

What would it take to transform your city’s criminal justice system?

Join us to reimagine and rebuild your criminal justice system through participatory and inclusive approaches that begin by simply asking, what is possible?

Download the Map

  • PDF of full map
  • JPG of mapface only

Related Research

  • The End of Prisons
  • TYF 2015—The Seven-Economy Future

More Information

For more information about this research:

  • CONTACT: Tessa Finlev | [email protected]
  • CONTACT: Deanna Van Buren | [email protected]
  • FOLLOW: #RJCity + @IFTF
  • Institute for the Future

  • 201 Hamilton Avenue
  • Palo Alto, CA 94301
  • 650.854.6322
  • [email protected]

  • © 2023 Institute for the Future

    What We Do

  • Who We Are
  • IFTF Vantage Partnership
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Forecasts
  • Workshops
  • Maps
  • Artifacts from the Future
  • Events
  • In the News
  • Media Center
  • Gallery
  • History of the Future

    Our Work

  • Featured Projects
  • Global Landscape
  • People + Technology
  • Health + Self

    Partner with IFTF

  • IFTF Vantage
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Research Labs
  • Partners
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

    Future Now

    Donate