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From left, director Martha McLafferty and program coordinator Erin Masury work at their desks while volunteer Kitty O’Hara, of Woodstock, Vt., leads a weekly art class with William Britton and Jonney Reisinger, both of White River Junction, Vt., at Hartford Community Restorative Justice Center in White River Junction on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. Both Britton and Reisinger live in housing owned by HCRJC and have relied on the center to connect with employment and community. “I’d be lost without the restorative justice center,” Britton said. “They’re like family to me.” (Valley News – Alex Driehaus) -
Thomas Durham, program facilitator for Circles of Peace, takes a video call in a soundproof phone booth at Hartford Community Restorative Justice Center in White River Junction, Vt., on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. The phone booth allows employees and visitors to make private calls when other meetings or activities are going on in the space. “We’re all pretty reasonable and flexible,” director Martha McLafferty said. “Sometimes it’s even quiet.” (Valley News – Alex Driehaus) -
A house owned by the Hartford Community Restorative Justice Center is tucked between Upper Valley Auto Mart and Junction Fiber Mill on Maple Street in White River Junction, Vt., on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. HCRJC has submitted a proposal to the Hartford Planning Commission to renovate a large barn attached to the three-unit residence, adding two more residential units and a community meeting space. (Valley News – Alex Driehaus)
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Office desks double as meeting spaces and coffee tables. It’s a trek to the restrooms. An enclosed booth with a glass door is about the only place available to carry on sensitive phone conversations.
At the Hartford Community Restorative Justice Center, or HRJC, in downtown White River Junction, square footage is in shorter supply than success stories.
“It’s difficult to find space for healing when you can’t find a place to sit,” said Thomas Durham, HRJC’s program facilitator.
Last year, the nonprofit served 110 individuals— people impacted by harm, people who caused harm, and a wider community seeking healing outside the bounds of the traditional criminal justice system.
“Our goal is to bypass the incredibly long, incredibly expensive process of standardized criminal justice and courts, and make healing accessible,” Durham said. “Our goal is to actually help people.”
Vermont’s 17 community justice centers “share a belief in the importance and efficacy of restorative responses to conflict and crime as an alternative to traditional criminal prosecution, punishment, and retribution,” states the website for the Vermont Community Justice Network, the centers’ umbrella organization.
Space constraints, however, can make it more challenging for Hartford’s restorative justice program, which was founded in 2003. “We’re working shoulder to shoulder— literally,” said Martha McLafferty, HRJC’s director.
The center’s six staff members are tucked into a cramped 400-square-foot office on North Main Street.
But that may soon change.
On Monday, the Hartford Planning Commission will take up HRJC’s application to renovate a building that it purchased in 2022 with expansion of its programs in mind. The house, built in 1880, sits on Maple Street across from Hartford Town Hall.
The proposed project calls for converting the ground floor of an attached barn-garage into a “community meeting space,” according to paperwork filed with the town. HRJC staff and volunteers will use the space for individual and group meetings with people the center serves.
The second floor will be made into two affordable one-bedroom apartments for people just coming out of prison that the center works with and are in need of transitional housing.
The house already has three apartments whose tenants are supervised by HRJC staff.
HRJC purchased the Maple Street property for $260,000, borrowing money from the Vermont Community Loan Fund. This year, the town has the property assessed for $337,900.
It’s estimated the renovation will cost almost $300,000 and is expected to take about a year. HRJC is planning to launch a capitol campaign to help pay for the renovations and close out the mortgage, said Kevin O’Hara, the board chairman. Donations from individuals and foundations are also being used to fund the renovations.
One reason that HRJC was drawn to the property was its prime location on the Advance Transit bus line. On average, 80% of HRJC’s transitional housing tenants “do not have vehicles and use public transportation,” the organization wrote in its application to the Planning Commission. “There is a bus stop in front of our building.”
The property’s previous owners, William and Phyllis Shambo, have been “very supportive of the restorative justice program,” O’Hara said. “They really went the distance to sell it to us rather than other potential developers in the area.”
Norwich architect Christopher Smith volunteered to design the renovation project. Civil engineer Jonathan Rugg, of Hartford, also donated his services. “The support we’ve received to get the project off the ground has been extraordinary,” said O’Hara, a Hartford builder.
Under the restorative justice model, offenders meet with people who were directly affected by their crimes. The process aims to “build understanding, encourage accountability, and provide an opportunity to make things right when harm has happened,” according to the Vermont Community Justice Network’s website.
By taking responsibility and successfully completing the program, an offender has an opportunity to avoid getting saddled with a criminal record. HRJC works with adults and juveniles.
Restorative justice supporters point to lower recidivism rates, higher satisfaction among victims, health and empowerment among offenders, and significant cost savings.
A recent study conducted through Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business found HRJC’s transitional housing program operates at roughly one-third the cost of “traditional incarceration.”
Moving people out of costly prison settings and into HRJC’s transitional housing resulted in a savings of nearly $900,000 to Vermont taxpayers last year, according to the analysis done by Marina Shtyrkov, a 2025 Tuck graduate who served as a fellow on HRJC’s board.
The benefits of transitional housing aren’t just financial. People coming out of prison tend to “either end up in halfway houses, homeless or back in jail,” Jonathan Tuthill, HRJC’s assistant director, said.
With two additional apartments and space suitable for group “circle” meetings, HRJC will be in a better position to help more formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet, Tuthill said.
And when Tuthill and the rest of the HRJC staff needs to talk with them it won’t have to be from a cramped office’s phone booth.
Monday’s Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 171 Bridge Street, White River Junction. A remote participation option is available via Microsoft Teams. The link is online at: hartford-vt.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07142025-3002.
Bianca Nusca-Dagon can be reached at biancagnd14@gmail.com.