Guyana expands restorative justice program to more courts
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The government of Guyana is expanding its Restorative Justice Programme to increase its national reach and improve how the country handles local disputes.
Attorney General Mohabir Anil Nandlall and the Judiciary plan to expand the number of operational centers to 11 by the end of 2026. This expansion aims to increase the program's coverage from 34 to 49 of the country's 53 courts.
The initiative focuses on reconciliation and accountability to repair relationships between victims and offenders, which the government says can reduce the burden on the court system. Madame Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire, the Chancellor of the Judiciary, stated that the judiciary wants to promote victim satisfaction and reduce reoffending by using mediation and negotiation. The government also intends to bring these practices into schools and religious institutions to address the root causes of conflict before they become serious problems.
To support this, the program is aligning its services with the Probation Department to use existing infrastructure across the country. William Orrin Boston, the Director of the Restorative Justice Centre, reported that the program saw a high resolution rate for cases referred by magistrates. In 2026, the center handled 204 referrals with an 85 per cent resolution rate. The program is currently developing a digital Restorative Impact Hub to track case outcomes and offender accountability.
This move comes as the country faces an estimated 5,000 outstanding cases that the initiative is designed to handle.
