People with a history of drug use and low-level crimes are losing a path to recovery after Marion County leaders decided to close a novel court program because of an unanticipated state funding decrease.

The program, called RESTORE Court, launched more than a year ago as part of a state effort to keep people out of jail after drug possession was recriminalized in 2024. The acronym stood for Restitution and Treatment On Route to Expungement.

It was run through the Marion County District Attorney’s Office. County officials blamed the closure on changes made by lawmakers that led state funding to prioritize programs claiming to be able to serve larger numbers of people, even if those programs hadn’t yet been started.

District Attorney Paige Clarkson said the state change resulted in reduced support for existing programs while rewarding “aspirational projections.”

“It’s hard to quantify the impact of a program like … our fledgling RESTORE Court by simply counting the number of participants,” Clarkson said in a statement. “You can’t put a dollar figure on a parent who becomes stable and breaks the cycle of dependency and homelessness, or on the benefit of successfully righting a wrong. Helping even one person in these ways can make meaningful, lasting change that has a ripple effect throughout our community – not to mention the value it brings directly to victims.”

The program gave people who owed restitution as part of a criminal case the chance to work off what they owe by completing community service while undergoing substance use treatment. The money earned through service work went toward paying off their restitution.

There are nearly 30 people remaining in the program as of Friday, according to Brendan Murphy, Marion County’s chief deputy district attorney. No one has graduated from the program yet, as officials expected it to take up to two years for someone to complete RESTORE Court.

They will be able to graduate from the program as it shuts down, but nobody new can enroll.

In exchange for completing the program, prosecutors would expunge participants’ criminal charges, Salem Reporter previously reported. People who didn’t complete the program would be referred for traditional prosecution.

RESTORE Court was funded as part of a state law change that encouraged counties to start deflection programs that address underlying reasons for low-level crimes, such as addiction. 

In 2024, the county received $1.4 million to start RESTORE Court and continue its existing Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, according to a state report. That was intended to fund operations for both programs for about a year. 

Most of that funding was planned for staff from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Marion County District Attorney’s Office and the county health department, according to the initial program application.

The state Criminal Justice Commission, which oversees distributing funding for deflection programs, originally directed the county to expect the same amount of annual funding for the next cycle, according to Murphy.

County officials learned recently that they would receive just under $2 million to continue operating both programs for two years.

That was because of a 2025 law which changed how funding amounts were calculated.

The amount was not enough to sustain both programs, the Marion County District Attorney’s Office said in its statement. It will instead continue to support the more established law enforcement diversion program.

The new funding formula considers how many people are expected to join a deflection program over the funding period, according to the bill.

The commission prioritizes the estimated number more than other factors it considers, including past program enrollment and estimated number of people eligible, Ryan Keck, the commission’s interim executive director, said in an email.

Murphy, with the Marion County District Attorney’s Office, said the county will do “everything we can to honor our agreement” to graduate people from the program and expunge their charges.

The office did not say if it will push to restart RESTORE Court in the future, but Murphy said it will continue considering “creative” responses to public safety and protections for crime victims.

“Moving forward, however, we will need assurances regarding stable funding before we can invest local resources into programs designed for deflection. It isn’t fair to the participants in the program, our partners, nor our hard-working staff to have funding shift so soon after beginning the program,” Murphy said in an email.

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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