Marion County’s Innovative RESTORE Court to Close After State Redirects Funding

Marion County, OR. — Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson has notified local justice and treatment partners that the county’s RESTORE Court must cease operations because of insufficient state funding.

The program, formally known as Restitution and Treatment on Route to Expungement, will complete services for participants currently enrolled but will not accept any new cases.

“I am truly disappointed that our State could not see the value in an operational program that sought to get offenders the treatment they need while simultaneously making victims whole and helping our community in the process,” Clarkson said in a statement. “This is exactly the type of wholistic thinking our state leaders should champion and not punish.”

RESTORE Court was developed in response to Oregon’s post–Measure 110 drug policy changes. In 2024, lawmakers recriminalized drug possession under House Bill 4002 following widespread criticism of the state’s earlier decriminalization experiment. Subsequent legislation directed the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to distribute funding to counties for deflection and diversion programs emphasizing treatment over incarceration.

Marion County already operated one of the state’s most established diversion models through its decade-old Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which has been widely cited as a national best practice. According to Clarkson, the county used new funding authorized under House Bill 3069 to expand beyond traditional LEAD eligibility and create RESTORE Court.

“When the state passed HB 4002, we were already doing deflection right — with accountability and compassion that was truly making a difference,” Clarkson said. “We wanted to take these concepts further and help even more people that were not otherwise eligible for basic deflection under LEAD. HB 3069 gave us the funding to do that, and RESTORE was created.”

RESTORE Court partnered the district attorney’s office with Marion County judges, the county health department, and the sheriff’s office. The program targeted individuals charged with property crimes such as theft, forgery, or criminal mischief who owed restitution and therefore could not participate in LEAD.

Participants entered a court-ordered diversionary probation, received treatment and wrap-around services, and worked community service hours. The value of that work was converted into restitution payments for victims. Upon successful completion of treatment and restitution, charges were dismissed and records expunged.

“This program was a win-win-win,” Clarkson said. “The offender receives the help they need through treatment and the ability to move forward without the burden of a criminal conviction. The victim is made financially whole. And the community received a benefit from real, meaningful service, usually in the form of a work crew.”

Clarkson said the program’s closure stems from a change in the Criminal Justice Commission’s funding formula, which reduced Marion County’s allocation for both LEAD and RESTORE despite documented outcomes.

“The formula now rewards counties for aspirational projections — programs that don’t yet exist — while reducing support for established, data-driven systems that are already working,” she said.

With RESTORE Court unable to continue, remaining funds will be redirected to sustain Marion County’s existing LEAD program. Clarkson said the result leaves the county effectively back where it started before the Legislature’s major drug policy overhaul.

“But to fund imaginary programs at the expense of an operational, ground-breaking, collaborative system is a missed opportunity,” she said.