HARRISONBURG, Va. — If one particular young man in Harrisonburg had stolen from his employer a few months earlier, he might have found himself standing before a judge, facing a possible jail sentence. Thanks to a new restorative justice program with the Harrisonburg Police Department, however, this young thief instead found himself facing his employer to talk about what he’d done and how he could patch things up.

“I can’t imagine a better first case,” said Josh Bacon, the facilitator who led the meeting between the two men.