Shailly Agnihotri, Esq.

Founder & Executive Director

Shailly founded The Restorative Center (TRC) in Newburgh, New York. TRC is a nonprofit promoting Restorative Justice and is foundational home of the Restorative Justice Clemency and Parole Project. Shailly has the unique expertise to lead this initiative: in addition to her restorative justice work she has over 20 years of professional experience in criminal justice and law. Shailly was a prosecutor in Louisiana Orleans Parish, taught at Georgetown Law School, and was a public defender in New York City. She had the privilege of studying as a Prettyman Fellow with Professor William Greenhalgh whose love for the Constitution and the rights it affords the accused inspired her legal career. She has a J.D. (cum laude) from Tulane Law School and a LL.M. (Prettyman Fellowship) from Georgetown Law, and is a trained facilitator in Restorative Practices and a Certified Mediator.

Shailly has come to understand the power for individuals and communities to come to a deeper emergent wisdom of justice through facilitated Restorative Justice circles. Shailly has presented at conferences around the world on this independent free-standing model for Restorative Justice. She has lead trainings in TRC's distinct model of Restorative Justice for community members, teens, social workers and attorneys. Shailly has facilitated hundreds of Restorative Justice circles in schools, community centers, and workplaces.

Jose Pineda

RJCP Project Lead - New York

Restorative ReEntry Circle Director

Jose Pineda earned his Bachelor’s degree from Bard College, where he majored in Social Studies and penned an interdisciplinary senior thesis that unpacks the significance of confederate monuments as platforms for storytelling. His research at the intersection of history, memory, and narratology was followed by an education in Urban Ministry, in which he earned a Master’s degree from New York Theological Seminary. It was there that he learned about restorative justice, and first began questioning the primacy of restorative practices centered on victim/offender reconciliation.

Since his release from prison in 2020, after 21 years, Jose has worked with The Restorative Center to develop the Restorative Justice Clemency and Parole Project, a community-centered platform for restorative justice on the back end of the criminal legal system. Jose is also a Circle Keeper with The RJCP Project.

Jose’s reform advocacy is also paired with a commitment to mitigating the effects of incarceration on financial inclusion through his work with the non-profit finEQUITY. There, he draws upon his lived experience to assist formerly incarcerated people achieve the freedom they dreamed about in prison.

Leslie Barbaro

Leslie worked as a newspaper photojournalist for many years, graduated from the University of Delaware and has a masters in Visual Communication from Ohio University. She is now self-employed, photographing for a variety of editorial, commercial and non-profit clients. She is new to Restorative Justice and happy to be helping support The Restorative Center and The RJCP Project.

Amy Dallas, Esq.

Project Director

Amy is an experienced criminal defense attorney with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, New York. Through her work as a public defender, she has amassed a deep understanding of the challenges faced by those impacted by the criminal justice system, including the devastating ripple effect felt by families and communities. Amy truly believes Restorative Justice work is key to bridging perspectives, supporting community (re)building, and forging more positive paths forward.

Amy is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and Eastern Michigan University Honors College where she obtained her Bachelors in Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Amy also served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Moldova, where she focused on community development, women’s rights, and diversity and inclusion initiatives within the government organization as well as within the host community.

A mother of two daughters, a writer, and a nature lover, Amy is most intrigued by exploring conflict and (re)connection.

Jennifer Cameron

Volunteer and Extern Coordinator

Jennifer is the wife of a wrongly convicted man who has served over 18 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Jennifer is the wife of a wrongly convicted man who has served over 18 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary. She has known this man since kindergarten and reconnected with him a little over five years ago. She is assisting him with his post-conviction claims and advocating for his release from his Life without Parole sentence.

Jennifer is a law student at Southern University Law Center, who holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Louisiana State University. She is a Juris Doctorate Candidate in May 2021 and hopes to use her experience in post-conviction work and knowledge of the prison system in Louisiana to help grow the RJCP Project in Louisiana.

Jennifer has been actively working in Criminal Justice Reform since reconnecting with her husband. She has had a part in lobbying the Louisiana Legislature to allow parole eligibility for those serving life sentences in Louisiana. Currently, Louisiana is the only state in the nation that has automatic life sentences, with no judge’s discretion for mitigating circumstances, for multiple crimes.

Jennifer holds three blackbelts in Shotokan, Taekwondo, and Tang Soo Do. The last of which she is most proud of as she earned it after having her two children. Jennifer is the mother of two boys who are her greatest achievements and her biggest supporters in her endeavors at school as well as for social justice and criminal reform.

Nirmala Nataraj

Nirmala Nataraj is a New York–based writer, editor, book midwife, theater artist, and mythmaker. Her work lives at the crossroads of creativity, mythology, storytelling, and collective liberation. As a multi-genre collaborator and creative facilitator, she believes in generative solutions in the midst of chaos, the coexistence of messiness and magic, and breathtaking beauty as a natural consequence of this wild ride. She is trained in a variety of methods of narrative-based collective healing, including Family Constellations, Psychodrama, Playback Theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed. Find out more about Nirmala at nirmalanataraj.com.

Keith J. Morse

RJCP Project Lead - Louisiana

Keith J. Morse is a formerly incarcerated individual who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 1994, and served 27 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. He was granted a pardon by the Governor of Louisiana in August of 2020 and was released in December of that same year. On his road to redemption Keith earned a Bachelor's Degree in Christian Ministry, with a minor in Pastoral Care from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Keith is the co-founder of the B.E.L.O.V.E.D. Community for Restorative Justice (Bridge to Enhance of The Lives of Victims and Offenders through Education and Dialogue) and also the author of "Finding Higher Ground: A Spiritual Guide for Incarcerated Men." He has acquired several certifications licenses from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry and a telecommunication certification from C-Tech. Keith works tirelessly on the side of several reform groups in Louisiana and desperately desires to be an agent of change within his community.

Lina Neidhart

Lina Neidhardt is an intern at The Restorative Center. She is committed to parole justice advocacy and works with people serving life sentences in New York State to help them prepare for parole hearings. She also provides system navigation services to former applicants who face homelessness in New York City. As an undergraduate, Lina received her B.A. in Classics from Reed College. She is thrilled to join the team at TRC to help promote substantive alternatives to incarceration and carceral institutions.

Elyse Frenchman

Elyse Frenchman is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She’s worked on Emmy and Peabody Award winning films including, King in the Wilderness, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, and The Soul of America. Storytelling’s power to connect people and cultivate new understanding is what drew Elyse to documentary filmmaking—and she sees this same power in restorative justice. Along with filmmaking, she’s also been an advocate for justice in the criminal legal system, advocating for men and women seeking parole and teaching re-entry classes in NYC jails. She is excited to be a part of RJCP.

Nicholas Agnihotri Burka

Nicholas Agnihotri Burka is a creative technologist, student of the Restorative Center, and practicing musician. He enjoys movement and has been listening to Tell Him performed by Esperanza Spalding in the morning to keep conscious of love.