Community court

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In several countries including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Africa, a community court is a neighborhood-focused problem-solving court that applies a problem-solving approach [1] to local crime and safety concerns. [2] Community courts can take many forms, but all strive to create new relationships, both within the justice system and with outside stakeholders such as residents, merchants, churches and schools. Community courts emphasize collaboration, crime prevention, and improved outcomes, including lower recidivism and safer communities. Community courts are also sometimes referred to as community or neighborhood justice centers.

Contents

In Australia, a community court is the name given to Indigenous court proceedings conducted in the Magistrates Court of the Northern Territory.

Principles

According to the Center for Court Innovation, community courts are animated by six key principles. [3] They are:

Research

By the end of 2010, there had been at least 19 separate evaluations conducted of community courts in the U.S., including 11 impact studies, nine process evaluations, and three cost-benefit analyses. [4] A 2012 evaluation of the District of Columbia Superior Court's East of the River Community Court found that the program brought down rates of re-offending among misdemeanor defendants. [5]

United States

Midtown Community Court

The first community court in the United States was the Midtown Community Court, launched in 1993 in New York City. [6] The court, which serves the Times Square neighborhood of Manhattan, targets quality-of-life offenses, such as prostitution, illegal vending, graffiti, shoplifting, farebeating, and vandalism. [7]

Operated as a public/private partnership among the New York State Unified Court System, New York City, and the Center for Court Innovation [8] the court initially opened as a three-year demonstration project, designed to test the ability of criminal courts to forge closer links with the community and develop a collaborative problem-solving approach to quality-of-life offenses.

The Midtown Court experiment was born of a profound frustration with the conventional response to quality-of-life crime. Supporters of the initiative, which included justice system innovators, business leaders and neighborhood residents, felt that the justice system did not take community concerns seriously. They also felt that a court could use its leverage to more effectively address the causes and conditions that contribute to crime.

Court planners sited the new court in a renovated 1896 building. The building featured clean, bright holding rooms secured with glass panels rather than bars, a pointed contrast to the typical holding pens. The new courthouse also included a full floor of office space for social workers to assist offenders. And the building was wired for an innovative computer system that would allow the judge, attorneys and social service workers to keep in touch with each other and quickly access a defendant's full record.

Offenders at the Midtown Community Court are sentenced to pay back the community through work projects in the neighborhood—caring for street trees, getting rid of graffiti, cleaning subway stations and sorting recycled cans and bottles. At the same time, wherever possible, the court uses its legal leverage to link offenders with social services—drug treatment, health care, education—to help them address their problems. In these ways, the Midtown Community Court seeks to stem the chronic offending that demoralizes law-abiding residents. [9]

Research conducted by the National Center for State Courts on the implementation and early effects of the Midtown Community Court over its first 18 months found that the project achieved its key operational objectives: to provide speedier justice; to make justice visible in the community where crimes take place; to encourage enforcement of low-level crime; to marshal the energy of local residents, organizations and businesses to collaborate on developing community service and social service projects; and to demonstrate that communities are victimized by quality-of-life offenses. [10]

The researchers also credited the Midtown Court with changing conventional sentencing practices for low-level offenses, which were typically either sentences of "time served" (i.e., the time spent in jail between arrest and appearing in court) or short-term jail (a month or less). Sentencing at the Midtown Court produced significantly more intermediate sanctions than the city's conventional arraignment court. Intermediate sanctions included immediate assignment to community restitution projects (with offenders often beginning their sentences within 24 hours of their arraignments) to mandatory participation in social services, such as drug treatment or job training.

In addition, the researchers found "substantial evidence" that the Midtown Court contributed to improvements in quality-of-life conditions in Times Square and surrounding neighborhoods. Together, ethnographic observations of local crime and safety "hot spots," interviews with offenders, analysis of arrest data, focus group interviews and interviews with local police, community leaders and residents pointed to substantial reductions in concentrations of prostitution and unlicensed vending. Arrests for prostitution in the Midtown neighborhood dropped by 56 percent over the first 18 months and arrests for unlicensed vending fell by 24 percent, reflecting a visible reduction in criminal activity on the streets. Community members also reported a marked reduction in graffiti along Ninth Avenue, the commercial strip that serves the residential community.

By 1997, the Court was arraigning an average of 65 cases per day for an annual total of over 16,000 cases. This volume made the Midtown Court one of the busiest arraignment courts in the city. In addition, sentenced offenders were performing the equivalent of $175,000 worth of community restitution work per year. The Midtown Court's emphasis on immediacy—offenders must report to the Court's community service or social service center immediately after sentencing—also improved compliance rates. Nearly 75 percent complete their community restitution sentences as mandated, the highest rate in the city.

Replication of the community court model

Over 30 community courts, inspired by the model of the Midtown Community Court, [11] are in operation or planning around the U.S. Although different in many ways, the various U.S. community courts all strive to create new relationships, both within the justice system and with outside stakeholders, such as residents, merchants, churches and schools. They also test new and aggressive approaches to public safety.

Community courts in the United States include: Downtown San Diego Community Court Project (opened in October 2002); Denver Community Court (opened in September 2003); Hartford Community Court (opened in November 1998); Waterbury (Connecticut) Community Court, opened in October 2000; Washington, D.C. – East of the River Community Court; Washington, D.C. – Traffic and Misdemeanor Community Court (opened in January 2002); West Palm Beach (Florida) Community Court, opened in August 1999; Westgate Community Justice Center in Palm Beach County, Florida (opened in May 2006); Atlanta Community Court (opened in March 2000); Indianapolis Community Court (opened in April 2001); Dakota County, Minnesota, Community Court (opened in October 2002); Minneapolis – Hennepin County Community Court (opened in June 1999); St. Paul (Minnesota) Community Court (opened in 2000); Babylon (New York) Community Court, (opened in September 2006); Harlem Community Justice Center (opened in May 2001); Hempstead (New York) Community Court (opened in June 1999); Red Hook ( Brooklyn, New York) Community Justice Center (opened in April 2000); Syracuse (New York) Community Court (opened in July 2001); Gresham (Oregon) Community Court (opened in March 1998); Westside Community Court in Portland, Oregon (opened in April 2001); Overland Park Community Court in Clackamas County, Oregon (opened in January 2005); Philadelphia Community Court (opened in February 2002); Frayser Community Court in Memphis, Tennessee (opened in February 2000); Whitehaven Community Court in Memphis, Tennessee (opened in September 2002); Downtown Austin Community Court (opened in October 1999); South Dallas/Fair Park Community Court (opened in October 2004); West Dallas Community Court (opened November 2008); San Antonio Community Court (opened in May 2006); Seattle Community Court (opened in March 2005).

USA Today reported in 2008 that interest in community courts was growing, citing new courts in the works in Newark, N.J., among other cities. [12]

Interest in the American community court model has increased abroad. [13] A report by the Open Society Institute issued in 2008 found that by the end of 2007, 52 community courts were operational around the globe. The report said an additional 27 new courts were slated to open in coming years. [14]

United Kingdom

Based on the success of pilot community court projects in North Liverpool and Salford, in 2006 the British government announced plans to create 11 new community courts, all of which were up and running by early 2008. [15]

South Africa

Seventeen community court projects are in operation in South Africa.[ when? ] (In South Africa, the term "community court" also refers to a form of tribunal also known as Courts for Chiefs and Headmen; in these courts, an authorised African headman or his deputy may decide cases using indigenous law and custom, brought before him by an African against another African within his area of jurisdiction.) The Downtown Community Court opened in Vancouver, Canada, in 2008. [16] The court addresses the Downtown Eastside neighborhood. The court seeks both to reduce the harm caused to the community by crime and use collaborative case management to help offenders make long-term changes to their behavior. However, Laura Track, a lawyer and housing campaigner for Vancouver's Pivot Society, says there's a legal log jam ahead unless the government invests millions more in housing and treatment programs. This new court is presided over by Justice Thomas Gove. [17]

A community court project is also being planned for Glasgow, Scotland. [18]

Australia

In Australia, the term "community court" was used in Western Australia and Northern Territory to refer to a type of court that is designed to be culturally competent for Indigenous Australians; however As of July 2022 both of these, the Aboriginal Community Court in WA (2006–2015), [19] and the Community Courts in the NT (2005–2012), are no longer operational. [20] [21]

Equivalents in other states have been the Nunga Court in South Australia (the oldest of its type, established 1999); [22] Koori Court, in Victoria (2002–present); Murri Court, in Queensland (2002-2012, 2016–present); and Youth Koori Court in New South Wales.

See also

Related Research Articles

Restorative justice Restitution with input from victims and offenders

Restorative justice is an approach to justice where one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community. The goal is for them to share their experience of what happened, to discuss who was harmed by the crime and how, and to create a consensus for what the offender can do to repair the harm from the offense. This may include a payment of money given from the offender to the victim, apologies and other amends, and other actions to compensate those affected and to prevent the offender from causing future harm.

Drug courts are judicially supervised court dockets that provide a sentencing alternative of treatment combined with supervision for people living with serious substance use. Drug courts are problem-solving courts that take a public health approach using a specialized model in which the judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, probation, law enforcement, mental health, social service, and treatment communities work together to help addicted offenders into long-term recovery.

New York City Criminal Court Court for misdemeanors, arraignments, and preliminary hearings

The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors and lesser offenses, and also conducts arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony cases.

A Koori Court is a separate division of the Magistrates', County and Children's Courts of Victoria, Australia. The Koori Court (Magistrates), Children's Koori Court, and County Koori Court hear selected cases, where Indigenous Australians have identified as such and requested the case be transferred to it. The first Koori Court was established in Shepparton in 2002. Koori Court aims to reduce recidivism by involving Elders, other respected persons in the Aboriginal community, and court advisors to provide information about the background of the defendant, and to advise on culturally appropriate sentences.

Mental health courts link offenders who would ordinarily be prison-bound to long-term community-based treatment. They rely on mental health assessments, individualized treatment plans, and ongoing judicial monitoring to address both the mental health needs of offenders and public safety concerns of communities. Like other problem-solving courts such as drug courts, domestic violence courts, and community courts, mental health courts seek to address the underlying problems that contribute to criminal behavior.

The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), also known as NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, is an agency of the Department of Communities and Justice responsible for research into crime and criminal justice and evaluation of the initiatives designed to reduce crime and reoffending in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Local Court of the Northern Territory

The Local Court of the Northern Territory is one of two levels of court in the Northern Territory of Australia. It has jurisdiction in civil disputes up to A$250,000, and in criminal cases in the trial of summary offences, and also deals with preliminary matters for indictable offences which are then heard by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. There are local courts held in Darwin, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and some "bush courts" in remote locations.

The New South Wales Sentencing Council is an advisory body established by the New South Wales Government to provide guidelines and to promote consistency in sentencing of offenders in New South Wales, a state of Australia. The council provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General of New South Wales on issues relating to sentencing, parole periods for sentences, trends, and the operation of parole. The council aims to promote consistency and transparency in sentencing and promoting public understanding of the sentencing process. The Sentencing Council consists of members appointed by the attorney general. Those members are made up from a diverse background to better represent the views of the community. They include retired judges, law enforcement officers, defence lawyers, indigenous community members and persons associated with victims of crime.

A diversion program, also known as a pretrial diversion program or pretrial intervention program, in the criminal justice system is a form of pretrial sentencing that helps remedy behavior leading to the arrest. Administered by the judicial or law enforcement systems, they often allow the offender to avoid conviction, and include a rehabilitation program to avoid future criminal acts. Availability and the operation of such systems differ in different countries.

Aboriginal Community Court, or Aboriginal court was the name given to the specialised courts dealing with Indigenous Australian offenders in the state of Western Australia between 2006 and 2015.

Center for Court Innovation

The Center for Court Innovation is an American non-profit organization headquartered in New York, founded in 1996, with a stated goal of creating a more effective and human justice system by offering aid to victims, reducing crime, and improving public trust in justice.

Midtown Community Court New York City court for quality-of-life offenses

The Midtown Community Court is a part of the New York City Criminal Court that focuses on quality-of-life offenses, such as prostitution, shoplifting, farebeating and vandalism, with a view toward rehabilitation instead of punishment. For example, judges may order offenders to perform community service and refer them to such social services as drug treatment, mental health counseling, and job training.

Specialized domestic violence courts are designed to improve victim safety and enhance defendant accountability. They emerged as a problem-solving court in the 1980s and 1990s in response to frustration among victim advocates, judges and attorneys who saw the same litigants cycling through the justice system again and again.

Indigenous Australians are both convicted of crimes and imprisoned at a disproportionately higher rate in Australia, as well as being over-represented as victims of crime. As of September 2019, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 2% of the general adult population. Various explanations have been given for this over-representation, both historical and more recent. Federal and state governments and Indigenous groups have responded with various analyses, programs and measures.

Problem-solving courts (PSC) address the underlying problems that contribute to criminal behavior and are a current trend in the legal system of the United States. In 1989, a judge in Miami began to take a hands-on approach to drug addicts, ordering them into treatment, rather than perpetuating the revolving door of court and prison. The result was creation of drug court, a diversion program. That same concept began to be applied to difficult situations where legal, social and human problems mesh. There were over 2,800 problem-solving courts in 2008, intended to provide a method of resolving the problem in order to reduce recidivism.

Incarceration prevention in the United States Methods to reduce prison populations in America

Incarceration prevention refers to a variety of methods aimed at reducing prison populations and costs while fostering enhanced social structures. Due to the nature of incarceration in the United States today caused by issues leading to increased incarceration rates, there are methods aimed at preventing the incarceration of at-risk populations.

The Youth Koori Court (YKC) is a court tailored to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who engage with the criminal justice system in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It operates out of the Children's Court of New South Wales. The first such court was established in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta in 2015, with another created in Surry Hills to serve the city of Sydney in early 2019, and the first regional YKC established in Dubbo in 2022. The YKC involves older members of the Aboriginal community to help the youths to engage with their culture, among other measures.

Criminal sentencing in Canada is governed by the Canadian Criminal Code. The Criminal Code, along with the Supreme Court of Canada, have distinguished the treatment of Indigenous individuals within the Canadian Criminal Sentencing Regime.

Murri Courts are a type of specialist community court for sentencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland, Australia. The first Murri Court was established in Brisbane in August 2002, with more being established throughout the state over the next 10 years, catering for both adult and young offenders, under the Magistrates and Children's Court networks. After being closed down by the government in September 2012 as a cost-cutting exercise, they were reopened in April 2016 under the new Palaszczuk government. As of July 2022 there are Murri Courts in 15 locations throughout Queensland.

The Nunga Court, also known as Aboriginal Sentencing Court, is a type of specialist community court for sentencing Aboriginal people in South Australia. Such courts exist at several locations throughout the state, as a sentencing option for eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders who plead guilty of an offence.

References

  1. ↑ "Principles of Problem-Solving Justice" (PDF). Center for Court Innovation.
  2. ↑ "Community Court | Center for Court Innovation". Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  3. ↑ "Community Court Principles: A Guide for Planners" (PDF). Center for Court Innovation.
  4. ↑ "Community Court: The Research Literature: A Review of Findings" (PDF). Center for Court Innovation.
  5. ↑ "East of the River Community Court Evaluation: Final Report" (PDF). Westat.
  6. ↑ "Midtown Community Court | Center for Court Innovation". Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  7. ↑ "Neighborhood Justice at the Midtown Community Court". National Institute of Justice.
  8. ↑ Center for Court Innovation | Research. Development. Justice. Reform
  9. ↑ For an overview of how the court works, see "How It Works: A Summary of Case Flow and Interventions at the Midtown Community Court" (PDF). Center for Court Innovation.
  10. ↑ Dispensing Justice Locally: The Implementation and Effects of the Midtown Community Court. Routledge. ISBN   9057026147.
  11. ↑ "Community Courts: An Evolving Model" (PDF). U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance.
  12. ↑ Leinwand, Donna (9 June 2008). "Alternative courts gain ground for petty criminals". USA Today. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  13. ↑ "Community Justice Around the Globe: An International Overview" (PDF). Crime & Justice International.
  14. ↑ For a comprehensive overview of community courts around the world, see "Community Courts Across the Globe: A Survey of Goals, Performance Measures and Operations" (PDF). Criminal Justice Initiative of Open Society Foundation for South Africa. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 April 2011.
  15. ↑ For more information about community courts in Great Britain, see the British government's official web site at "Home". Archived from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  16. ↑ For more information about the Vancouver Community Justice Centre, see http://www.criminaljusticereform.gov.bc.ca/en/justice_reform_projects/community_court/index.html
  17. ↑ "Community court first of its kind in Canada". CTV News. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
  18. ↑ The Journal Online : Community court plans for Glasgow
  19. ↑ "First Nations Specialist Courts" (PDF). Briefing Paper. Law Society of Western Australia. August 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  20. ↑ "'One of the missing links': Indigenous law courts to come back to NT". NITV . 12 September 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  21. ↑ Anthony, Thalia; Crawford, Will (2013–2014). "Northern Territory Indigenous community sentencing mechanisms: an order for substantive equality" (PDF). Australian Indigenous Law Review . 17 (2): 79–99. Retrieved 25 July 2022– via Austlii.
  22. ↑ "Nunga Court Bench Book". CAA. 26 April 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.

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