What is a community court? It can take many forms, but at its core, a community court is about partnership and problem-solving. It's about creating new relationships, both within the justice system and with outside stakeholders such as residents, merchants, churches and schools. And it's about testing new and aggressive approaches to public safety rather than merely responding to crime after it has occurred.
Here are six principles, derived from the experience of the Midtown Community Court, to keep in mind as you plan a community court:
Restoring the Community
Recognize that communities are victims, too.
Quality-of-life crime damages communities, often more so than individuals. If left unaddressed, low-level offenses erode communal order, leading to disinvestment and neighborhood decay and creating an atmosphere where more serious crime can flourish. A community court acknowledges this reality.
Use punishment to pay back the community.
Standard sentences—jail, fines, probation—may punish offenders, but they do little to restore the damage caused by crime. A community court requires offenders to compensate neighborhoods through community service.
Combine punishment with help.
Encouraging offenders to deal with their individual problems honors a community's ethical obligation to people who break its laws because they have lost control of their lives. Social service programs also have practical crime control value as they can permanently alter the behavior of chronic offenders.
Give the community a voice in shaping restorative sanctions.
A community court can open a dialogue with its neighbors, enlisting them in the effort to develop appropriate community service projects. A community advisory board can offer residents an institutionalized mechanism for interacting with the judge and court administrators.
Make social services at the court open to residents.
Defendants are not the only ones in a community who could benefit from educational, job training and counseling programs. A community court can be a resource for anybody who needs assistance, opening its doors for Alcoholics Anonymous groups or English-as-a-second-language classes, for example.
Bridging the Gap Between Communities and Courts
Make justice visible.
A community court puts offenders to work in places where neighbors can see what they are doing, outfitting them in ways that identify them as offenders performing community service. The court also publicizes its social service and treatment success stories. These efforts give community residents and organizations visible and tangible evidence that the criminal justice system is accountable to the community.
Make justice accessible.
A community court welcomes observers and visitors. Calendars and other information about activities in the courtroom are available to the public on computer terminals in the lobby. The courthouse staff is prepared to answer questions and give tours. Community members are thus able to directly see justice in action.
Make justice proactive.
Court administrators monitor crime conditions in the community and look for opportunities to involve the community in addressing crime-related problems as they develop. Mediators attempt to solve simmering community disputes before they erupt into criminal matters.
Reach out to victims.
A community court can be a safe haven for victims, offering them both assistance and a voice in the criminal justice process. Because it is based in the neighborhood where victims live, a community court may be able to provide access to services quicker and in a less intimidating setting than larger, centralized courts.
Knitting Together A Fractured Criminal Justice System
Use the authority of the court to link criminal justice agencies.
Too often, criminal justice agencies work in isolation, moving cases from street to court to cell and back again without communicating with one another or taking the time to problem-solve. Because of its role as a central hub in the justice process, a community court can play an important coordinating function.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Courts cannot be expected to solve difficult neighborhood problems by themselves. As courts look to play a more aggressive role in addressing complicated issues like quality-of-life crime, they must also look for new partners. Social service providers—both non-profits and government agencies—can bring valuable expertise to the table, including counseling, job training, drug treatment and mediation skills.
Make social service providers and criminal justice professionals work together.
Judges in a community courthouse can consult with treatment professionals on individual cases. Police can alert counselors to defendants who may be open to receiving help. Clerks can help link individual victims to assistance. Physical proximity makes possible closer and more coordinated working relationships.
Explore crossing jurisdictional lines.
The problems faced by citizens often do not conform to the narrow jurisdictional boundaries imposed by modern court systems. Criminal defendants may also be involved in a landlord-tenant dispute or a small claims matter. Handling all of these cases in the same place may enhance the court's ability to address a defendant's underlying problems.
Helping Offenders Deal with Problems that Lead to Crime
Put problems first.
Beyond focusing on case processing and punishment, a community court looks for ways that sentences can help defendants change their lives. Drug treatment, medical services, educational programs, and counseling all can be incorporated into sentences.
Use the court as a gateway to treatment.
The crisis of arrest may prompt a defendant to seek help. A court can use its coercive power to reinforce that impulse.
Remain involved beyond disposition of the immediate case.
The judge can monitor offenders' experiences in treatment, using the court's authority to reward progress and impose new sanctions for failure.
Providing Better Information
Make as much information as possible available at the defendant's first appearance.
This allows the judge to act as a practical problem-solver as well as an imposer of sanctions, matching the defendant's needs with available treatment or community service programs.
Make information available to everyone at the same time.
Entering new data into a central database simultaneously accessible by the judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys and social service staff allows all parties to share information as soon as it is available. Simultaneous access helps disparate agencies work together and limits "gaming" of the system by attorneys who take advantage of information delays.
Use current information to enhance accountability.
Updates on a defendant's progress allow the court to monitor compliance with sentences. They also permit early recognition of problems and rapid responses to remedy them.
Designing the Courthouse
The courthouse should be a physical expression of the court's goals and values.
A community court should communicate its mission in every facet of its design. All elements of the courthouse—holding cells, public entryways, and office space—should reflect a sense of fundamental respect for the legal process and for all who participate in it, including defendants, victims and the general public.
A community court should be more than just a courtroom.
Beyond holding pens, a courtroom, judge's chambers and a clerk's office, it must accommodate social service workers, victim advocates and community service managers; it also needs room to house community service workshops and provide conference rooms for treatment sessions and classes. After hours, the courthouse can become a community resource for tenant groups, block associations and others who want to hold public meetings.
Put everything under one roof.
Locating social services side by side with the legal process serves the needs of the community court by making it easier for a judge to craft sentences that combine punishment and help. It also serves the needs of social work and public health by bringing services to a center of need.