NCJ Number
183463
Date Published
1998
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study draws lessons in neighborhood justice from New York City's Midtown Community Court.
Abstract
Community courts are neighborhood-based courts that use the power of the justice system to solve local problems. These courts focus on playing an active role in the life of their neighborhoods, as they galvanize local resources and create new partnerships with community groups, government agencies, and social service providers. New York City's Midtown Community Court, which opened in October 1993, is the first neighborhood-based court in New York City since the city's courts centralized in 1962. Recognizing the importance of low-level offenses, the Midtown Community Court is designed to re-create a neighborhood-based arraignment court with a number of modern updates. Offenders who commit low-level crimes that disrupt community order and violate the rights and security of residents are sentenced to pay back the community through work projects, such as caring for street trees, removing graffiti, cleaning subway stations, and sorting cans and bottles for recycling. Also, whenever possible, the court uses its legal leverage to link offenders to drug treatment, health care, education, job training, and other on-site social services to help them address their problems. The National Center for State Courts' evaluation of the Midtown Court found that sentencing at the court produced significantly more intermediate sanctions than at the downtown court. It more than doubled the rate of community service sentences. Over the court's first 2 years, neighborhood prostitution declined 63 percent; a similar effect occurred with illegal vending arrests. This paper also discusses the court's accountability, partnerships, personnel, and challenges and concerns. One of these concerns is whether community courts widen the net of governmental control over citizens.