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Launched in June 2000, the Red Hook Community Justice Center is the nation's first multi-jurisdictional community court. Operating out of a refurbished Catholic school in the heart of a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, the Justice Center seeks to solve neighborhood problems like drugs, crime, domestic violence and landlord-tenant disputes. At Red Hook, a single judge hears neighborhood cases that under ordinary circumstances would go to three different courts—Civil, Family and Criminal. The goal is to offer a coordinated, rather than piecemeal, approach to people's problems. The Red Hook judge has an array of sanctions and services at his disposal, including community restitution projects, on-site educational workshops and GED classes, drug treatment and mental health counseling—all rigorously monitored to ensure accountability and drive home notions of individual responsibility. But the Red Hook story goes far beyond what happens in the courtroom. The courthouse is the hub for an array of unconventional programs that engage local residents in "doing justice." These include mediation, community service projects that put local volunteers to work repairing conditions of disorder and a Youth Court where teenagers resolve actual cases involving their peers. The idea here is to engage the community in aggressive crime prevention, solving local problems before they even come to court.
To view more photos of the Red Hook Community Justice Center, from the American Institute of Architects, click here.
To read about the Red Hook Youth Photography Project, a youth program launched during the summer of 2006, click here. |
| The former Visitation School, which had been empty for more than 20 years, was selected by the community as the home for the Red Hook Community Justice Center. |
| New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at Justice Center opening | |
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Key features of the Justice Center include:
Coordination: The Justice Center handles low-level criminal cases (including some felonies), as well as selected Family Court and Civil Court matters. In hearing these cases, the Justice Center recognizes that neighborhood problems do not conform to the arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries of the modern court system. By having a single judge handle matters that ordinarily are heard by different decision makers at different locations, Red Hook offers a swifter and more coordinated judicial response.
Restitution: By mandating offenders to restore the community, the Justice Center makes justice more visible to local residents and acknowledges that communities can be victims just like individuals. Restitution projects include painting over graffiti, sweeping the streets and cleaning the Justice Center.
Help: By using the coercive authority of the court to link defendants to drug treatment and by providing on-site services like domestic violence counseling, health care and job training, the Justice Center seeks to strengthen families and help individuals avoid further involvement with the court system. Services are not limited to court users but are available to anyone in the community wishing to avail themselves of them.
Accountability: Compliance with social service and community restitution sanctions is rigorously monitored by the Red Hook judge, who requires litigants to return to court frequently to report on their progress and to submit urine tests. State-of-the-art technology helps ensure accountability.
Prevention: The Justice Center actively seeks to resolve local problems before they become court cases. The Justice Center's prevention programs include community mediation, a Youth Court that offers intensive leadership training to local teenagers, and the Red Hook Public Safety Corps, which provides 50 local residents with full-time community service jobs each year.
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FEATURED PUBLICATION
Red Hook Diary: Planning a Community Court
By Greg Berman
How a planner for a neighborhood-based court in Brooklyn negotiated some of the early challenges of the project, including community needs assessment, fund-raising and program design.
download PDF version | |
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