Alternatives to Incarceration

Judge Bonner recently stepped down from the Seattle Community Court after presiding over it since its opening in March 2005. He has served on Seattle’s Municipal Court bench for nearly two decades. In February 2007 he spoke with Center for Court Innovation staff about the community court.

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By Somjen M. Frazer

In an effort to assess the impact of the Red Hook Community Justice Center on defendant perceptions of fairness, the Center for Court Innovation conducted a survey of nearly 400 misdemeanor defendants, who had their cases handled at either the Justice Center or a traditional, centralized criminal court. The goal was to evaluate the effects of court location (Red Hook or the traditional court), defendant background (race, ethnicity, sex and socioeconomic status), the outcome of their current court case (dismissed or required to return to court; required to attend drug treatment or not), and the stage of their case at the time of the survey (arraignment or subsequent court appearance).

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Phillip McDonald is the court programs administrator for the Atlanta Community Court. In May 2006 he spoke with Center staff about the neighborhood Restorative Boards being developed and expanded under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative.

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By Staff of the Center for Court Innovation

This collection of research reports, written by Center for Court Innovation staff, analyzes the impact of a broad range of problem-solving initiatives launched in New York State and nationwide over the past decade.

Click here to order the book for $9.95 (including shipping and handling), from amazon.com.

D. Alan Henry is director emeritus of the Pretrial Services Resource Center, based in Los Angeles. In 2007 he spoke with Center staff about using diversion as part of a problem-solving justice initiative.

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Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman gives keynote address at Fordham Law School symposium.

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By Robert V. Wolf

An overview of why problem solving strategies are desirable and techniques practitioners can deploy to introduce these strategies in conventional courtrooms. Published in the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Vol. 22, Nos. 1-2.

International Review of Law, Computers & Technology

By Carolyn Turgeon

A description of the Harlem Community Justice Center, a unique multi-jurisdictional community court that hears a mix of family and housing court cases.

As problem-solving innovation becomes more integrated into the way courts do business, law schools are beginning to offer courses examining problem-solving principles and practices. The Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators, among others, have urged law schools to include the principles and methods of problem-solving courts in their curricula. In a parallel development, Harvard Law School recently reformed its first-year curriculum to include a new course, “Problems and Theories,” that will focus on teaching students basic problem-solving skills. This article seeks to provide a short overview of current law school classes that touch on topics of problem-solving justice.

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Judge Alex Calabrese is the presiding judge at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, a multi-jurisdictional community court that opened in 2000 in a renovated parochial school in southwest Brooklyn, N.Y. Before coming to Red Hook, he served as a judge in Brooklyn’s regular downtown criminal court. Here he talks about his experiences there, where he brought a problem-solving approach to a traditional court environment.

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