Judicial Monitoring

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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Sherri Crock is the mental health court liaison for the Athens County Municipal Court Substance Abusing/Mentally Ill (SAMI) Court, which is designed to divert individuals with dual disorders of mental illness and substance abuse from incarceration by providing intensive community treatment and supervision. In April 2006 she spoke with Center staff about the program.

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Judge Stephanie Rhoades has presided over the Anchorage Mental Health Court—the first mental health court in Alaska—since it was created in 1998. 

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Judge Thomas Amodeo has been chief judge of the Buffalo City Court since 1994. In June 2006 he spoke with Center for Court Innovation staff about the C.O.U.R.T.S. (Court Outreach Unit: Referral and Treatment Services) program, which screens and refers defendants to treatment and other services.

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For courts with limited resources that are interested in problem-solving, Buffalo (N.Y.) City Court offers an intriguing model. With no extra funds, in 1995 the court began to identify defendants’ social problems and link them to needed services. Today, Buffalo’s innovative C.O.U.R.T.S. (Court Outreach Unit: Referral and Treatment Services) program links together more than 130 community-based providers and makes more than 6,000 referrals a year.

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Judge Douglas Van Dyk is a Circuit Court Judge in Clackamas County, Oregon, and presides over the Overland Park Community Court, one of 10 sites to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice under its Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. Here he speaks about the court and how it works.

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By Robert V. Wolf

A survey of community court and community prosecution programs around the world. Published in Crime & Justice International, July/August 2006, Vol. 22, No. 93.

This 14-week law school course analyzes the benefits and challenges of problem-solving justice. In addition to looking at the history and constitutional issues surrounding this topic, the course includes visits to traditional and problem-solving courts.

By Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox

An overview of the Red Hook Community Justice Center and the lessons learned from the Justice Center's efforts at neighborhood engagement. Published in The Justice System Journal, Volume 26, No. 1 (2005)

By Donald J. Farole, Jr.

A discussion of the lessons learned in going to scale with innovations in education and other fields, and what these lessons imply for state judiciaries as they seek to go to scale with problem-solving justice.