Press

New York 1 selects the Harlem Reentry Court as its "New Yorker of the Week."

The Daily News profiles a new program, operated by the Center for Courts and the Community, that seeks to reduce absences and tardiness among elementary and middle school students.

A June 2008 article, quoting Center for Court Innovation Director Greg Berman, highlights the growth of community courts in the U.S.

QUEST, which provides young offenders with an alternative to detention, is featured as an important element in New York City's efforts to keep low-risk offenders out of "high-risk situations." As the city's Criminal Justice Coordinator John Feinblatt explains in the NY1 story: "We won't allow dangerous kids to remain on the streets, but we also don't want to separate low-risk youth from their families and their schooling a day more than we have to."

The New York City affiliate of ABC spotlights the Brooklyn Mental Health Court's success in helping mentally ill offenders enter--and stay--in treatment.

This is a story on the Center's partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Members of the Center for Court Innovation's Youth Justice Board have contributed momentum to a movement calling for more young people to participate in their own Family Court hearings, according to an article in City Limits Weekly.

Now on the bench as Manhattan's "King of Prostitution," Weinberg puts himself in the other person's shoes but does not allow those shoes to walk all over him. He insists defendants say "yes" rather than "yeah" and you had better not chew gum when you step before him.

By no stretch of the imagination could New York - or Liverpool or Salford - be described as soft cities. Nor could community courts or community penalties be described as the soft option. Community justice works by making courts more responsive to the priorities of local people. By strengthening the links between the courts and the community, I believe people's confidence in the work of the court will rise and the community will feel more confident about tackling offending behaviour.

"We wanted to create a level playing field for the officers and the teens, one where both could communicate and build relationships they wouldn't have otherwise," said Amy Roza, director of youth services at the justice center.