Judge Raymond R. Norko talked with Robert V. Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation, about the court’s accomplishments and the changes he’s seen over the years.
You were the original judge who helped get the Hartford Community Court off the ground and now you’re back. How long were you away and what were you doing in the interim?
I left in 2003 to work in G.A.—or Geographical Area—courts, handling more serious criminal cases. After five years, they called and asked if I wanted to come back to the community court, and I said, “yes.” I didn’t have any hesitation.
What’s it like being back?
Fascinating. We literally built this court from nothing. I went to New when they asked me to put a community court together. I saw the Midtown Community Court and concluded that is New and we had to do something different in Hartford. And now I’m back and get to see how the two judges who have presided here in my absence have changed things, what they kept and what they discarded.
How has the court changed?
There were two major changes. When I left, it was still touch and go with the Police Department, where a lot of officers still didn’t think community service was punishment enough for defendants so they weren’t writing tickets. That’s not the case anymore. Today our numbers are jumping off the wall. We had about 420 cases last week. When I left, we were handling about 7,500 cases a year and now we’re pushing 9,000.
The second change is that defendants readily accept community service as a punishment. I really had to use a carrot and stick in the old days to get them to do community service. They wanted a fine, something easier, so I’d have to get them to file a conditional guilty plea, and then, upon completion of community service, I’d vacate the plea. That was how I applied the pressure. Community service was just something that wasn’t accepted, but now it’s so engrained in the community, I don’t have to sell it.
Did you come back to the community court—after five years working in more conventional criminal courts—a changed person?
The only thing I did differently while I was away was I handled higher level crimes. Coming back to community court reaffirms and refreshes my belief in community service. You have to realize I was a Legal Aid lawyer for 15 years. There are not a lot of judges who think a courthouse should serve as a hub for social services. Some judges who work in criminal settings look for punishment rather than answers. But that’s never been my orientation.
Has the way the community court responded to neighborhood problems changed over the years? The two judges who served in between my terms—Judge Jorge Simón and Judge E. Curtissa Cofield—added a number of interesting things, including an increased emphasis on mental health services as developed under Judge Simón and the enhanced aftercare component to the prostitution protocol developed by Judge Cofield. They also added drug testing. Now, if someone is charged with possessing small amounts of marijuana, we bring them back to test them and, if they’re clean, we bring them back to perform community service. I think it’s a great idea.
And some things have changed because of the increased caseload. I used to have a much more hands-on approach to information. For instance, I used to keep the social service notes about each defendant on my computer, but, due to the numbers, I can’t anymore. That’s disappointing but understandable.
Fortunately, the number of social service agencies wanting to participate in the court has almost tripled. We have an incredible array of services. For instance, a hospital approached us. They have doctors for everything, and they treat patients even if they don’t have money. Now if someone needs, say, a dentist, I can send them there. That’s an incredible thing.
What do you think of the Hartford Community Court’s recent designation by the Bureau of Justice Assistance as a Regional Mentor Court?
It’s quite an honor to be designated a mentor court, and it validates our work. It also represents what we’ve been doing since we opened. When we started, we visited all over the place. We went to Austin, Oakland,Minnesota, Syracuse. Recently, folks in Tok, Alaska, which has a population of about 1,500, have been calling us for advice. They have an alcoholism problem, and they want to start a community court.
How has the current fiscal crisis affected the court?
Some people are leaving and because of the state hiring freeze, they’re difficult to replace. We’re losing three key people at the end of June. At least two of those slots will be filled, but we need to get the right people—people who understand what we’re trying to do. And I’m still trying to convince one state office that the community court should be a priority and they need to shift a staff person here to replace someone who’s leaving. On top of that, I—along with all judges in the state—have to give back seven days.
The Hartford Community Court is unique among community courts in that it serves a whole city plus suburbs from one centralized location. How does the court, with its centralized structure, respond to neighborhood-specific problems?
It’s worked out well. I go to the neighborhoods and [Court Coordinator] Chris Pleasanton does, too. For example, one of the church organizations invites us to talk monthly. We also visit all the social service agencies that we refer to. I want to see the social service agencies personally to understand how they work and to see if they’re doing quality work. I also conduct twice monthly truancy court sessions at Quirk Middle School with the assistance of the Center for Children’s Advocacy and school staff.
We try to send offenders to perform community service in the neighborhood where they offended but that isn’t always possible. Recently, I sent two kids back to paint over their own graffiti. When we talk to communities, we tell them when they need help from us, to call us, and they do.
How do you get so many different players to fit together—not only defense attorneys and prosecutors, but other government agencies and social service providers?
Chris and I are busy all week listening to different agencies that come at us from all angles. I don’t know how it works, but it works. When we were pulling the court together, we struggled to make things work smoothly. Then we convened a meeting of 20 major players. We distributed T-shirts that said "Hartford Community Court." Then we took a theoretical set of facts and discussed how the court could best respond and, since then, we’ve had cohesion.
What would you say to other jurisdictions that are considering establishing a community court?
They work, and no city should be without one. If they’re set up with the right people you’re going to get a tremendous amount of benefit from a small courtroom structure.
Give me a sense of what you’re like on the bench.
I call everyone by their first names. I think that’s important. I see the tension in a defendant’s face leave when I do that. It’s not a gimmick; it’s just the way it works. A court is a human institution… As a judge, you have the privilege of seeing other people’s tragedies without getting burned yourself. In the 21stcentury, you can’t afford not to do problem-solving.
May 2009