Eric Lee

In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from San Diego’s winning proposal.     This community-based problem-solving criminal justice initiative involves the planning and implementation of a community court model to serve the Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and Mission Bay Park communities, known as the Beach Area, in the City of San Diego. The lead agency is the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, working in partnership with the San Diego Superior Court, San Diego Police Department, other criminal justice agencies, and community-based organizations. The proposed Beach Area Community Court will focus on adult offenders who commit misdemeanors and infractions, especially low-level alcohol-related offenses, that impact the local quality of life. Eligible offenders who choose to participate will be diverted from the San Diego Superior Court. They will be held accountable to the community by attending a community impact panel and performing community service. They will also be screened and referred as appropriate to educational and rehabilitative programs to curb future criminal conduct, with compliance closely monitored. Community members will serve on an Advisory Board, overseeing the Court’s development and implementation. The Beach Area Community Court will join the City of San Diego’s two existing community courts, the Downtown Community Court and the Mid-City Community Court, in a community court network dedicated to sharing resources and best practices, with the goal of improving community-based criminal justice throughout the City of San Diego.  

    In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from Seattle’s winning proposal. The Seattle Municipal Court in partnership with the Seattle City Attorney’s Office proposes to apply the problem-solving philosophy of its recently inaugurated Community Court to its thirty-year old diversion program and provide those first-time offenders who may be headed down the path of further criminal justice system involvement a chance to avoid this result and improve their lives. The Seattle pre-trial diversion program is one of the oldest diversion systems in the United States. The existing program allows first-time offenders who commit non-violent crimes an opportunity to have those charges dismissed and retain a clean criminal record.  Defendants are required only to pay a $75 fee, which is frequently waived, and to not re-offend within 90 days. Although it provides an opportunity to defendants to avoid a criminal conviction, the existing program does little to provide specific assistance to defendants whose criminal behavior may be driven by mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness, or the lack of an education. Under its problem-solving initiative, Seattle aims to use the grant to identify those individuals early on and intervene to provide them with the help and services they need.  In addition, the current diversion program provides no mechanism for defendant accountability to the victims—individuals and communities—who are impacted by criminal behavior. Defendants are required to pay only $75 and not re-offend.  While this is efficient for the criminal justice system it often leaves victims feeling abandoned by the criminal justice system. Under its problem-solving initiative, Seattle seeks to address significant shortfalls in the existing pre-trial diversion program by incorporating it into and leveraging the resources of the Seattle Community Court. Under this proposal, diversion-bound defendants will benefit from social service referrals available through Community Court. Defendants will also pay back the community they offended by performing useful community service work. For more about Seattle's program, watch this video.  

  In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from Pima County’s winning proposal. The  Pima County Juvenile Court Center proposes to address the problem of juvenile domestic violence under its community-based problem-solving criminal justice grant, seeking to develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary prevention, response, and rehabilitation plan to divert domestic violence cases from the system when possible, and to more effectively process domestic violence referrals, including post-dispositional supervision of offenders. For the diversion track, Pima County plans to use three major strategies aimed at providing and ensuring participation in appropriate services while avoiding unnecessary arrests and detentions: 1) development of a comprehensive pre-arrest response plan, 2) revision of law enforcement standing orders and creation of alternatives to arrest of juvenile in domestic violence incidents, and 3) ensuring that referred juveniles successfully complete domestic violence diversion programs. Pima County Juvenile Court Center will hire a domestic violence coordinator to work with behavioral health service providers, child protective services, law enforcement, and other stakeholders to develop alternative strategies for dealing with domestic violence prior to adjudication.  These would include: safety plans for families already engaged in behavioral health system that direct families to crisis counselors and emergency response teams as a first resort in times of crisis, rather than law enforcement;  mobile diversion units that may be called upon by law enforcement to respond to families to provide crisis intervention services in lieu of arrest; and neighborhood placements—including additional crisis shelter beds, neighborhood foster homes, and relative placements—in lieu of detention. For juveniles who are referred to the juvenile court on a charge of domestic violence, the domestic violence coordinator will work with the county attorney and public defender to develop criteria for participation in a voluntary domestic violence diversion program.  The domestic violence coordinator, juvenile probation and Community Partnership of Southern Arizona will develop a procedure for the expedited creation of child and family teams for referred juveniles, to ensure early, comprehensive assessment and the development and implementation of appropriate services for the juvenile and the family.  Working with probation, the domestic violence coordinator will develop strategies to encourage juveniles and families to participate in diversion and to identify and overcome obstacles to successful completion of the program so that juveniles may have the charge dismissed. For cases where diversion from the court system is not appropriate, Pima County will seek to promote: A multi-disciplinary approach to assessment and case planning based on a child and family team approach that includes the family in the process and addresses the service needs of all family members. Participation in child and family teams will be voluntary, but will be strongly encouraged; Front-loading of services to “jumpstart” the rehabilitation process; Frequent contacts with the child and family, not only by the probation officer but also by other team members; and Regular judicial review to ensure that plan goals are accomplished, that immediate consequences are imposed for noncompliance, and that progress is acknowledged and rewarded.

    In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from Athens County’s winning proposal. The Athens County Municipal Court Substance Abusing/Mentally Ill Court Project is designed to divert individuals with dual disorders of mental illness and substance abuse with misdemeanor level offenses from incarceration by providing intensive community treatment and supervision. The Court will contract with a dually certified mental health and alcohol/substance abuse treatment agency to provide a “boundary spanner” and treatment team based upon the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment model. The Court Project team will provide comprehensive, assertive services according to this model. Consultations with other justice system players and community collaborators confirmed the need for the criminal justice and behavioral healthcare system to work closely together in a comprehensive and intensive approach to try to break the cycle of relapse and recidivism and intervene positively in peoples’ lives. Although the emphasis of this program is development of specialized services for persons with dual-diagnoses, another vital element is centralized screening, assessment and diversion of all mentally ill or clinically dependent offenders to the most appropriate court program. The program will operate in a rural, economically distressed, Appalachian County that has a history of strong collaborative partnerships between the judicial system and behavioral healthcare system.