NCJ Number
183466
Date Published
1999
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This booklet presents a selection of articles that have appeared in local papers in cities that are planning or have implemented community courts.
Abstract
Not only do these articles reflect the national scope of the community court movement; they also allow planners to see how the press views and shapes it. The cities represented in the newspaper articles are Atlanta; Baltimore; Hartford, Conn.; Hempstead, N.Y.; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; and Portland, Ore. A number of the articles focus on the ways in which community courts have focused on sanctions that involve offenders in service to the community. The articles emphasize the courts' focus on offender accountability through practical community contributions and the cultivation of constructive behaviors through various programs that target antisocial behaviors. Other articles focus on potential problems of community courts, such as an overload on social and treatment services already operating at maximum capacity. Articles also address planning efforts for community courts, as they describe how community courts will operate and what they hope to achieve. For community courts that have been operating long enough to have an impact, newspaper articles focus on their achievements under the new philosophy of dispensing justice at the neighborhood level in cooperation with the community.