Community justice centres are bold and radical. But do they work?

The North Liverpool Community Justice Centre developed a vision of justice, but statistics show thereapeutic Department of Justice does not reduce recidivism

Pioneer North Liverpool Community Justice Centre (NLCJC) started at a different time and more informed (well, 2005), which is based in the United States. His model was the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, which has helped to regenerate parts of Brooklyn, once described as one of the leading American "crack" infested areas by Life magazine.

In 2002, Lord Woolf visited Red Hook and I was impressed. Then Interior Minister, David Blunkett, followed by the Chief Justice of the Atlantic. He became something incredible to convert an unprecedented experience and is unlikely to be repeated in our criminal justice system.

Ten years later NLCJC is a bold and radical problem. It does not work.

least not according to an analysis by the Department of Justice, published this month, the latest in a series of reports suggesting that the court had zero impact. A 2010 Green Paper, although positive on a better community involvement in the criminal justice process, said that the "prohibitive cost" of the center.

It does not take a pessimist to believe that the "age of austerity" - large cuts of Justice and a reduction program closing -. That day the court are numbered pioneer

But the ideas of "community justice" persist. The Minister of Police and Criminal Justice Nick Herbert has recently promised "justice fast and reliable" and inevitably invoke the notion of 'community justice' increasingly Shaggy. He spoke of judges in each of the community centers that offer "level fast and efficient justice down uncontested cases."

New Labour had a greater idea. It was a vision for troubleshooting network type of community justice centers that address criminal behavior and listen to what communities expect their courts. Liverpool North, located in a former school in the borders being Kirkdale, at a cost of £ 5.2m commissioning, was the center of the court only built on this model - despite the proliferation of so-called " justice community centers ", which are often little more than rebranding exercises.

The center has four rooms with a local population of 65,000 inhabitants and is a resource center, including Citizens Advice, probation officers and drug treatment. A judge, Fletcher, presides over all cases. Fletcher is a strong advocate of what he called TJ - a phrase that could make a lot of brothers in the back seat in horror. Even when comparing the role of a judge to that of a social worker.

I've been in court several times - the last time to make this film. "The role of the judge in the criminal justice process has changed," said Fletcher.

"There was a time that we were responsible for the case. There to ensure that the perpetrators were not convicted. Were very concerned about the criminal justice process, not results ".

therapeutic approach "from the judge and the court became increasingly involved in the causes of crime in the hope of securing not recur," he said.

I also met Gary

Kirkdale. "I was arrested many times I lost count. Fuck my life, "he said. Gary had the choice of going to prison for six weeks or by a treatment program for six months under the close supervision of Fletcher. Far, so good: Gary had managed to maintain a decade of alcoholism in check. As Fletcher said, the problem-solving approach to community justice is "put it all together, head bowed, clarify the problem, then." The alternative was to "lock people up for short periods and back into the community," without addressing the underlying problems, he said.

Unfortunately

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