US court inspires Liverpool project

Matt Wells BBC's Washington correspondent

As plans for Britain's first community justice centre take shape, the BBC's Washington correspondent Matt Wells looks at the American project that inspired it.

Sandra Igneri is taking a cigarette break in the autumn sunshine outside the Red Hook Community Justice Center, along with her niece Erica Rios.

Her 18 year-old daughter is inside, having been picked up by police joy-riding. Sandra is waiting to take her child home, resigned to the fact that justice will be done within a few hours.

Sandra Igneri and Erica Rios believe the court works

The irony is that the same centre where she will be punished with a non-custodial sentence and made to put something back into the community, is also offering her daughter the chance to study for a high school-equivalent diploma.

The centre provides local justice, for local people with local problems, while at the same time hoping to tackle the root causes of criminal and disruptive behaviour.

Most importantly, it does it all under one roof, for offenders who have committed low-level crimes with a maximum penalty of one year in jail or less.

"This place doesn't look like a court house, and I'm glad it's here," says Sandra. "I hope my daughter can get over this and get herself on a program. It's got to be a good thing," she adds.

'Similar stories'

Fully operational for just over three years, the results here in Red Hook indicate that the centre is succeeding.

It caught the eye of UK Government officials towards the end of last year, and now north Liverpool is due to have its own community justice centre modelled largely on this one.

There are a lot of people doing jail time where they're not learning anything Defence attorney Brett Taylor

"Red Hook and Liverpool have similar stories," says the local project director, Robert Feldstein.

"Red Hook was the busiest port in the country, then the jobs went to New Jersey and the community fell apart.

"It's not justice McDonalds-style. We've designed this multi-agency approach to meet specific local needs. The justice we offer here is neither tougher, nor softer, than the courts downtown," he adds.

Drop in

The centre operates as an inclusive place, not just in the array of criminal, family and housing problems it aims to tackle.

The walls are white-washed and natural light permeates most of the rooms in the converted school complex it occupies, just a block from Red Hook's central tree-lined square.

Judge Alex Calabrese says he is not just slapping wrists

People are encouraged to drop in and talk to staff from one of the 14 different agencies represented here.

There's an on-site crèche and the holding-cells for defendants have reinforced glass, not iron bars.

Taking a short break from his busy courtroom, the full time judge here, Alex Calabrese, explains that having extra options at his disposal, makes for more sophisticated justice.

"In the traditional courts, you are like an artist with just two colours - jail, or no jail. Here, you have a whole palate of services."

But he insists that despite being much closer to the community he serves than most judges, he's no soft-touch.

"This is not a place where I slap wrists. If they don't take advantage of the alternatives, they go to jail."

'Best chance'

A readiness to try and keep offenders away from a jail term - especially those committing petty crimes to support a drug habit - is shared by all the agencies here.

But unlike many treatment-based approaches, which can be slow and bureaucratic, the centre aims to have offenders signed up to a definite programme as little as four hours after their court appearance.

Brett Taylor is one of its defence attorneys.

"There are a lot of people doing jail time where they're not learning anything," he says.

"If we can get to the young ones here early, they have the best chance of coming through. In the regular system, they'd just get screwed up and fail."

'Very excited'

The Red Hook project is managed on behalf of the state and the city of New York, by a non-profit company called the Center for Court Innovation, which created the first model court designed to fit local needs, in midtown Manhattan almost ten years ago.

Its overall operations director, Adam Mansky, has been the main consultant to David Blunkett's Home Office team, who are setting up the £3m neighbourhood court in Liverpool.

"We are very excited that the UK Government is trying this," he said, having recently returned from his second official visit to Britain.

"I am sure there are going to be significant operational differences between the two environments but I think overall, communities want their government and justice to be more responsive."