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Philadelphia Community Court with future court dates set at least 30 days out. Many simply failed to appear for their next hearings. Data gathered by the Philadelphia Police Department showed that approximately 70 percent of the arrestees were using illegal drugs or alco - hol upon arrest and an overlapping 20 Philadelphia percent had mental health issues. Thus many of these defendants were returning to the streets to commit the same crimes Community Court: — or worse — for the same reasons. Those given summary citations did not A Model for Other have bail hearings, but they otherwise fit A Model for Other the same description. Pennsylvania Cities In January 1994, Center City District staff visited New York City’s Midtown By William Babcock Community Court in Manhattan. The Midtown Community Court was the first of its kind and was created to address the same quality-of-life problems in the Times Square district as those identified in Center City Philadelphia. Visits to the community court by representatives of Philadelphia criminal justice, social service and community organizations followed. These groups then formed a steering committee to determine the via - bility of a community court in Center City Philadelphia and to raise the funds needed to hire a project coordinator. In 1998 I was hired by the Center City District to fill that role. We formed a working group and spent the next four years planning the project, which opened in February 2002. he Center City District The Center City District surveys its vari - is a business improve - ous audiences annually to find out what The largest hurdle was the drafting of ment district located in people like and don’t like about the area. an operational plan to guide this new downtown Philadelphia. The initial surveys showed that while peo - approach to doing business in the court Incorporated in 1991 ple were pleased with the cleaner side - system — a task made more difficult by and funded by annual walks, they continued to be concerned the fact that the criminal justice system is Tassessments on Center City property with public safety. That meant quality-of- composed of adversaries. The goal was to owners, its mission is to make the down - life crimes such as street-corner prostitu - get defendants before the judge as quickly town clean, safe and attractive. It is tion, graffiti and retail theft. These were as possible and to offer them community difficult to miss the teal-and-blue uni - offenses that to a large extent fell through service and social services in exchange for formed sidewalk sweepers and communi - the cracks in the Philadelphia criminal a suspended guilty plea. Completion of ty service representatives who keep the justice system. the terms of the sentence would result in streets clean and provide a myriad of the withdrawal of the charges. Commun- services to those living, working and Those arrested for non-violent misde - ity service required the defendants to take visiting Center City. But there was a meanors were routinely given non-cash responsibility for their behavior and to persistent, vexing problem. bail and released without supervision and pay back the neighborhoods that had March | April 2012 The Pennsylvania Lawyer 39 The goal was to get defen - dants before the judge as quickly as possible and offer them community service and social services in exchange for a suspend - ed guilty plea. borhoods it served, a Community Advis- ory Panel was formed, with neighborhood representatives from each of the eight police districts. The panel’s bimonthly meetings were attended by one of the eight district police commanders on a rotating basis. Advisory panel members and the police shared information on the problems affecting the communities and the steps been harmed. Social services addressed the offices, and social service and health care the police were or would be taking to underlying needs of the defendants, includ- program space. address them. This interaction also pro - ing drug and alcohol abuse, mental health vided an opportunity to identify commu - issues and non-treatment needs such as Agreement on an operational plan and its nity service assignments that would most housing, thus decreasing the chances of adoption by the participating agencies benefit the neighborhoods. the defendants’ further involvement with was formally reached in a memorandum the criminal justice system. of understanding in July 2001. By Febru- Unfortunately, loss of funding related to ary 2002, police, court staff, an assistant the economic crisis forced the community Two significant developments helped keep district attorney, a public defender, court to close in September 2011. But the agencies at the table and the process program personnel and administrative by any measure it was a success and moving forward. The first was a two-year staff began working together on one remains a model for adoption by other grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to floor, functioning as a unit to fashion Pennsylvania cities struggling to deal with fund the social services and community constructive sentences designed to end quality-of-life crimes. service staff. The second was a grant from the cycle of crime while making the the Penn’s Landing/Philadelphia Industrial neighborhoods safer. Consider these statistics from the Phila- Development Corporation Joint Operat- delphia Community Court, current ing Committee to renovate space for the The geographical boundaries of the court through spring 2011: Philadelphia Community Court. originally were intended to include only • More than 75,000 cases heard. Philadelphia’s 6th and 9th Police • More than 13,000 defendants Manhattan’s Midtown Community Court Districts. For various reasons the bound - attended treatment readiness and had established the importance of taking aries were expanded until the Philadelphia anger management classes held a judge out of the main criminal court - Community Court’s jurisdiction included on site. house and placing him or her in a smaller eight police districts covering almost 30 • More than 2,100 defendants were building in the neighborhood to be square miles and serving a population of given full drug and alcohol assess- served, where social services could be about 400,000. The result, at the court’s ments, with almost 550 subse- blended with criminal justice. The space peak, was an average of 45 new arrests a quently completing long-term selected in Philadelphia was an empty day, with approximately the same number treatment. floor in the building that housed pretrial of status hearings. • The on-site public health nurse saw services and adult probation and parole almost 4,200 defendants, primarily programs. With the help of an architect, As the boundaries expanded, the court those charged with prostitution or the vacant space allowed the working began serving more than one community. drug possession, for health care group to design the facility from scratch, To maintain communication between the screening and testing and counsel- with a courtroom, police holding area, community court and the diverse neigh - ing on sexually transmitted diseases. 40 The Pennsylvania Lawyer March | April 2012 • Defendants performed almost 540,000 hours of community serv- ice at a minimum-wage value to the communities of almost $3.3 million. • More than $1.6 million in fines and costs was collected. • More than $40,000 was paid in direct restitution to victims. In addition, statistics kept by the Defend- er Association of Philadelphia, which rep - resented defendants charged with misde - meanors, showed the conviction rates for their clients on new arrests after appearing in Philadelphia Community Court in the three years 2007 through 2009 were, respectively, 13.6 percent, 11.2 percent and 6.5 percent. That compares favorably to the conviction rates of those who either rejected or were rejected by the communi - ty court for the same years: 25 percent, 33.3 percent and 23.1 percent. Seeing people turn their lives around, control their addictions, find employment and a place to live, reconnect with their families and restore their sense of self- By any measure [the Philadel- around the country that work out of worth tells a compelling story about what phia Community Court] was existing facilities and coordinate with the justice system can accomplish through social services already available. a problem-solving approach to criminal a success and a model to behavior. adopt by other Pennsylvania A successful community court is one that cities struggling to deal with addresses the needs of the community, In recognition of the program’s success, in quality-of-life crimes. and there are many creative ways of 2009 the federal Bureau of Justice Assist- accomplishing that goal. F ance asked the Philadelphia Community Court to serve as one of four community court mentor sites in the United States. neighborhood. Connecticut’s successful Bill Babcock is a Hartford Community Court is the best Philadelphia-based example of a smaller city (population attorney and was While many of the community courts coordinator of the around the country are designed to assist 124,775 as of the 2010 census) creating Philadelphia Com- a particular neighborhood in a large met - such a court with citywide jurisdiction. munity Court from ropolitan area, one of the model’s advan - 1998 to 2011. He now serves as director of tages is its amazing flexibility. The Mid- Rather than following a rigid format, the Bill Babcock focus is on the needs of the community, development and town Community Court in Manhattan communications for the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Community Court or communities, being served. At Red Innocence Project, is an adjunct professor were created to address problems in cen - Hook, for example, because of the num - in Temple University’s Department of tral business districts, but other commu - ber of landlord-tenant disputes arising in Criminal Justice and serves as a senior nity courts, such as the Red Hook Com- local public housing, the judge’s jurisdic - adviser at Philadelphia’s Econsult Corp.
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