DA Puts Forward Innovative “Neighborhood Court” Program Incorporating Principles of Restorative Justice

On Monday the Yolo County District Attorney’s office unveiled an innovative new pilot project, modeled after a program that San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon implemented two years ago.

Jeff Reisig unveiled a program, in partnership with the Davis Police Department and the UC Davis Police Department, called the Neighborhood Court, a new adult criminal offender diversion program based on restorative justice.  This innovative program will be offered in the city of Davis and on the UC Davis campus, starting in May of 2013.

“Restorative justice is accomplished in Neighborhood Court by involving the victim, the offender and community members in a process focused on the harm to the victim caused by crime and the offender’s obligation to repair that harm,” a press release stated Monday.  “This process empowers those most affected by the crime.  Neighborhood Court outcomes, to the extent possible, repair the harm done to the victim, emphasize offender accountability and responsibility while addressing the reasons for the offense. “

The DA is introducing this plan as an alternative to the criminal court.  Right now it is a pilot program limited to the city of Davis and only specific types of offenses.

As the DA’s office explains in their release, “Rather than charging a case for prosecution, the District Attorney’s Office will refer certain misdemeanors and infractions to Neighborhood Court.”

“In Neighborhood Court, a panel of trained volunteers from the community hears the case.  All hearings are confidential, and participation by the offender is completely voluntary.”

“In addition, any victim must also consent to the program for a case to be diverted into Neighborhood Court.  If either the victim or the offender do not agree, the matter will be handled in the traditional criminal justice system.”

“In Neighborhood Court, cases will be efficiently resolved as participants will have their cases heard and fully completed before they would even appear in criminal court for their arraignment on charges.  Resolutions are only reached after a restorative justice based conference between the parties,” the DA explains.

“Neighborhood Court has the potential to significantly save both time and money for criminal courts and the agencies that work in them,” the DA argues.  “Recidivism can be reduced by keeping low-level offenders out of the criminal justice system and keeping convictions off their record.  Through the community panel driven process, participants will gain a much greater understanding of the impacts their crimes have had on their victims and the community, making them less likely to reoffend.”

The Vanguard has discussed the restorative justice model in conjunction with the City’s MLK Event, in which Sajatha Baliga discussed restorative justice in the context of Martin Luther King’s dream of the “beloved community” and her own success in a Florida murder case.

She said that restorative justice, as developed from the thinking of Howard Zehr, was a “process to involve to the [greatest] extent possible all of those who have a stake in a specific offense and to address harms, needs and obligations and to put things as right as possible.”

She called it a “paradigm shift” or a “different way to think about justice.”  Today when there’s a crime, she said, we think in terms of “What law was broken?  Who broke it?  And how do we punish that person?”

“Restorative justice asks a very different set of questions,” she continued.  “It asks what harm was done, what needs have arisen, and whose obligation is it to meet those needs?”

She said that, rather than state-centered, it focuses on the mending of human relations and begins with the victims being asked their needs and how we would go about healing that.

“It posits that crime is a violation of people and interpersonal relationships,” she said.  “Those violations create obligations.  And that central obligation is to do right by the people that you have harmed.”

Howard Zehr, the innovator of restorative justice, notes that it has four key principles: it affirms that crime violates people and relationships; affirms that justice should identify needs and obligations so that things can be made as right as possible; encourages dialogue and mutual agreement and gives victims and offenders central roles; and is judged by the extent to which responsibilities are assumed, needs are met, and healing (of individuals and relationships) is encouraged.

Material that the Vanguard received from those in the community see this as fitting two types of crimes, beginning with low level, non-violent, and non-sex crimes, both for those without a clearly-defined victim and those for which there is a named victim or victims.

In this role, panelists would not be adjudicators – or civilian versions of judges – but rather facilitators and participants in the process, as victims of harm to the community.

As the DA explains in his release, “Panel members will be made up of diverse members of the Davis and UC Davis communities.  Panel members will receive formal training in restorative justice and problem solving.”

City of Davis panel members will include residents, business owners, parents, retired people, and students.  UC Davis panel members will include students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Panel members will NOT include prosecutors, defense attorneys or judges.

“In order to repair the harm caused by the crime and to resolve the case, panel members will work with the offenders to reach a mutual agreement which may include restitution, community service and counseling,” the DA writes.

The Vanguard has chronicled the success of restorative justice programs, even with the most violent crimes.  The Vanguard recounted in vivid detail the story of Linda White, who eventually met face-to-face with her daughter’s rapist and killer.

Sujatha Baliga described at MLK Day her involvement in a story that the New York Times covered, describing a restorative justice conference she facilitated in a first degree homicide case where a young man in Florida took the life of his fiancée.

“They didn’t think that his taking their daughter’s life somehow severed him from humanity,” Ms. Baliga explained.  “They were willing to grapple with what that interconnectedness between them meant in the wake of this unthinkable harm.”

She described the dialogue that took five hours in Conor’s jail cell in Tallahassee, Florida.

“As we worked together to fashion Conor’s sentence,” she said, the mother of the victim “looked Conor in the eye and said these words, ‘Conor now you have the burden of doing the good works of two people because Ann (the victim) would have done wonderful things with her life.’ “

Conor would receive a twenty-year prison sentence.  That sentence was followed by a term of parole that included the things the family of the victim needed to see in order for Conor to redeem himself.

“This was in lieu of mandatory life,” Ms. Baliga said.  She said that the family was happy with this outcome, “although they would have preferred to see Conor do ten years – instead of twenty – that’s what they asked for.  His second ten years would have been that time where he was doing acts within the community.”

“One of the things that they asked for that was so astounding was that he would really educate himself about teen dating violence and speak on stages with them in high schools across the state of Florida about what he had done, what he had learned, and what lessons he had for teenagers in difficult relationships,” she said.

“Some people think this is crazy,” she continued.  “Meeting face to face with people who have done them wrong, even in murder cases.  I would suggest that our present system of justice is far crazier.”

“We are bankrupting ourselves both fiscally and morally with our current approach to crime,” she said.  “In the words of Dr. King, the question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremists will we be.  Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

While it begins on a smaller scale, the DA’s program contains in it the promise of reforming our current system of injustice, where the needs of neither victim nor offender are met.

According to the press release, “Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig expressed promise about the Neighborhood Court program. ‘San Francisco has shown the impact and success that Neighborhood Court had on their community,’ said Reisig.”

“We visited San Francisco, spoke to District Attorney Gascon and his staff and watched hearings in the Bayview neighborhood.  We were very impressed.”  Mr. Reisig continued, “I believe that the restorative justice approach that we will utilize in our Neighborhood Court has the real potential to help our communities proactively engage in finding meaningful resolutions to some crimes, which will not only benefit the victims as a priority, but will also help the offenders learn and not repeat the behavior.”

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon also commented on the sharing of this innovative program between his office and Yolo County.

“I am proud of our Neighborhood Court, and am pleased that District Attorney Reisig is bringing the model to Yolo County,” said Mr. Gascon.  “I am a strong believer that we can learn from each other to improve the safety of our communities.  I recently visited with DA Reisig to learn about innovations in the Yolo DA’s Office, and am glad to be able to bring the success of San Francisco’s Neighborhood Courts model to your community.”

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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