Thread by @shayshinecastle

Next item: An update from the municipal court on its community court offerings for unhoused individuals. Presentation: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

Judge Linda Cooke presenting.

28 community courts have been set up across the U.S.; Boulder's is grant-funded.

"The goal is to address the root causes of homelessness, rather than having ppl cycle between jail and the streets," Cooke says, "which was a pretty common occurrence."

They hold court out in the community: At Deacon's Closet, for example. They've also done one or two at the Feet Forward weekly outreach downtown
(Disclosure: That's the one I volunteer for!)

The most common violations we see for the unhoused, according to Cooke: camping/tents/trespass, possession or consumption of marijuana/alcohol, smoking where prohibited, littering and/or urinating in public.

Reminder: Municipal court only handles violations of, well, municipal (city) laws. So they're not dealing with drugs or theft or things that are more historically considered crimes.

But, to be clear, these issues handled in muni court *are* still crimes. Hence their inclusion in the criminal justice system.

The goal of community court, Cooke says, is to get ppl to engage with services / the system. So they have the option of getting tickets/charges tossed if they do things that put them further on the path out of homelessness, like getting IDs, going through coordinated entry, etc.

OK, correx to earlier tweet: Community court hasn't yet been held at Feet Forward outreaches, but they will starting this month! Court navigators are often there to connect with ppl, as are other providers.

Community court still looking for a physical location. Hard to find in Boulder.

The vast majority of ppl who are offered community court services (like getting their tickets/cases dropped) take advantage of that. A small (single-digit) number choose to plead guilty instead.

Actually 5 total this year, to date.

There's an 87% completion rate for tasks that community court assigns, which is "phenomenal and completely unanticipated by me," Cooke says.

The aforementioned 5 folks is those who *didn't* complete tasks. Not those who rejected community court offerings. Apologies for the error.

Cooke sharing the story of "Ashley," who was recently housed and is drawing close to 30 days sober. "We are just thrilled to report that kind of success. But this is a process for many people. It's not a one-and-done...

... here's your housing and your treatment and you're good," Cooke says. "People will take a few steps forward and a few steps back for a while. We are there for them."

"No amount of punishment is going to change the circumstances for people living on the streets," Cooke says in a pre-recorded video. Addressing why they are on the streets can.

"The root cause of why ppl are getting open container violations, camping violations" etc. is that they don't have housing, says prosecutor Chris Reynolds (again, via video).

"A lot of times, courts aren't really associated with helping ppl. That's really what we're focused on."

Weaver: "That was really revealing to see that video and put some actual faces rather than just numbers."

Brockett thanks the court for not taking "a punitive approach" but rather a supportive a problem-solving one.

Young: How do ppl know to show up at community court? Is it on their summons/ticket?

Cooke: Our original goal with a physical location was to summons ppl to community court directly. But they are given a summons to appear on Tuesday mornings. Many fail to appear... with COVID, they became even less likely to appear.

"We decided we need to go out and reach people where they're at," Cooke says. The court sends people out (outreach) and finds unhoused folks, tell them about community court.

"It's not uncommon for us to find they don't have a case with us, but with the county court," Cooke says. So we'd love to work with county court in the future.

Cooke: "Sometimes they've done court from a person's encampment. We're v flexible in trying to engage people."

Young: Does it happen at these outreach events that, if other providers are there, ppl can accomplish tasks on-site and come back to you with the task completed?
Yes, Cooke says.

Centralized services FTW! boulderbeat.news/2021/07/24/hom…

Just your friendly reminder that these outreach events are being held by non-gov't folks. Nonprofits and sometimes private citizens. The gov't has now started to go to them to better do their jobs.

(This is not an anti-gov't screed. Just a point that our "official" system is not necessarily the leader here.)

More thanks from Friend and Young for the non-punitive approach.

That's the end of this quarterly court update.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!