The Phoenix City Council has approved a permanent Community Court, offering homeless people who have committed crimes the opportunity to receive services rather than going through the traditional …
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The Phoenix City Council has approved a permanent Community Court, offering homeless people who have committed crimes the opportunity to receive services rather than going through the traditional justice system.
The council’s decision last week adds the Community Court to two other specialty courts in the Phoenix court system – Behavioral Health and Veterans courts.
Community Court will operate as a “pre-adjudication court system,” according to a city release. “Individuals engaged in Community Court will be given the option to choose for themselves – services or consequences,” the release stated.
Once an individual has been arrested and arraigned, a city prosecutor will determine if the individual is qualified to participate in Community Court based on the level of their crime and housing status.
No aggravated assaults or domestic assault charges will be qualified to participate in the Community Court program, officials said, and once an individual has agreed to participate, “a navigator will be assigned to them in order to develop an individualized plan that will help to elevate them out of homelessness,” the release stated.
Should the individual choose to not follow their personalized plan or want to leave Community Court at any point, they will be returned to the traditional judiciary court to proceed through their initial case.
When an individual completes their personalized plan and graduates from Community Court, their charges could be dropped, lowered or considered time served.
“This program has been a long time in the making for us in Phoenix. My office has been researching homeless problems and solutions throughout the past year and came across the successful Community Court model already operational in Mesa,” said Councilwoman Ann O’Brien.
Mesa’s Community Court has been in operation since 2020 and of those who have graduated from the Mesa Community Court, 93% have lifted themselves out of homeless and not returned to the Community Court, according to the release.
“Community Courts is a proven model in other municipalities that show when homeless individuals commit low-level crimes as a result of their conditions, there are positive outcomes,” O’Brien said.
Additional judges, prosecutors, defenders and navigators will be hired for the new court, which will operate two days a week.
The court will begin hearing cases in January.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
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