Community justice
Community justice refers to promoting of quality life of local residents through the effort of agencies that deal with criminal justice with co-operation of the members of the community. The main focus is to suppress criminal behavior that usually cause miserable live. It is therefore a ‘respect’ agenda initiated by a government that involves law makers corroborating with parents and local communities as well as law enforcers to promote community justice. (Merry, 1982)
A community based corrections system
The system will involve connecting members of the community with judiciary as well as courts where all will be engaged in giving out different views especially those that have significant impact, impacts of various crimes as well as how to handle offending in the society. The system will comply with orders from courts where penalties will be recognized by members of community in order for the justice to be seen done. Criminal cases will be handled speedily through independent judiciary with an aim of breaking the offender cycle of committing crime. This will require teamwork among the agencies to avoid breakdown in delivery of services to offenders and victims as well as community with an objective of repairing harm in a manner that will promote confidence among the members of the community. (Karp, 1999)
The community will be proposing the kind of activities that may be handled on the offenders who have been put under community based programs of unpaid work. Pathways will also be developed that will lead to re-integration of criminal into their community. This will be achieved through incorporating the local community through meeting their needs as well as making them see the importance of owning the police and courts as well as nature of crime handled through unpaid work. The system will also involve counseling and education of basic services as well as mentoring. (Corburn, 2005)
Research indicates that, when a correction system involves community justice, it becomes easy to identify common crimes concerning residents and their remedies. Local people are likely to give information to help criminals being caught. They also make suggestions about which unpaid tasks the offenders may take and it becomes a joint responsibility between the members of the community and the system implementing community based corrections.
In New York, USA, Red Hook which is a community justice center uses similar concepts. In England, there are thirteen justice projects based at community level such as Birmingham and Devon as well as Hull. The location of this system will based on the level of crime in a particular area along with social deprivation while ensuring that, the system is tested in several areas. (Howard, 1975)
The system will deal with crimes such as Vandalism and other offences related to anti-social behavior that affects most, the quality of life with their priorities being consulted from the members of the community. Sentences will be as per the already existing options with a focus on solving problems as well as factors that led to the offenders committing the acts. However, the community will not be involved in the sentencing but this will rather be left to judges and magistrates who meet with members of the community on a regular basis to feel the impact of crime on the immediate areas. All victims and witnesses including juvenile offenders and any other concerned parties will be accorded high dignity and sensitivity in course of the legal proceedings. (Feeley, 1992)
References
Merry S. (1982): Implications for Informal Community Justice: Academic Pr pp. 57-62.
Karp D. (1999): The Community Justice Ideal: Preventing Crime and Achieving Justice: Westview Pr pp. 23-26.
Corburn J. (2005): Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice: The MIT Press pp. 76-80.
Howard J. (1975): Humanizing Health Care: John Wiley & Sons pp. 39-44.
Feeley M. (1992): Notes on the emerging strategy of corrections and its implications: Blackwell Synergy pp. 102-106.