2024 National Community Courts Initiative Category 2 - Hartford Community Court Enhancement

The Division of Criminal Justice proposes to implement the Hartford Community Court (HCC) Enhancement Project, a centralized court that responds to neighborhood specific concerns affecting the community's quality of life. This proposal allows for capacity expansion by funding a fulltime investigator to focus on specific populations and a research component to assess the project. Consequently, the HCC will be better able to enhance public safety, address local needs and quality of life issues, and build trust in the community through: increasing investigative efforts through the addition of an investigator to assist in community engagement, preparation of cases, and post-arrest investigation of cases assigned to the community court docket; increasing knowledge of HCC operations and community engagement through investigator training of local law enforcement and meetings especially in the recently added cities/towns; and engaging in evaluation and assessment-based tasks related to the HCC including data collection and analysis (limited to 20 percent of grant funds).
Outcomes include enhancing court-based intervention program that prioritizes and expedites the provision of treatment and recovery services to individuals who are frequent users of justice, health, and other services or who commit misdemeanor offenses; increasing and enhancing alternatives to incarceration by tailoring sentences to each defendant to improve community safety, enhance confidence in justice, and reduce recidivism; maximizing the capacity of the jurisdiction to ensure all participants are identified, assessed, and referred to services; enhancing the use of community services by participants in the community court docket including case management, housing assistance, and service coordination; maintaining partnerships and collaborations with service providers to enhance the provision of treatment and recovery support services; and supporting the development, enhancement, and translation of research and knowledge of researcher-practitioner partnerships.

Intended beneficiaries are low-level offenders in Hartford and surrounding cities and towns. The project will serve 5,000 to 6,000 new cases annually. Length of participation will range from 1 day to 12 months depending on nature of charge, defendant needs, and victim input. Principles of community justice addressed: enhanced information, community engagement, collaboration, individualized justice, accountability, and outcomes. The division seeks consideration under Priority 1A and Priority 3. The University of Connecticut School of Public Policy's (subrecipient) research will assess whether the HCC is beneficial for defendants and the broader community.