BJA, in collaboration with the Center for Court Innovation, administers the National Community Courts Program under BJA's larger Problem-Solving Justice Initiative.
Community courts are neighborhood-focused court programs that combine the power of the community and the justice system to address local problems. They connect persons committing less serious crimes—often misdemeanor cases—to judicially supervised drug treatment, alternative sanctions, and other community-based services.
The goal of the National Community Courts Program is to help judges, prosecutors and defense counsel, law enforcement, and other innovators around the country reduce drug use, crime, and unnecessary incarceration through:
- Site-based training and technical assistance
- Peer-to-peer site visits to model community courts for practitioners across the country
- Network of Mentor Community Courts
- The Community Court Grant Program
- Community justice conferences
- Articles, multimedia products, webinars, and other resources on related topics
- Responses to practitioner inquiries
BJA's Problem-Solving Justice Initiative accepting applications for assistance
BJA's Problem-Solving Justice Initiative offers no-cost assistance to courts interested in launching a community court. The Center for Court Innovation, as the initiative's national training and technical assistance provider, will be offering hands-on planning and implementation support to up to five jurisdictions in 2019, and an additional five sites in 2020. Apply here.