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Launched in 1993, the Midtown Community Court is the nation's first community court. Its mission is to address quality of life crimes in the Times Square, Chelsea, and Clinton areas and to link the courts with the community.

Description:
The Midtown Community Court was the first of its kind in the world – a neighborhood-based court that pursues innovative responses to persistent community problems. The Midtown Community Court holds low-level offenders accountable for their actions by sentencing them to perform community restitution that is immediate, visible, and meaningful. At the same time, the Court helps offenders address underlying problems, such as homelessness, unemployment and substance abuse, by linking them to on-site social services like drug treatment, job training, and mental health counseling. The goal is to give offenders the structure and support they need to avoid re-offending.

Every year 15-20% of the defendants who come through the Midtown Community Court for crimes like shoplifting, prostitution, and minor drug possession are age 21 or younger. Many of these young people lack a high school education and meaningful job skills. As a result, their employment prospects are limited at best. This presents a serious challenge for those seeking to prevent these youth from cycling through the criminal justice system again and again. Experience indicates that individuals who are gainfully employed are much less likely to engage in self-destructive and criminal behavior. Recognizing this, in 2004 the Midtown Community Court opened Times Square Youth, a program that provides crucial job readiness training and job placement assistance to young people ages 16 – 21 who are either ex-offenders or are otherwise at risk of becoming entangled with the justice system. Each year, Times Square Youth serves 60 people.

History:
Founded in 1993, the Midtown Community Court was the first of its kind: a problem-solving court that sought to pursue innovative justice system responses to persistent community problems. The idea was to address the prevalence of low level crime in Times Square by expediting the arrest to arraignment process. The result was the creation of a public-private partnership that promotes new thinking in criminal justice and sparks community renewal.

The Midtown Community Court is a project of the Center for Court Innovation, a not-for-profit organization which oversees innovative court projects. The Center conceives and builds court models from scratch, including program and architectural design, technology department, research, staffing, and fundraising. The Center’s projects tackle issues that have proven resistant to traditional approaches, including quality-of-life crime, addiction, domestic violence and child neglect. Through its demonstration projects and its national consulting efforts, the Center encourages courts to become more problem-solving, citizen-oriented, and responsive to community needs. In recognition of this, the Center has received numerous awards, including being named one of the top Innovations in American Government in the past fifteen years by the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School at Harvard University and receiving the Citizens Budget Commission’s 2004 Prize for Public Service Innovation.

Contact people:

Jeff Hobbs, Deputy Director, (646) 264-1329, (email) Maggie Peck, Director Of Workforce Development, (646) 264-1338, (email)

Address:

314 West 54th Street New York, NY 10019 (See a map)

Directions:

Take subway to Columbus Circle - 59th street. Walk south to 54th street along 8th avenue and turn right.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 59th street,   Walk distance (in minutes): 10