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Community Justice is part of the Government's agenda to tackle anti social behaviour and the crime associated with it, making life better for everyone. Community Justice brings the justice system and the community together: solving problems, reducing crime and building confidence.
What's new
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New Community Courts Are Live
All 11 new community justice projects, announced by the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer in November 2006, are now up and running. Local information about the projects can be found in the following links: Birmingham, Bradford, Devon and Cornwall, Hull (no link at the moment), Leicester, London (three projects at Haringey, Newham and Wandsworth), Merthyr Tydfil, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham.
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First Evaluations of Community Courts in North Liverpool and Salford
The first evaluations of community courts in England and Wales have been published on 29th October 2007. These are evaluations of the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool and the Salford Community Justice Initiative.
The Community Justice Programme contracted independent research companies to undertake evaluations of the community justice projects in North Liverpool and Salford, in order that we could learn more about the concept and ways in which it could be applied elsewhere. These evaluations have now concluded and the reports are now being published.
The evaluations are based mostly on interviews with staff, community members and offenders early on in the life of the projects. The results give an indication of the work that has been done, but the full impact of the community justice projects in North Liverpool and Salford may take years to assess. However, the early evidence is that they are making progress towards many of their original objectives, and that much has been learnt about new models for delivering community justice.
Qualitative evaluation of the key components of the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool
Qualitative evaluation of the implementation process for the Salford Community Justice Initiative
Survey of the attitudes of residents in North Liverpool
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New powers to review community orders extended to all community courts
Section 178 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 provides the power for the court to review offenders progress as they carry out community orders. This means that when an offender is given a community penalty the court can order that the offender comes back to court on a regular basis and for their behaviour during the sentence to be considered. This increased oversight by the Judge or Magistrates will bring increased responsiblity and encouragement for offenders to comply with the conditions of the sentence. It will also give the court the opportunity to support the offender as they face challenges and adapt the conditions of the sentence if conditions change.
This section of the Act has been enacted exclusively for the community justice courts, helping to inform government decisions about bringing in reviews of community orders more widely across England and Wales.
See earlier press release relating to S178 at Liverpool and Salford
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Gordon Brown visits the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool
On 7th June Gordon Brown visited the Community Justice Centre in North Liverpool, together with local MP Louise Ellman. This followed a visit by Tony Blair, and Mr Brown was keen to see for himself community justice at work. He met with the centre's judge, Judge David Fletcher, and representatives from the criminal justice agencies, to discuss how community justice is making a difference to the way they work. He also met members of the community who form the centre's Community Reference Group, to find out what community justice means to them. He then met with a large number of centre staff from all the agencies on site to talk about their views of how the centre works.
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Tony Blair visits Liverpool
On 15th February 2007 former Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a visit to the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool, to see how community justice is tackling crime locally. This formed part of a day dedicated to tackling youth crime which included a cabinet summit in the morning and a visit to Moss Side in Manchester. Mr Blair met with the Judge, and staff at the centre attended an informal question and answer session where they were able to put their views to the Prime Minister.
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Community Justice comes to 11 new areas
Building on the lessons from Liverpool and Salford, we are now extending Community Justice to 11 new areas. This was announced in July 2006 as part of Lord Falconer's paper, 'Criminal Justice: Simple Speedy Summary', and in the Home Secretary's paper 'Rebalancing the Criminal Justice System'.
At a Communtiy Justice conference on 27th November Lord Falconer announced the 11 areas as Bradford, Birmingham, Devon and Cornwall, Kingston Upon Hull, Leicestershire, Merthyr Tydfil, Middlesbrough, Nottingham and three projects in London at Haringey, Newham and Wandsworth. This announcement was accompanied by a Written Ministerial Statement to parliament outlining the 8 key elements of community justice that will be the basis for the new projects. These elements are drawn out of lessons learned from Liverpool and Salford
Read the Written Ministerial Statement
Read the press notice
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Liverpool celebrates first birthday
Liverpool has celebrated its first birthday with a week of activities desinged to raise awareness and engage local residents. These included launching a new series of 'Meet the Judge' meetings across North Liverpool, a day of events for parents with a number of partenting support and advice services, a 'Your Choice' event for local schools illustrating the consequences of offending, a citizenship event for primary school students and a 'You be the Judge' sentencing event. Harriet Harman QC MP, Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs has congratulated the centre on its succes click here to read her press release