Working together: How a neighborhood justice center in Harlem is building bridges and improving safety

Abstract

The Harlem Courthouse has towered over East 121st Street since the late 1800s – stately and elaborate, with arched windows and soaring pinnacles. Until 1961, the courthouse housed the Municipal and Magistrate's Courts; after New York City's courts were centralized, the building fell into disuse and was largely forgotten. Decades later, when court planners were looking for a location for a new community court, the courthouse – with its ornate architecture and status as a once vital community institution – seemed an ideal location. Today, the Harlem Courthouse is again a vibrant neighborhood resource. Gone are the boarded up windows, empty courtrooms, and unused office space. Instead, the courthouse is home to an unusual experiment in neighborhood justice, the Harlem Community Justice Center. The center features a multi-jurisdictional courtroom that hears a mix of Family and Housing Court cases, along with an array of unconventional programs – including mediation, community service, and reentry initiatives – that extend the Justice Center's reach well beyond the courtroom doors. While a traditional court usually has one heartbeat, as the center's former director Raye Barbieri puts it, the Harlem court ‘has dozens’. This paper tells the story of this unique experiment in community justice, from planning to ongoing operations. Along the way, it highlights the key lessons of the Harlem experience, offering vivid testimony that a court and community can work together to spur neighborhood renewal.

Keywords:

• community court
• problem solving
• innovation

Acknowledgements

This publication was supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, under Grant Number 2005-DD-BX-0007. Points of view and opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The author would like to thank the following people who provided advice, information and feedback: Raye Barbieri, Karrolyn Belkis, Greg Berman, Michael Bournas-Ney, Ivan Deadrick, Don Farole, Judge Brigitte Fortune, A. Elizabeth Griffith, Keith Hickman, Nigel Jackson, Dana Kralstein, Julius Lang, Tanya Lewis-Kelly, Judge Ruben Martino, John Megaw, Kim Norris, Kristine Orlando, Maria Pizzimenti, Michael Rempel, Danielle Sered, Al Siegel, and Robert V. Wolf.

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Carolyn Turgeon

Email: [email protected]