Public sceptical over new ‘people’s court’ project

Oct 30 2007 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

A PIONEERING £3m fast-track “justice centre” in north Liverpool has failed to improve the crime-racked community, local people believe.

A Government study found that 61% of people living near the American-style court in Kirkdale – the first of its kind in Britain – believed crime had increased since it opened three years ago.

Residents also believed graffiti, vandalism and abandoned cars had worsened and more thought gang crime was a big problem.

Fewer people would now be prepared to act as a witness, mainly because of fear of retaliation by offenders and because "it would make no difference".

And, most damningly, 50% of respondents believed the area was a worse place to live than two years earlier – up from 37%.

When then-Home Secretary David Blunkett unveiled the initiative in 2003, he said he was determined to rebuild public confidence in both the police and the courts.

The so-called “people’s court” was temporarily housed in Dale Street Magistrates' Court for one year, before moving to Kirkdale in September, 2005.

Modelled on New York's Red Hook centre, it brings together the courts, drug treatment, debt counselling and community services on a single site.

Most radically, crime victims help decide punishments and the judge is encouraged to shed his aloof image by going out into the community to hear their suggestions.

The Home Office has such high hopes for the scheme, in Boundary Road, that a second justice centre has opened in Salford, and a further 11 are planned.

But the study found that most people – while enthusiastic about the idea of community justice – felt the Kirkdale centre had "made no difference to crime that affects their quality of life".

The Ministry of Justice attempted to put a positive gloss on the results by pointing out its success in motivating offenders successfully to complete community orders.

And it insisted it was too early to properly assess the full impact of community justice on re-offending and local people's attitudes and perceptions.

Maria Eagle, a junior justice minister and MP for Garston, said: "I believe excellent work is being undertaken by all the community justice initiatives." North Liverpool was chosen for the first community justice centre because of, as the study said, "the longstanding and continuing problems it faces".

Furthermore, it was "undergoing significant regeneration", which meant that properties were empty and boarded up – perhaps contributing to the worsening perceptions.

The study also pointed out that the public's general confidence in the ability of the courts to bring offenders to justice was on the slide.