Jolly St Ermin's Hotel, London
Speech by Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Good morning. I am absolutely delighted to be here this morning. It is 10 o'clock on a Monday morning, that there are so many of you here is a tribute I believe to two things. Firstly that community justice is working and secondly, that so is our transport system.
I believe that community justice - the concept and the practice - is an essential part of the future of the criminal justice system in this country. Community justice is a vital way of doing justice differently: connecting courts and communities, so that courts know what communities want, and that communities get from the courts the justice they need.
What I want to do today is:
There is so much in our justice system we should be proud of. Above all, our courts and our magistrates and judges are of the highest probity; they are independent; they are of the highest quality, and they and the staff of the courts are fully committed to justice.
These characteristics are necessary for a system in which the public has confidence. But not of itself sufficient. The courts - judges and staff alike - have been very supportive of the new way which community justice represents.
Community justice is a relatively new idea for the UK. Not, of course, new to all of you here this morning. You live and work community justice, many of you. You know its value. You know what it can do.
So too do the people who are not much here today - the communities served by the models of community justice we already have up and running, in Liverpool and in Salford. They have seen the effect of community justice on their streets, on their areas.
They know it works. You know it works. I know it works.
Why? Why does it work? Why is community justice such a valuable addition to our armoury of justice?
A justice system, whether criminal or civil, is the principal means society has to resolve its disputes. Justice is a system where society takes decisions about itself and the members of that society for the overall good.
For justice to work, for society and its members to accept the decisions reached by the justice system, that justice system has to rest on the aggregated assent of society: society has to agree that it is right for justice and the justice system to operate on its behalf in the way it does, taking the right decisions, resolving problems, tackling wrongdoing, fighting crime and increasing security.
For that to happen, for justice to work in the way that society wants and needs it to work, two preconditions are vital: confidence and connection.
We have to ensure that its decisions, the outcomes it produces, are respected and effective: that they are connected with people's problems and priorities, and that they are able to promote confidence in turn in justice and the justice system.
In very many ways, in the outcomes produced by justice, that is precisely what is happening, and precisely what happens each day, every day, in courts up and down the country.
But set against that are problems we do have to recognise: problems of connection, and problems of confidence.
Courts must be connected to the communities they are there to serve. Courts must deal with the problems being faced by the communities they are there to serve. Courts must be an element - one element, yes, but a vital element - in helping sustain and improve the communities they are there to serve.
We have to recognise that, too often, that is not just not what people perceive to be happening, but that it is not actually what is happening.
I have the utmost belief in the quality, the integrity and the ability of the courts, and in those who work in them, from the judges onwards, but including everyone who works in the courts, staff at whatever level, doing whatever job, they are all committed to working day after day to deliver justice.
But they know, you know and I know that at the same time, the courts can and do appear remote, that people believe the courts don't understand their problems and have no adequate comprehension of some of the problems faced by the communities they are there to serve.
We want the community to view the courts as being relevant and effective to the solution of the problems of crime and anti-social behaviour they face. We recognise the courts cannot solve these problems alone. So does the community. But that there is a sense they understand the problems is vital. And that they do have a contribution to solving those community problems is vital as well.
I think that there are two main issues here. Firstly, a sense that courts are removed, attitudinally and physically, from the problems faced by communities. And secondly, that a sense the courts do not properly appreciate the nature of or the harm caused by some of the crime and anti-social behaviour they are there to help combat.
People think the courts are nothing to do with them. In many cases, of course, that is true. Most people, of course, are not carrying out crime: never have, and never will. Equally, and despite the picture painted all too often in the media, most people have only a very low likelihood of being a victim of crime. Crime very often keeps within its own borders.
But at the same time, crime does happen. Crime can erupt, suddenly, frighteningly. People can and do become involved in crime, either as victims or witnesses.
When that happens, the law-abiding citizen wants and needs the settlement system of justice to work, and to work properly.
Perhaps especially then, for the law-abiding citizen coming into contact with crime, sometimes at times of great stress and great vulnerability, the courts seem remote: uncomprehending, and incomprehensible. People rightly want courts to be both authoritative and places of authority: the outcomes they deliver in part rest on that. But the other side of that coin is distance, and detachment.
The people at court can seem removed; distant; unapproachable; detached. And courts themselves are very often distant. Courts tend to be located in city centres, often well away from the real problem areas. Few people go to a court other than as a defendant, victim, witness or supporting a relative or friend.
When they do, the cases they are concerned with seem only to reach court months - all too often many, many months - after the offences they are dealing with have occurred. And when they do, the practices of the court, the way the court does its business, can be daunting: everyone else seems to know what's going on, everyone else seems to know what they're doing, but victims and witnesses seem often to receive only limited information and support.
At the same time, though the courts seem steeped in the difficulties of dealing with crime, courts can often seem far removed from the problems of communities. Some of my most harrowing experiences as a Government minister have been when talking with victims of crime and anti-social behaviour. I've heard them. You've heard them. You know what they say.
Hearing from families at their wits' end, suffering from stress and depression because of constant harassment.
Children who can't play outside because of gangs hanging around the local park.
People who can't go to the local shop for fear of being spat at, or worse.
Often these are very local problems; a particular park, or shopping parade or estate, that has an enormously corrosive affect on communities. Often they are repetitive; local residents often see the same behaviour going apparently unhindered and unpunished, day after day.
But just because they're familiar - depressingly, desperately familiar for those suffering from them - doesn't mean that they're not damaging. Far from it. These kinds of problems can have damaging affect on communities.
The terminology of the criminal justice system categorises them as low-level offences. But these so-called low level offences have a far from low level effect on the communities where they take place.
The result of all this is that people often feel that the courts do not understand their problems.
They feel they are invisible. Insignificant. Inconsequential. Impotent. Irrelevant.
If there is no confidence. If there is no connection.
There is no justice.
Community justice and community courts are an attempt to right these wrongs. To help rebalance the criminal justice system. To help make sure that the criminal justice system has the priority of the law-abiding citizen at its heart.
To help make sure that people do have confidence in the courts. That people do feel connected to the courts. And that courts do the job that communities want them to do.
Community courts, this approach to community justice, were pioneered in the USA. Many of us in this room have trodden the well-beaten path to New York: to Redhook, to the Midtown court in Manhattan. We've seen how they work. We've seen their impact.
We've seen an area like Times Square be transformed - not just by the Midtown court, but with the Midtown court at the heart of the transformation - from a centre of drugs, prostitution, street crime and violence to an area which is safe, which is widely-used and which is attractive.
A decade or so ago, what was for sale in Times Square was drugs and sex. Now it's where Disney has its flagship New York store.
When we set up the Community Justice Centre in North Liverpool, it was a clear attempt to emulate that success. To see if the Manhattan model could become the Merseyside model.
David Fletcher is here this morning, and will tell you with far more experience and eloquence than I how the Centre works. For my part, I've seen that it does, and I know it does. I know that through tireless work, David has become the visible face of justice in north Liverpool. He has become part of the community he serves, and has done so much to improve it. He has become, as I heard from residents in the community, 'Our Judge'.
What a signal honour. And how well-deserved.
And an honour achieved through connection, and by inspiring confidence. Achieved because he and the numerous Magistrates and Criminal Justice staff have made themselves accessible. Through regular 'meet the judge' meetings. Through community surgeries and community events. Through steps like giving people in the community the home phone numbers of court staff, so that they can go to them with the problems the courts are there to help resolve.
We then extended the Merseyside model, applying it in a different way, but with just as significant and signal results, down the road in Manchester. The Salford justice centre, like north Liverpool, has shown clearly the benefits of genuine engagement with the community. Real, tangible, practical benefits. Benefits which have made the lives of people living in that community so much better.
We know now that community justice works. Take a couple of specific examples. One particular street in north Liverpool, in the very heart of the local community, had become notorious for kerb crawling.
The residents were fed up with this and brought the problem to the attention of 'their judge', Judge David Fletcher. David judged that the solution was not just a fine. Fines would not stop the kerb crawling. The problem would either stay where it was, or move to another area.
So instead of fining defendants when they were brought before him, he banned them from driving. Responsive, quick, effective. An innovative and successful solution that ensured justice was delivered to the community.
Or another example, again from Liverpool. Residents had asked that something be done about their local canal. It was in a real mess and had been made dangerous through vandalism and dumping of rubbish. People were unable to enjoy what had once been a popular community area. Young offenders were punished not by fines or custodial sentences, but by being ordered to clean up the canal. To give the canal back to the community.
Examples, both of these and many others, in Liverpool and in Salford, of the community making its voice heard. And of the court showing the community that it was listening. That it was acting. And that it was making the difference the community wanted to see.
You will hear more from David Fletcher and Richard Knott later. But I want to take this opportunity to offer my profound thanks to them, to all the magistrates in Salford, to Shaun McNally and to everybody in their teams for the work they have done to pioneer community justice in this country.
For too long and too often in this country public service was dismissed and denigrated. No longer. What David, Richard, Shaun and all the others working in north Liverpool and Salford have shown - are showing, day after day - is genuine public service, working on behalf of the communities they are there to serve. They are a testament to those public service ideals, and I pay tribute to them.
Community justice can be about community penalties. They can form an important part of community justice. We must ensure that prison is targeted on the serious and violent offenders who need to be there. And it will remain absolutely the right option for many serial, serious or violent offenders.
But there are often better options than imprisonment for dealing with less serious, non-violent offenders. More offenders should be dealt with through tough community sentences that ask a lot of them rather than short custodial sentences.
Furthermore, community sentences can give local people the confidence that, if appropriate, their community is benefiting from justice being done, and being seen to be done, and putting then needs of communities themselves at the heart of the system.
Community penalties are important to community justice. But community justice is about far more.
The idea is in involving the community in every stage of justice, with the court and the community working together to identify the problem, working together on the solution, working together on identifying the most appropriate sentence.
The point is not whether or not a community sentence is given or whether the judge decides that a fine or custodial sentence is better suited, the point is that the community had a say.
This does not mean judicial independence is in danger. The judges or magistrates will decide on the individual case in question. Nor does it mean there judicial discretion is fettered. It means that when deciding on sentences the court should consider what is in the interests of the community. It means providing opportunities for allowing members of the public to have their say in what sort of punishments should be used. It means listening.
Liverpool and Salford are showing that community justice works. And how it works.
So we want now to extend it. To move the successful operation of Liverpool and Salford out across the country. So I can announce today that we are extending the community justice concept and the community justice practice to 10 new areas. They are: Birmingham, Bradford, Devon and Cornwall, Hull, Leicestershire, Merthyr Tydfill, Middlesbrough, Nottingham and two projects in London.
Each of these community justice projects are at different stages. Some are more advanced than others. The model of one will not necessarily be applied in exactly the same way in another, just as Salford operates differently to Liverpool.
To take a couple of examples; Nottingham, for instance are establishing two community justice courts, one of which will be in an existing court building, the other will be located in the very heart of the community, which will focus on the types of crimes the community have said cause them the most concern. The local LCJB involved local people, voluntary organisations and community groups in a two month consultation over the community courts - the response was overwhelming, the results speak for themselves, with 83% agreeing that the new courts were a good idea.
Or in Merthyr, where there will be a detailed public consultation and analysis of the problems affecting the local community, so that the judiciary better understands the issues that community faces. This process will be repeated periodically so that the court remains on top of the issues that are of highest priority for local people.
Different communities, different approaches. But what they will all share is the same vision, a vision of justice which is connected to the community, and in which the community has confidence. A vision based on a number of key principles we have developed. These principles are:
I believe these are real principles, important principles, which will in turn make a real and important difference to the lives of the communities the courts which operate them will serve.
I want to see this list of 10 new community justice centres extended still further. Just as we have considered how well Liverpool and Salford have worked, and having done so, moved on to these 10 new centres, so too will we want to evaluate the establishment, operation and outcomes of these 10 centres, and then move on again.
My vision is of the community justice approach operating right across the country. In all parts. Offering real improvements for the communities in which they're operating.
Because these communities - these 10 areas, and beyond, building on the success of Liverpool and Salford - will, I believe, experience a radical change in the coming years.
The perception of the court will change from an, old fashioned, impenetrable institution, to an accessible and accepted part of the community. A court that will make a visible difference to the day to day lives of the many, many decent people who live there.
So these community courts, and the principles I have set out which lie behind them, offer a new way forward for justice.
We need to do justice differently. Communities hit hard by crime want to see justice done in ways which connect more closely to the community.
To echo Lincoln's prescription for good government, we need courts which are of the community, by the community, and for the community.
These 10 new community courts will deliver the justice communities want to see.
Justice which is connected. Justice in which communities have confidence. Justice which is tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. Justice which is making a difference to people's lives. Justice which is improving communities.
Community justice.
Courts and communities. Working together. Working in partnership.
Working for safety. Working for security.
Working for society. Working for us all.