Community Court

Overview of Program & Intended Outcomes:

“Case Management” includes a variety of functions that comprise the core work of the court. Relevant to this budget item, Homeless Navigation and Probation staff monitor compliance with judicial orders regarding municipal violations that most affect the community, and process cases for defendants at in-custody sessions at the Boulder County jail. The court thus uses citations as an opportunity to engage with those currently unhoused.

For 2023, the court requests an enhancement to its Community Court program to augment services for the unhoused. This enhancement will allow the court to reduce quality-of-life violations by tailoring criminal sanctions to the offender's individual needs and addressing barriers to sustainable housing. This equitable approach has proven to address community concerns. As a result, offenders are held accountable in a way that both serves the community's need for safe and welcoming public places and the offender's individual needs. In addition, by working toward housing this underserved and high acuity population, we remove barriers that often contribute directly to an individual being homeless. The court has used federal grant funds to support its Community Court initiative, with unprecedented success in engaging service-resistant individuals, addressing their violations in court, and assisting them in navigating the complex path toward housing. Grant funding is coming to an end.

To continue this successful program, Municipal Court will do three things:

• Hire two full-time employees
  • Community Court Coordinator: manage day-to-day operations, outreach and engagement with service provider partners and the community at large, ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement;
  • Court Technician: implement new case management system, collect and analyze data;

• Provide low-barrier mental health and substance abuse treatment; and

• Maintain a shareable case management system with Housing and Human Services, City Attorney’s Office, enforcement agencies, and homeless service providers.

Ideally, there will be a reduction in quality-of-life violations. Another intended outcome is to increase the community’s feeling of safety and security. The program’s design is to increase compliance with alternative judicial sanctions and promote individual accountability. The most important performance indicator will be how well we assist the most vulnerable and service-resistant violators in preparing for, accessing, and maintaining housing. Finally, the program reduces barriers to attending court and, as a result, will decrease warrants issued for failure to appear.

2023 Activities:

• Continue and expand current programming; refine mechanisms for joint case management among provider agencies; cultivate connections to new service providers.
• Contract with a new housing provider to offer temporary accommodations for qualified individuals engaging with Community Court (most will have been matched with a housing resource and pending move-in).
• Identify new substance use and behavioral health treatment provider(s) to offer low-barrier treatment for individuals engaging with Community Court, possibly to include MAT (Medication Assisted Therapy).
• Implement shareable case management system that will incorporate by-name lists from a variety of sources and facilitate a coordinated, non-duplicative community response to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Sub-Programs:

• Animal Code
• Code Violations
• General Code Violations
• Parking Violations
• Photo Rader
• Probation