Seth Hackenberg, 509.625.4146
Thursday, September 5, 2019 at 1:14 p.m.
A new comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the Spokane Municipal Community Court has been released. The new report found that participants in the community court are less likely to commit additional criminal offenses than those who didn’t participate in the program.
“Participants consistently possessed lower odds of recidivism than the historical and contemporary comparison groups,” the report says. The report says the court’s success is tied directly to the many programs and services provided to the court’s participants.
The report found that out of the 1,166 participants tracked:
The evaluation was done by Washington State University researchers, Dr. Zachary Hamilton, Dr. Mia Abboud, and Dr. Alex Kigerl, looking at data from the inception of the Downtown Community Court in 2013 up until January of 2018. The report was commissioned by the City of Spokane in late 2017.
The report did identify some potential changes for Community Court. The report determined that the court should increase its use of the Needs Assessment tool, which is a interview questionnaire risk-needs assessment tool that predicts an individual’s risk of re-offending. The assessment also looks at factors such as education, employment, housing, substance use, criminal thinking, mental illness, and trauma. The report also suggests that the Community Court should provide onsite chemical dependency evaluations and continue to connect with more service providers.
“We are taking steps now to fix these issues,” says Municipal Court Judge Mary Logan. “We are ensuring that needs assessments are performed on every participant and tracked regularly, we have also developed a new partnership for chemical dependency evaluations, and we are reaching out to additional services providers to become part of the court.”
The Community Court program, which is part of Spokane Municipal Court, was started six years ago. Court is held in the Downtown Spokane Public Library and allows participants to access needed support services.
The Downtown Library was selected for the court because it is a neutral welcoming educational environment with low barriers to access. This unique approach to the court room setting helps address issues of court attendance. The Community Court at the library model pioneered by Spokane Municipal Court has now been replicated by other cities in Washington and nationwide and is being used as the foundation for a manual produced by the Center for Court Innovation on how to replicate the library-hosted Community Court model.
The study is available on the City’s web site.
