Crime & Law
Law Enforcement, Court Officials Pursue New Strategies to Stopping Community Violence
In the struggle to make neighborhoods safer, some law enforcement agencies and court officials are working to find innovative approaches.
For some, that means partnering with community organizations and peacekeepers working on the ground. Some officials are pushing for policies to address root causes of violence and help offenders repair their relationships with their communities.
Cook County’s Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCC) divert young people with nonviolent charges from criminal courts to an alternative program. People ages 18-26 with nonviolent misdemeanors and felonies come through the court. If they finish the program, their charge is dismissed and their court record expunged.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Spratt has been presiding over the North Lawndale RJCC every Thursday since 2019. She said restorative justice courts are important in giving people who have been historically mistreated by criminal courts a chance to advocate for themselves.
“Once you’ve been convicted the only time you get a chance to tell your story to the judge is when you’re being sentenced,” Spratt said. “Whereas in restorative justice courts, we want to know your story.”
The RJCC isn’t a traditional courtroom. Instead, it works out of the North Lawndale neighborhood, allowing for court officials like Spratt to engage more with the community.
Listening to the community also plays an important role in police officers’ nonviolence work. Ernest Cato, chief public safety safety officer at the Illinois Department of Corrections and former deputy chief commander of the Chicago Police Department, said officers can work to stop violence by partnering with community members.
While working as the District Commander in the Austin neighborhood, Cato collaborated with community organizations to respond to gang violence and drug abuse. He said police can help nonviolence groups by changing their policing strategies to be more present in the neighborhood.
“You have to literally submerge yourself into that community,” Cato said. “You have to get out of your car. You have to walk; you have to get to know people. They feel alone and don’t feel supported. And we have to provide that support, but we have to find those groups that are invested in these communities.”
The shift in strategy is also happening in nonviolence workplaces. Kathryn Bocanegra, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, noted that many nonviolence workers must work while also dealing with their own traumas — all while working in a profession that is often underresourced and undervalued.
Bocanegra said organizations have been pushing for a work culture that supports rest and healing resources for staff working on the ground.
“These resources include behavioral health consultations like counseling that can be available on site,” Bocanegra said. “They can provide behavioral health support to program participants so that the same wellness resources offered to staff are available for community members.”
