SEATTLE — The Seattle City Attorney's Office plans to increase the use of pre-filing diversion services after announcing it will end its participation in Community Court.
City Attorney Ann Davison said the decision to end participation in Community Court was based on data that shows pre-filing diversion is more effective.
"Accountability is not just for defendants, it's for our systems as well," Davison said in a prepared statement. "When a city program isn't working, it's up to us to implement better alternatives."
A May 26 letter signed by Criminal Division Chief Natalie Walton-Anderson points out that people entering Community Court "fail to engage with court resources, fail to resolve their cases and never perform even the minimal 6 hours of community service that was a central component" of the latest operating agreement.
According to Davison's office, 22% of people who enter Community Court graduated or engaged with services. Additionally, when looking at a two-year time period, the chances of people committing a crime after participating in Community Court was 52%, compared to 23% when participating in pre-filing diversion.
Defendants can opt into the Community Court program or go through the traditional justice system. Walton-Anderson said a majority don't opt-in and their cases sit in limbo creating a large backlog.
“One of the tenants of this program was to resolve these cases within 60 days of arraignment and yet we have cases that are languishing there for 32 months,” Walton-Anderson said.
The letter sent to the Municipal Court also details defendants not showing up for court and said Community Court does not screen for defendants with serious criminal histories.
“We have approximately 22 charges that are automatically routed to community court, taking away the prosecutor’s discretion to remove those people who are not appropriate for the program,” Walton-Anderson said.
Three years ago, former City Attorney Pete Holmes signed an agreement with Seattle Municipal Court and the Department of Defense to establish what was called Seattle Community Court 3.0. It was the third attempt at that type of court in 12 years. The agreement mandated a large number of misdemeanor crimes would be automatically routed to the court and that participants immediately be released from custody, according to the May 26 letter from the City Attorney's Office.
The May 26 letter says since Community Court 3.0 was established, Seattle has seen "a marked increase in misdemeanor crimes such as theft, trespass and property destruction."
Judge Damon Shadid spoke with KING 5 individually as an elected judge and not on behalf of the court. Judge Shadid disagreed with the findings from the City Attorney’s Office.
“Of the people who opted into community courts 75% successfully graduated," Shadid said. "Of the 75% that graduated 80% did not get a new criminal law violation in the next two years."
Judge Shadid said during the pandemic, many cases were filed into community court to be arraigned but not all of them chose to participate, meaning the percentage of people who initially entered the court versus the number that went on to graduate did not accurately represent the program's success.
“That is always a very high number, so it's not fair to say that (all those who were arraigned) were participants of Community Court," Shahid said. "They were merely put into community court for arraignment and at that arraignment, they would decide if they wanted to participate in community court already scheduled in mainstream court."
Judge Shadid is disappointed to see community court come to an end.
“I do think this is going to have a significant impact on many defendants who we were connecting with the social safety net on the very first day they came to court,” he said.
Judge Shadid said he’s seen hundreds of people benefit from the court.
“We've helped them get education, housing, most importantly, treatment and both substance use and mental health treatment. These are wonderful results that we've gotten,” Judge Shadid said.
On June 12, no new cases will be referred to Community Court. A "significant number" of cases pending in Community Court will be dismissed if filed before Jan. 1, 2022. Other cases currently pending that are not resolved within the next three months will be sent to Seattle Municipal Court.
The Municipal Court issued a statement in response to the decision, saying:
“Seattle Municipal Court is disappointed that the Seattle City Attorney has decided to end their participation in Seattle Community Court. Since the relaunch of Community Court in August 2020, 892 cases belonging to 584 unique individuals have graduated from the program.
"An effective component of Community Court is providing individuals with access to community supports and services as soon as feasible to help address the underlying needs that contributed to their involvement in the criminal legal system. Seattle Municipal Court remains committed to working with the Seattle City Attorney and the King County Department of Public Defense and ensuring individuals continue to have meaningful access to services and supports whether their case is filed in a specialized court or a mainstream court.”