One of the cornerstones of any successful criminal justice system is encouraging the act of rehabilitation, a fancy way of saying the system should be designed to allow offenders to correct their negative behavior and reenter society safely once they do.
With Court in the Community, the Fort Worth municipal court is doing its part to bridge the gap and maintain a functional version of this system. The city has established a program, to help residents with outstanding non-violent misdemeanors, traffic violations, and parking tickets.
The idea behind the initiative is to alleviate the cost and restrictions placed on those who are unable to pay their fines or show up for required court dates.
As Chief Justice Simon Gonzales described it to CBS News, “This program, Court in the Community, warrants forgiveness; it allows people, if they have outstanding citations or warrants, they can come in and take care of their warrants or citations.”
Events are held outside of court rooms, with the latest taking place at Resource Connection’s Fort Worth campus.
Andre Johnson, who works with Cornerstone’s assistance network, said hundreds of people showed up to discuss how their individual misdemeanor, violation, or ticket could be addressed.
“You have individuals coming from the prisons, the jails, the halfway houses, the transitional homes,” Johnson said.
This is where Chief Justice Gonzales comes in. As he told CBS News, “I can set up a payment plan, community service, deferred adjudication, depending on the type of citation and what they can do.”
He emphasized, though, that the Court in the Community program does not handle serious charges.
William Rumuly, who is the City of Fort Worth’s Court Director, previously spoke with Patch about the importance of attending these events.
“I encourage anyone who has an outstanding citation with the Fort Worth Municipal Court to contact us immediately so we can provide options to move those cases to a final resolution,” Rumuly said.
He added, “We are a Safe Harbor Court, meaning we do not arrest persons who come voluntarily to see us on their outstanding warrants.”
Court in the Community is positively impacting the lives of DFW residents
The program’s first few events have already had a positive impact on the individuals seeking assistance from Fort Worth Municipal Court.
Aylissa Boardingham was candid with CBS News when asked why having access to city court in a more approachable way was beneficial to her. She said she attended the event “to try and get my tickets dismissed” after parking somewhere she was not allowed to park.
Boardingham has previously served jail time, and she said she was hoping to turn her life around after the latest charges against her were dismissed. “I’m young and I’m trying, and everybody’s not perfect,” she said.
Boardingham added, “I just want to go back to how it used to be, where I can go and get any job and I don’t have to worry about background checks and this, that and the third, I can go in here and get this because I’m ok. But when you have a background, it’s hard.”
Helping her, and others like her, is the first step toward establishing lasting rehabilitation.
The next event is scheduled for Saturday, August 8 beginning at 9 a.m. at Fort Worth’s Southwest Community Center.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Related: Fort Worth firefighter’s final wish: A kidney for the love of his life
