Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Koehler wrote about the impact the Restorative Justice Community Court can have for youth in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.
Adler University’s Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice is evaluating the court.
“It’d be really hard to have a higher recidivism rate than we have in Cook County,” said Elena Quintana, executive director of Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice. “We have a moral mandate to keep kids in the community. The gestalt of (the current) system is not about reclaiming you. It’s about corralling you because you’re seen as unfit. And when you’re bounced back, you’ll be watched and rearrested.”