Street Outreach Court: A Documentary

A handful of cities across the country have been experimenting with the idea of creating street-outreach courts, many of which have been highly successful. Essentially, street-outreach courts differ from normal court proceedings in two major ways: 1) instead of holding hearings in the city courthouse– a location which many indigent citizens find excessively intimidating– they are held in a separate neutral location, like a church or soup kitchen; 2) in lieu of paying a fine, which, as previously noted, is unlikely to ever be paid, individuals will negotiate an action plan involving community service, job training, and a whole host of other supportive activities that, if completed, will result in the clearing of the infraction from the court’s records. These action plans are negotiated and overseen by social workers and other service providers. DAC is currently working on a campaign to bring the street-outreach court model to Detroit, enabling countless individuals to regain control of their lives and generating some much-needed savings for the city. Working with DAC lead organizer Molly Sweeney, SDAC will identify individuals whose stories exemplify the need for such a court and film their testimonials. These testimonials will then be edited together, along with input from criminal justice experts, into a documentary film. This film will then be screened to policy makers, community activists, students and other interested citizens and used as a tool to advocate for the court’s implementation. We expect the final product to run about 45 minutes.