Last month, a new court opened in Vancouver, Washington, to hear cases involving offenses typically associated with people experiencing homelessness such as illegal camping and storing personal property in public spaces. The people accused of these low-level crimes are known as participants, not defendants, and the legal proceedings take place not in a courthouse but inside the Recovery Café, a substance abuse recovery provider serving Clark County. Reducing barriers to people experiencing homelessness is a key focus of the Vancouver community court, with multiple providers present at each hearing to help participants access services right away and commit to completing a set of conditions, including community service, required by the court to resolve their cases.
Jonathan Young is Vancouver’s city attorney. Brandy Branch is the vice president of outpatient and community-based services at Lifeline Connections. Christie Emrich is a criminal defense attorney and the owner of Vancouver Defenders. They join us to talk about the Vancouver community court and the impact it’s having.
Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. A new court opened in Vancouver last month. The proceedings take place, not in a courthouse, but inside the Recovery Café. It’s a substance use disorder provider. This new community court is focused on cases involving offenses typically associated with people experiencing homelessness, like illegal camping or storing personal property in public spaces. It’s a collaboration between the city, the county, lawyers and social service providers. We’re gonna get three perspectives on this new court right now. Jonathan Young is Vancouver’s City Attorney. Brandy Branch is the Vice president of outpatient and community-based Services at Lifeline Connections and Christie Emrich is a criminal defense attorney and the owner of Vancouver Defenders. Welcome to Think Out Loud to all three of you.
Jonathan Young: Thank you, Dave.
Christie Emrich: Thank you for having us.
Brandy Branch: Thank you.
Miller: Jonathan Young, first. Why did the city of Vancouver create this? The efforts were underway now a number of years ago.
Young: They have. Thank you, Dave. So Vancouver has been looking at the idea of establishing a community court for several years. It’s really one key component to addressing a larger system of homelessness and making sure that we’re addressing homelessness in a way that’s compassionate and strategic so that we can protect the most vulnerable of our ecological areas, our fire impact areas, and also provide outreach to our community members in a way that’s meaningful and meets them where they’re at.
Miller: Can you give us a sense for the kinds of infractions or crimes that can lead someone to this new court?
Young: Absolutely. So these are typically lower level offenses. Vancouver has changed its unlawful camping ordinance and outdoor habitation ordinance so that it criminalizes conduct in places that are the most important to Vancouver, to protect things like camping in ecologically sensitive areas. So if someone were to camp near a water source of a stream or an aquifer or store their personal property in, in an area like that, that could be considered a crime and it would be referred for consideration for the community court.
Miller: Christie Emrich, how would those kinds of infractions be dealt with in the past in terms of the proceedings and the timeline and the usual outcomes?
Emrich: So those charges are all criminal charges. So they’re criminal offenses, they can be punished up to anywhere from 90 days and $1,000 fine or 364 days in custody and a $5,000 fine, depending on the offense. Typically in the past, an officer would cite that individual, they would be given a court date, typically two to three weeks out. They would come to court at that point, they would be screened for an attorney. They would have an opportunity for counsel and then their court date would be set out about five to six additional weeks for their next court appearance. At that court appearance, they would determine whether or not their matter was resolving or was setting for trial. So typically a case would last anywhere between 60 and maybe 120 days to resolution. Typical penalties for those charges anywhere from work crew to jail time.
Miller: Was it likely that jail time would have been the punishment for those kinds of crimes? I mean, given the challenges of overcrowded jails everywhere?
Emrich: That would not definitely be a rarity. The problem is, often people missed court and if they missed their court date, a warrant was issued for their arrest and in the past they would be brought into custody and typically sit one or two days in jail for these low level offenses.
Miller: They’d be escalated in a sense by a lack of a court appearance and then the judge would put forward a bench warrant.
Emrich: That’s it exactly.
Miller: OK. So that is the way things worked in the past, Jonathan Young, what about now? Can you walk us through how a hearing at the new court works?
Young: Absolutely. So Dave, first, the way that someone is cited in for a hearing is probably one of the more significant parts of this is that the referral process to the community court really initiates through the city’s HART team, that’s HART for Homeless Assistance and Response Team. And really what that team does is go out and they make contact with people who are living out on the streets and who have historically refused to engage in services voluntarily. And so they’re really focused on making contact with people who haven’t engaged voluntarily in the services that are available to them. Once they’re referred to court, they go in and make contact with the team at the Recovery Café and once there, each person is really screened as part of a wraparound service, where they can meet with an intake service provider who will determine what sorts of barriers that person has been historically experiencing and what might be the most useful for them to help break down those barriers. From there, they engage with the court. They have an opportunity to meet with their defense attorney, someone like Christie who can advise them whether participation in the court is going to be in their best interest.
Miller: Christie, if I can interrupt there, what are those conversations like? What are the pros and cons from - I guess you don’t even call them defendants at this point, they would be, I think the word is, participants. But, what do you advise them about the reasons why it might make sense for them to take part in this court? And what they should keep in mind that they also are potentially giving up?
Emrich: That’s a great question. So prior to court starting, all new participants, I have been given a list and the city and the county work with my office and I have reviewed and received discovery for each of these cases prior to their first appearance. So I can see if there’s any issues legally that we would want to pursue in a traditional court setting. So when I’m meeting with participants for the first time, I’m laying out their options, they can participate, of course, in this program. The benefits that they may receive as part for participating in the program, which includes a dismissal of charges upon graduation. And then we also review the traditional option, which is the traditional court setting and what that might look like for them. And then together we make a decision on what would be best for that participant in their individual circumstances. So we’ve been doing the court now for about a month. And at this point, I have not had a participant who’s turned down the opportunity to resolve their criminal charges through the community court.
Miller: As I noted, Brandy Branch is with us as well, the Vice president of outpatient and community-based services at Lifeline Connections. Brandy, why did you say yes, when the city of Vancouver asked if you would want your social service agency to be a part of this new community court?
Branch: Thanks for asking. I think it’s imperative that we look at diversion programs and programs that assist with breaking down barriers for individuals. And this program also looks at how providers can assist these individuals breaking down barriers. We have systems throughout our community that are sometimes difficult to engage in and this is a quick way to get connected with a provider. So I support the approach of addressing homelessness and recovery works for people. This can be an external motivator for individuals who have not engaged previously. So I see this as a really positive approach for Vancouver.
Miller: Some external, in a sense, it’s a push. I mean, one of the lines I’ve heard in the past is that for many people with active substance use disorder, they have to be ready themselves to take advantage of help and have the help be meaningful. They have to decide for themselves. But what we’re talking about here is something different. I mean, does court ordered treatment work differently?
Branch: I do believe that it assists an individual in identifying consequences to their active use. I mean, obviously, not everybody who’s homeless is using substances but those that are face additional barriers and potential additional criminal charges. So this can be a way that we can address the consequences to their addiction, if they’re identified as having a substance use disorder, and address it from a treatment perspective and the court is open to supporting providers’ recommendations and ways that we can assist individuals. We were able to assist somebody with getting into inpatient treatment and we can prioritize them, since they have a court order to manage this process. So I do believe that individuals need to want to change, but this can assist an individual with identifying, ‘OK, my life needs to make changes. I’m not having legal consequences.’ And so they can decide to make some changes when previously they may not have been ready. So it can assist individuals with getting ready.
Miller: How has the traditional criminal court system presented challenges or obstacles for this group of people?
Branch: Well, individuals who are homeless face lots of barriers in regards to having access to phones. If they don’t, if they can’t pay a bill, if they can’t manage their phone, [or have] IDs, they often have their possessions stolen from them on a regular basis. So tracking appointments, outcomes, attending things, transportation. Those are all potential barriers for people to go to court and follow through those processes. This system assists those individuals with breaking down those barriers and being able to access what they need and help them get stabilized to be able to follow through with ultimately traditional treatment. So it’s really focused on supporting the individual as well as holding them accountable so that they have a better chance of recovery and not being homeless when they’re going through this process.
Miller: Jonathan, I want to go back to the timelines, because it seems like the length of time for these, the traditional criminal court process and this new community court, they’re really different and that’s not insignificant. We heard from Christie Emrich at the beginning that the traditional court process could go on for months, really. What’s the timeline for this community court?
Young: It’s much faster. So by contrast, we started the community court program about four weeks ago and this upcoming Monday, we are on schedule to have our first graduates complete the program successfully.
Miller: So, graduate meaning the original charges dismissed?
Young: Exactly, right.
Miller: So for those, there may be issues of privacy that you can’t get into. But what can you tell us about the cases of these first soon to be graduates?
Young: Christie, I’ll refer to you as their attorney.
Emrich: Our first graduates - and speaking a little bit more to the difference in the timeline, the beauty of community court and I think the power that’s behind it is its immediacy. An individual comes to court the first time, they receive that risk assessment, they consult with their attorney and then they are given an opportunity to immediately connect with service providers that can be a benefit to them. All the providers, our community partners, are in the same room with us and they’re there to help.
For our first participants, we have had charges from misdemeanor theft in the third degree, someone that was taking food to eat. We have participants that were charged with unlawful camping and storing personal property in a public place. All those participants went through the same system. They received a risk assessment. We identified what key areas of need that they had, what barriers that they were facing. And then we connected those individuals with our community partners to help make a connection and break a barrier. Some of the programs that we have working with us, DSHS, they do a benefits check for our participants. So they make sure that, if they’re eligible for any benefits, that those benefits are up to date, and they help them apply for benefits that they may be eligible for. We’ve addressed food insecurity. We have agencies that have taken participants to local food banks, connected them with resources in their area, showed them how to utilize those resources and help them, everything from meal planning to recognizing how to seek help in the future in the community. We’re identifying things as simple as a phone and agencies in town working with individuals to help them get phones, identification, driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations. Those things have a direct impact on someone’s life and ability to care for themselves. And these agency partners are working with our participants to relieve those barriers, in addition to the council for the homeless that’s there, and our treatment agencies providing mental health and substance use treatment.
Miller: What happens if a participant doesn’t do what they’ve agreed to do, doesn’t take part in treatment, doesn’t show up for future check ins? What are the repercussions?
Emrich: For us, because we do have a community, a team that is working with these participants, we can work with them. We can set it, extend time if someone is struggling and is gonna need additional time, we can do that. But if someone were to just stop participating and not come back, and decide that they don’t want to continue with community court, this is still a criminal offense. And the court still has the ability to issue a warrant and then their case would be sent to the traditional court system for resolution.
Miller: So the stick is to go back to the old version of the criminal system. Jonathan Young, my understanding is that most of these participants have to perform some number of hours of community service. What kind of work are they being asked to do?
Young: So I wanna build on what Christie was describing of court being the backdrop for this first and then I’ll come back to that. But I want to reiterate that the community court program is really one of several therapeutic court systems that we have in Clark County. So some other ones, Substance Abuse Court, Mental Health Court and Veterans Court are also options that will be available if somebody’s referred back to the regular court.
But there’s some key distinctions that make this community court program really a much more low barrier option for participants. Most notably, those other therapeutic court systems typically require either a plea of guilty or an acknowledgement of the facts that underlie the charges to begin the case and they’re about a year long. So it’s a much longer commitment to be a part of those.
To your other question though, Dave, in order to go through the community court program, there’s really kind of two prongs that the court is looking at. One is connecting people with services and making sure that they follow through with those recommendations. That’s usually pretty easy because the providers are right outside the room and then the other is a community service component. And we’ve partnered with the Clark County Corrections Service, so that on Mondays at 10 o’clock in the morning, there’s a corrections crew that can help facilitate the work crew, take people out, complete their community service and then they can be returned to the same Recovery Café, so that they can attend court when they get back. So it’s really designed to, to help reduce those barriers of transportation, of getting to and from the Recovery Café.
Miller: Brandy Branch, it’s only been about a month so far, but would you like to see
the court tweaked in any way? I mean, do you think that it could be improved upon right now?
Branch: Well, I think with any new system, there are going to be improvements through the course of it. So I wouldn’t make any suggested changes right now. I think that’s a bit early in regards to the process. Lifeline’s been fortunate to be involved in multiple therapeutic specialty courts, so I think just observing the process and working with all the team members to make changes as they need to come up. So it’s too early right now for me to identify changes that may need to take place.
Miller: Just briefly, Christie Emrich, how will you know that this system is working?
Emrich: I think we’re already seeing that it’s working. Participants have connected with services and are having needs met that have gone unmet for years. And I think that’s a win. So they are learning about opportunities here in our community, folks and groups that can help them and assist them. And I think already we’re seeing the benefit of that.
Miller: Christie Emrich, Brandy Branch and Jonathan Young, thanks very much.
Branch: Thank you.
Young: Thank you.
Emrich: Thank you.
Miller: Christie Emrich is a Vancouver defense attorney. Brandy Branch is the vice president of outpatient and community-based services for Lifeline Connections. And Jonathan Young is the Vancouver City Attorney.
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