Video Review: Red Hook Justice

Meema Spadola, Producer and Director. Produced in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) by Sugar Pictures LLC 2004.

The Red Hook community of Brooklyn, New York is plagued by unemployment, poverty, drugs and crime. Eighty percent of its children are raised without one or both of their parents. Because of the community’s isolation from other parts of Brooklyn, its systemic problems appear insolvable.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center is one of a number of community justice courts to emerge in the United States and elsewhere. These courts recognize both personal responsibility and social realities in responding to crime. They focus on attempting to solve the underlying problems that contribute to the decision to commit crime by offering treatment, close supervision and accountability to defendants.

This documentary was filmed between 2000 and 2003, and focuses on two brothers struggling with the lure of the streets, a heroin addict who seeks treatment so that she can regain custody of her children, a court officer who grew up in the community, a legal aid attorney who believes that by encouraging accountability and treatment he is serving his clients’ interests, and the judge who uses persuasion, encouragement, threats and celebrations to motivate defendants to overcome the issues they face.

Interspersed throughout the film are clips from an interview with Dr. Todd Clear of John Jay College who places the community justice center concept in the context of the overwhelming economic and social disadvantages faced by the people who live in Red Hook. This reminds the viewer that while this might be called problem-solving justice, the problems are confronted one individual at a time and not systemically. This grounds the film in reality and makes the personal achievement of defendants all the more remarkable when they are able, with the help of people at the justice center, to overcome that reality.

There is debate within the restorative justice field over whether community justice courts should be considered a form of restorative justice. As portrayed in this film, they are overwhelmingly offender-oriented and focused on helping the defendants deal with the issues that have drawn them into crime. There is no mention of their victims, aside from the children of the heroin addict who have been placed in foster care. There is no attempt portrayed to bring defendants together with their victims.

However, restorative programs are often accused of being incapable of dealing with systemic injustices such as chronic poverty and hopelessness. Whether that accusation is fair or not, it is helpful to see examples such as this that address those problems directly. Furthermore, restorative justice practitioners will resonate as they observe the passion, commitment and humanity of those who administer this court. Judge Alex Calabrese, who presides over this unusual tribunal, contrasts his court from traditional criminal justice:

"In the traditional, court, defendants and their families are seen as outcasts, community outcasts, and they’re treated as such. Here we recognize that defendants are part of our community, and they’re going to be part of our community when they get arrested, and they’re going to be part of our community when the case is over with."



Video and DVD copies are available for purchase ($390) and video copies for rent ($75) from:

First Run/Icarus Films
Phone: 800-876-1710
Fax: 718-488-8642
E-mail: mailroom@frif.com
Web: frif.com


Daniel W. Van Ness
April 2006