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Judge Peggy Fulton Hora (Ret) - Smart Justice: A 21st century approach to justice & public safety

After 21 years on the California Superior Court, Judge Peggy Fulton Hora (Ret) has been appointed an Adelaide Thinker in Residence, 2009/2010. 

Judge Peggy Fulton Hora is a former dean of the B.E. Witkin Judicial College of California, has been on the faculty of the National Judicial College since 1992. She is the recipient of the Bernard S. Jefferson Judicial Education Award from the California Judges’ Association and a Senior Judicial Fellow for the National Drug Court Institute.

Judge Peggy Fulton Hora has been instrumental in building the problem-solving courts movement and presided over the Drug Treatment Court within her criminal assignment in California. Her work in this area has contributed to the creation of a new genre of justice — therapeutic jurisprudence — opportunities for real help and healing for alcoholics/addicts all over the world.

Her recent projects include drug treatment court seminars and technical assistance in Santiago, Valparaiso and Iquique, Chile. Judge Peggy Fulton Hora has lectured nationally and internationally and has written extensively on issues surrounding substance abuse, domestic violence, drug treatment courts, cultural competence and therapeutic jurisprudence. The appellate court and over 100 journals and law reviews have cited her work.

Read more about Judge Peggy Fulton Hora on her website, her blog or view an interview with her speaking about her work as a problem-solving judge.

Judge Hora will undertake a 3 month residency, divided into two visits. The first visit will be from 17 August to 25 September in 2009. The second visit will be from 22 March to 30 April 2010.

Objectives of the Residency

The aim of this residency is to improve the safety and wellbeing of South Australians by exploring innovative and alternative options to the traditional courtroom. It seeks to improve access to justice and outcomes in civil disputes, and to reduce crime.

Justice
Identify current strengths within the justice system and provide guidance on the further development of therapeutic and restorative justice approaches that address the causes of crime, in order to reduce crime, improve the safety and wellbeing of South Australians, and better manage the transition of offenders back in to the community .

Identify and promote ways to increase the community’s ability to resolve disputes.

Explore the potential of alternative/appropriate dispute resolution procedures to provide quicker and less costly access to justice and contribute to a more cohesive society.

Assist further development of a culturally appropriate and responsive justice system.

Education
Develop recommendations for continuing education on these objectives so they engender public and justice system support.

Increase awareness and understanding of these options and promote responsible practices in the community.

Provide guidance on appropriate education curricula meeting the needs of the Judiciary, legal practitioners, law enforcement and community corrections, service providers, court staff and community groups.

Research and Innovation
Provide guidance or models for:

• fostering innovation in the justice system
• ongoing rigorous independent research on the cost and effectiveness of programs
• research, standards and evaluation tools for these programs
• encouraging scholarship on these issues

Promotion
Promote South Australia and the Adelaide Thinkers in Residence program locally, nationally and internationally.

What is Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Restorative Justice?
Until recently there has been no general theory concerning the impact of legal processes upon participant wellbeing and its implications for attaining justice. This gap has been filled by Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ).

Therapeutic jurisprudence says that the processes used by courts, lawyers and other justice system personnel can impede, promote or be neutral in relation to outcomes connected with participant wellbeing. Developed by Professors David Wexler and Bruce Winick in the United States in the 1980s in the context of mental health law, it is now seen to apply to all areas of the law and across cultures and is the subject of international study and development.

Therapeutic jurisprudence is practical, using findings from the behavioural sciences to suggest techniques that legal professionals can use to do their job better. It acknowledges that when considering a therapeutic approach, legal actors must consider other justice system values, for example, in determining whether to imprison an offender who receives no services in prison or to place the person in community supervision and approach the root causes of offending in a holistic manner.

Restorative justice places the victim with the offender at the centre of the criminal justice process. In a typical "restorative justice" process the parties affected by harmful behaviour meet in order to seek a common understanding of what has happened and to determine collectively how best to deal with the aftermath.

Restorative justice has developed in contrast to "retributive justice", whereby authorities respond to social problems by imposing punishment on individuals who breach social rules. It is a “bottom up” system rather than an imposition of consequences from on high.

Instead of defining crime in terms of a violation against the state, it defines crime in terms of the violation of one person by another within the community. The focus is upon providing a forum for the offender to take responsibility and to make amends rather than to establish guilt and exact punishment. Principles of restorative justice may also be applied to civil disputes.

For more information check out the:

Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration website at: http://www.aija.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=206&Itemid=103

Victorian Association for Restorative Justice website http://www.varj.asn.au/

Partners in the Residency
Courts Administration Authority
Attorney-General’s Department
SAPOL
Dept of Education & Children’s Services
Social Inclusion Unit
Law School, The University of Adelaide
Flinders Law School, Flinders University
Commissioner for Victims’ Rights
Department of Correctional Services
City of Playford
Legal Services Commission

Sponsors
Law Foundation

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