Judge Patricia S. Spratt of the Circuit Court of Cook County splits her time between the Fourth Municipal District in Maywood and the North Lawndale Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC) program for nonviolent offenders.
On Thursdays you’ll find her at UCAN where the restorative justice proceedings take place with nonviolent participants from ages 16 to 26. These are young people referred to her from criminal court for an opportunity to change their path for the better.
The program’s aim is to end the harmful cycle of revenge and recidivism by resolving conflicts through restorative conferences and peace circles with participants, victims, family members, friends and others affected by the crime.
“Judge (Colleen) Sheehan had been doing (peace) circles at the juvenile court for a while,” said Spratt who took over the North Lawndale proceeding from Sheehan. “They surprisingly had a lot of success. So, as I understand it, she went to Chief Judge Timothy Evans (Circuit Court of County) and asked to start RJCC.”
Spearheaded by Sheehan, the first Restorative Justice Community Court in Cook County, started in 2017 in North Lawndale. Two more courts opened in Avondale on the Northwest Side and Englewood on the South Side in 2020. A new location in Sauk Village opened in July 2024.
The program includes a group of about 30 nonprofit organizations including UCAN which provides wraparound services to participants who come through the program.
“They had success from the start and two years later in 2019 Judge Sheehan retired from the bench,” Spratt said. “I pestered her so much asking her to show me what to do because I wanted to get to Judge Evans to open up more of these courts in Cook County. He knew my interest and asked me if I wanted to take over. So, in 2019, I became the RJCC judge in North Lawndale.”
Stakeholders like the State’s Attorney office play an important role in the process.
“The deal was they would look for individuals coming through the criminal court who met the criteria for North Lawndale RJCC which was individuals have to live, work or worship in North Lawndale and be between the ages of 18 and 26,” said Spratt.
Participants also have to be willing to take accountability for the conduct that brought them to the attention of the arresting police office.
“Once they’re referred to us from criminal court, they can choose to stay with us or they can choose to go back to criminal court. When I see them for the first time they look to be wrapped up in layers and layers of emotional body armor.”
Rather than defendants, those in the program are referred to as participants.
“They have case managers that I tell them are their guardian angels and they have two circle keepers,” Spratt said. “It’s in the circle where the magic happens and where they learn to trust the people they’re working with and the people they have in the circle with them.”
Family members can join them in the peace circle if the participant requests it. Peace circles are held in a room behind closed doors while talk circles take place in a room open to anyone.
“I don’t get to sit in (the peace) circle with them but I’m told once they shed that body armor they show their authentic self and that’s really just some young kid who has no opportunities because they live in these horribly traumatized neighborhoods and who just needed to make a living. We just want them to do it in a non-criminal way.”
Fredrick Dennis works as a circle keeper with the Lawndale Christian Legal Center and holds a talk circle at UCAN every Thursday, rating them a 10 out of 10.
“Talk circles and peace circles are sacred spaces,” Dennis said. “What’s said in the circle, stays in the circle.”
It’s rare to have parents show up with their child so feedback from parents is rare, said Spratt.
“The grandmothers are the backbone of that neighborhood,” Spratt said. “They should be celebrated. When parents do show up it’s probably for the first time they’re in front of me and they want to get a handle on what their child is going to go through but they don’t really speak.”
An estimated 7.8 million children in the U.S. are being raised in so-called “grandfamilies,” with Black children being disproportionately represented in that scenario. While they make up 14% of the national population, they account for 25% of all children in grandfamilies, a trend exacerbated by various social issues.
Once participants are dismissed by the State’s Attorney they have no further obligation to the court after that and can have their arrest record expunged through Spratt who signs the order of expungement and can take part in the graduation held each year in November.
“Their response to how the program has impacted them is they’re grateful to have had the opportunity to come through RJCC and leave the criminal court and find a path that doesn’t require them to engage in criminal conduct,” Spratt said.
Repeat offenders are not frequent but RJCC participants sometimes will catch a second nonviolent case.
“I want to boast that we have a 13% recidivism rate as opposed to Cook County’s general 65%,” Spratt said. “So, when the young people come to the court and when they engage and do what they need to do to come out successfully, they stay successful. We return them back to the community and many of them stay in the community and contribute to the welfare of the community.”
The program she said saves lives.
“I mean you take a person who is living in a traumatized community and throughout his entire life has heard gunshots practically every day and maybe was shot himself or certainly has seen a gun pointed at him. … so it’s people who don’t have hope and don’t have jobs available to them and don’t have the will to get an education, this changes all of that.”
Spratt’s of the belief that opening RJCCs in all 77 Chicago neighborhoods will see a reduction in crime.
“When that happens, businesses come back to the neighborhoods and when businesses come back to the neighborhoods, people have jobs,” she said. “When they have jobs, they have money that they’ve earned legally and their community is less traumatized.
One of the partner agencies, Austin-based BUILD offers wraparound services to participants.
The organization’s Bradly Johnson, interim executive director and former chief community officer, lauded Spratt for helping BUILD develop the necessary relationships to become a place for referral services for RJCC participants who live in the Austin area.
“The North Lawndale RJCC takes in individuals from Austin and other places to make sure they receive services within their neighborhood or the closest to them because they’re most likely to take advantage of it,” Johnson said. “The courts have case managers attached and that’s where BUILD comes in. Specifically for the Restorative Justice team, their case managers look for resources that would support the needs of the individual.”
Sometimes good people do bad things but that doesn’t excuse the harm caused, Johnson said. So requiring participants to work with a restorative justice practitioner to develop a repair of harm agreement (ROHA) makes clear they understand the harm they caused and what work needs to be done to repair the harm is a key part of the process.
“They look at what needs to be changed for them so they don’t continue to make the same wrong decisions,” Johnson said. “Many times there are some mandates about going to school, employment, getting mental health services and treatment. Those are built in and there’s a timeframe attached to it. Typically, it’s like a 90-day timeframe.”
Does RJCC make a difference?
“It definitely makes a difference from my perspective,” Johnson said. “What I would say is the difference that it makes is it actually gives the individual a new identity of purpose and meaning. Oftentimes they don’t consider their value and that they really do matter. I think the process gives them back value and a different label and the power to insert themselves into society and community in a positive way.”
