Title
Briefing of Olympia Municipal Community Court
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive the information. Briefing only; no action requested.
Report
Issue:
Whether to receive a briefing from the Olympia Municipal Court on its recently launched Community Court.
Staff Contact:
Scott Ahlf, Judge 360.753.8025
Diane Whaley, Public Defense Coordinator 360.753.8057
Rocio Ferguson, Olympia City Prosecutor 360.753.8043
Monica Schneider, Probation Services Supervisor 360.753.8707
Diana Duch, City of Olympia Public Defender 360.584.9243
Maryam Olson, Court Administrator 360.709.2783
Presenter(s):
Scott Ahlf, Judge
Rocio Ferguson, City Prosecutor
Monica Schneider, Probation Services Supervisor
Diane Whaley, Public Defense Coordinator
Background and Analysis:
The Community Court is a therapeutic court held weekly in conjunction with the Wednesday arraignment calendar to provide a different approach to the legal problems that are resistant to the traditional court solutions.
Issues
Due to the increasing homeless population in the City, a large number of the filings in the court are for quality of life offenses within the downtown core-such as criminal trespass, theft, littering, marijuana possession, urinating in public and use of drug paraphernalia. Many of the defendants charged with these crimes often suffer from mental illness and/or chemical dependency. The court is seeing the same people charged with these crimes in and out of court on a constant basis-without getting the help they need to stop these re-occurring crimes. These individuals need direct access to service providers such as housing, chemical dependency treatment, mental health treatment, job resources, education resources, and health care/basic need resources. In Thurston County, one of the key complaints is that resources are spread out and they are spread thin. In the past, the court has addressed these cr...
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