The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United States

Justice from Another Perspective: The Ideology and Developmental History of the Community Boards Program

Justice from Another Perspective: The Ideology and Developmental History of the Community Boards Program Raymond Shanholtz The origins and development of the San Francisco Community Boards (SFCB) ideology and program are a phenomenon more than a specific, descriptive event. Some of the chapters in this book look at SFCB from different analytical perspectives. Beyond the requirements of different disciplines, perhaps this is the only recourse that other writers can take, not having experienced the early birth or growth of the SFCB program or its development in the years they are writing about. Analysis is a form of intellectual mining, where things are broken apart for study and for the purpose of learning patterns and making comparative critique. In contrast, synthesis is a way of bringing everything together. It is the intent of this chapter to bring together as much of the phenomenon of the SFCB's ideology and work as possible. For the reader's appreciation of the enterprise of the SFCB program , its vision and accomplishments, this chapter seeks to create a comprehensive working picture. The motivational quality of the founding participants, the organizational shifts, the geographic expansion , and the ideological terrain are presented as an integrated pattern. In creating a structure such as the SFCB to carry forth a new concept, many elements that others may analyze in isolation are in reality intertwined . For example, volunteer recruitment, community outreach, case development, staff development, training models, approaches to dispute resolution, funding strategies, board development, external 201 202 THE POSSIBILITY OF POPULAR JUSTICE political and neighborhood forums, and development of internal organization capacity were contemporaneous activities in the early years of the SFCB program. Beginning in 1977, San Francisco Community Boards was a movement of energy and creativity in the city of San Francisco. Espousing a citizen's approach to conflict, crime, civil dissonance, and disorder, the organization engaged the imagination and commitment of hundreds of residents, volunteers, disputants, and agency and school personnel in some of the city's most difficult neighborhoods . The excitement and commitment to SFCB came from the direct work and involvement of neighborhood people creating from a simple concept a new reality for themselves and their communities. SFCB set out to demonstrate several points: that urban residents would step forward and, through training, learn a new skill that directly related to assisting their neighbors in the early resolution of conflicts; that neighbors in conflict would accept a forum created by their neighbors to express and resolve their differences; and that a dispute-settlement process could be developed that would apply to most neighborhood conflicts. The success and power of this demonstration is detailed in this volume. SFCB offered a new approach to handling recurring conflict and interpersonal differences that had a potential for violence in urban neighborhoods. The program emerged out of an understanding that the vast majority of homicides and felonious assaults are between people in long-standing, ongoing relationships. With this knowledge, SFCB understood the importance of a community-justice system that is able to address conflicts early and, ideally, intervene to prevent or thwart any pending violence (Shonholtz 1976a). In developing a rationale for its endeavor, SFCB presented a critique of the formal justice system that is as valid today as it was fifteen years ago, one that community people could relate to and acknowledge. SFCB argued that the system was formal, procedural, after-the-fact, and did not address the ongoing conflictual relationships of youth, families, neighbors, teachers, or merchants. The critique set forth in 1976 in "A System of Justice That Isn't Working and Its Impact on the Community" highlighted several points (included in Shonholtz 1984). First, the justice system forces communities and individuals to tolerate conflict until some law is broken, a person is injured, or property has been damaged. Second, JUSTICE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE 203 a justice system based on an after-the-fact response to alleged violation of rights without any mechanism for prevention or early intervention leaves individuals at risk and communities unsafe. Third, the legal system does not address the underlying personal needs or interests that generate interpersonal conflict and often aggravates tensions between disputing parties. Fourth, the legal system suppresses and evades conflict by its language, boundaries, codes, and procedural requirements. Even within a court, emotional content is given little, if any, validation or recognition, though it might express the real needs of one or all of the parties. A party...