First Community Prosecution Training Held in Georgia
MTSKHETA, Georgia—Prosecutors in Georgia are participating in the country's first training on community prosecution, meant to help them become more effective by being responsive to the communities they represent. The two day training was organized by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Open Society Georgia Foundation, in collaboration with the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Georgia. The Center for Court Innovation assisted in developing and conducting the training.
The training is an important element of a two year Justice Initiative-Open Society Georgia Foundation project to develop community prosecution in Georgia, increasing both the public accountability of prosecutors and their ability to combat certain forms of crime and public insecurity. The project is being implemented at the request of the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Georgia.
The project is training prosecutors to forge closer ties with local communities and be more responsive to local needs, with a goal of increasing the public's trust in the prosecution service and the criminal justice system as a whole. Originating in the United States, community prosecution is a growing movement in countries as diverse as Chile, South Africa, and the Netherlands.
Community prosecution is a localized approach to justice, involving citizens, law enforcement, and other government agencies in efforts to address the safety concerns of local communities. To reduce the onset of crime, community prosecutors provide drug education in schools, develop programs to reduce family violence and sexual harassment, and coordinate crime prevention activities—such as sports leagues—for youth. By including prevention and education in their mission, prosecutors become problem solvers.
The training is part of a community prosecution pilot project in the Mtskheta district of Georgia, located 30 km north of the capital, Tbilisi. If successful, the Mtskheta pilot project will be replicated in other parts of Georgia.