147TH INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING
EXPERTS’
PAPERSVISITING
EXPERTS’ PAPERSCOMMUNITY JUSTICE IN THAILAND:PARTNERSHIP IN TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS AND
ENHANCEMENT OF COMMUNITY QUALITY OF LIFE
Kittipong Kittayarak*

I. INTRODUCTION
Crime prevention and control have long been viewed as tasks of criminal justice agencies and approaches
that have been traditionally adopted are to enforce laws and punish or rehabilitate those who violate them.
In this sense, the formal criminal justice agencies, i.e. police, prosecutors, courts and corrections, are themajor players and offenders are the focus of the justice system. Recently, a new concept has been introduced
and changed the view of crime and the ultimate goal of the justice system. Such a paradigm shift proposesthat crime and disorder in society are problems which should be dealt with by the community and that therole of the criminal justice system should be to promote quality of life and safety in communities, not just to
punish offenders. Criminal justice agencies and professionals should work with the community in responding
to crimes. This paradigm is often referred to as “community justice” and is now widely accepted as aneffective method to complement the formal justice system in dealing with crimes in Thailand.
Community justice underlines the involvement of the community in the justice process. The concept ofcommunity justice is rather a complement to, not a replacement of, the mainstream criminal justice ideal.
In Thailand, this concept is not a totally new idea. The Thai communities have a centuries-old tradition ofcontributing to the maintenance of peace and order. Even in the modern administration of justice, we have
had community involvement in the criminal justice system for many decades. However, the concept ofcommunity justice is more than merely the involvement of community members. It is based on the profoundidea of building partnerships between the community and the state, creating justice at the grass roots leveland developing sustainable communities. To clarify this concept, the Thai experience in implementing
community justice will be used as a case study. This case study will detail how we established community
justice, to what extent we implement it, what benefits we gained, and what we learned from it.

II. FROM VOLUNTEERS TO COMMUNITY JUSTICE
The involvement of communities in the criminal justice system has been recognized for many years.
The private sector and community members work closely with criminal justice agencies in reporting
crimes, rehabilitating offenders and assisting in social reintegration of offenders. One of the most prominent
examples of community involvement in criminal justice is the Volunteer Probation Officer Scheme (VPO),
which was established in Thailand in 1986. VPOs are community members who voluntarily work with the
Department of Probation (DOP) in providing probation services. From the beginning, the VPOs have been
an integral part of the probation system, since they provide a linkage between the State and the generalpublic. They also serve as multiplying factors in the attempt by the DOP to reach out to the community,
either through various schemes to disseminate information, to educate people, or to sensitize the public
to various issues, including certain types of criminal offences. One of these important roles is to provide
effective monitoring for the offenders who are serving probation orders within the community to ensure
their conduct is in accordance with the conditions set by the Court.
In performing such duties, these volunteers are also responsible for providing help to, and assessing the
progress made by these offenders – an indispensable element of the successful probation system. Thus, the* Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Thailand.

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volunteer probation officers make an invaluable contribution to foster the effective reintegration of offenders
back into society, particularly through their roles in narrowing the gaps that exist between the lives ofoffenders and those of the normal citizen, and help the offenders overcome the alienation they feel upon
their return to the society.
The following list comprises the basic qualification requirements for those interested in joining as avolunteer:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Be of at least 20 years of age
Live in a permanent residence
Be literate
Be a person of integrity and honesty
Have a suitable income
Maintain law-abiding behaviour
Have completed the required training course
Have no criminal record except for petty offences or negligence.

After being trained on core knowledge in rehabilitating and supervising offenders, VPOs will assist
probation officers in supervising and monitoring probationers in their local communities. As of 2011, a totalof 13,082 VPOs are working in the Department of Probation nationwide.

A. Volunteers in the Right and Liberty Protection Scheme
This Scheme is another example of a project carried out by the Rights and Liberties Protection Department,
Ministry of Justice. This scheme, established in 2005, has recruited community members who wish to become
voluntarily involved in justice activities. Their roles are to educate other members on rights protection issues
and provide counselling and conflict resolution services if needed in the community. Volunteers under thisscheme have been selected and trained by the Department. This year, there are 11,185 volunteers participatingin this scheme. Apart from volunteer schemes, the Ministry of Justice also initiated several other programmesof community participation under the ministerial strategy of “Justice for All, All for Justice”. For example, there
are community networks to fight against drug abuse; and the justice networks in the Southern border provinces.
The nature of the volunteer activities is to assist criminal justice agencies in casework and to participate
in some assigned activities that are mostly initiated by officials. Although their work is valuable, most ofthem are limited to activities that respond to the needs of these agencies, such as helping in casework andreporting crimes and rights violations. The roles of volunteers are usually assigned by justice agencies, not
as a direct response to the community’s needs. In other words, the relationship between justice agencies
and the participating community members normally follows a top-down, one-way model.
However, these schemes demonstrate the community’s interest in justice-related activities and its
concerns for safety and public order. This new paradigm of criminal justice was presented to communities in
the 2000s. As they responded positively, activities related to community justice were initiated.

III. EMERGENCE OF COMMUNITY JUSTICE IN THAILAND
With advent of the progressive, pro-rights Constitution of 1997, the Thai justice system has undergone
major reform. One of the important factors which accelerated such changes was the problem of overcrowding.
Due to a misguided drugs policy which has placed too much emphasis on inflicting heavy penalties on drug
addicts, the numbers of inmates had doubled, from 120,000 in 1997 to 260,000 in 2003. In order to quickly
solve the overcrowding problem the government had to come up with innovative ideas for alternatives
to imprisonment. Drug diversion programmes and other community-based rehabilitation alternatives areamong the major schemes presented to reduce courts’ caseloads and inmate numbers. Under the new policy,
drug users and drug addicts, who previously had been prosecuted as criminal offenders, are to be regarded
as patients who need rehabilitation treatment. According to the law, the court may divert the case fromthe traditional criminal justice system and refer the person to designated facilities for drug assessment. If
the evaluation result shows that the person is a drug abuser or addict, he or she will be required to attend
treatment programmes for a specific period of time. After a successful completion of the programmes with80

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satisfactory results, the criminal case will be dropped with no criminal records.
The Department of Probation (DOP) has been given the important task of shouldering the burdens of
the new programmes designed to reduce the excessive numbers of inmates, especially drug addicts, whose
numbers constituted more than half of the inmate numbers. Although the DOP has done excellent workin providing successful adult probation programmes in the past, it has been as yet unable to expand its
scope of work to cover new, community-based alternatives to incarceration. Lack of overall criminal justicepolicy planning, lack of interagency cooperation and coordination among key actors, and inadequate funding
were among the major reasons hampering the successful introduction of community-based treatment asalternatives to the long-held practices based mostly on retributive, custodial measures. With the expanded
scope of probation work from the traditional probation to the new frontier of prevention and diversion, the
DOP has been pressed to come up with innovative ideas to carry on its new assignments and, at the sametime, maintain the quality of its traditional functions.
Restorative justice and community justice were two new paradigms in criminal justice administration
which have been introduced by the DOP as a strategy to promote support for community-based approaches.
As restorative justice emphasizes informal methods of dealing with crime, particularly with the increasingroles of the victims, offenders, and the community, it more or less supports community-based treatment
options. Likewise, the concept of community justice views the community as the co-producer of justice andconsiders the community should be empowered to work as a partner with other criminal justice agencies inmaintaining public order and safety.
The community justice concept was put into practice for the first time in 2003 under a project called“Community Justice Networks in Offender Rehabilitation.” The major objective was to expand the base of
support by the community so as to be able to cope with much more demanding responsibilities, especially on
the rehabilitation of drug addicts. With the concept of ‘community justice’, whereby the community can workin partnership with the government, it was hoped that the community could help during the rehabilitation
and reintegration of drug addicts to society. In Thailand, the concept of people in the community joining
hands with the authorities in law enforcement and providing justice has long been a tradition in Thai ruralcommunities. This tradition has lately been neglected since the modern criminal justice agencies were
established. The pilot project initiated by the DOP has been successful in harnessing this hidden strengthof the community. It was found that through the unity and bonding between members in the community, it
was possible to bring about positive outcomes in terms of helping and caring for the needy in society. By
empowering the community to be more active and get involved in day-to-day justice activities, community
resources and social capital can be fully utilized to achieve the desired result.
As the concept of community justice was new and its implementation was different from that of VPOs,
the DOP conducted a series of action research projects from 2003 to 2006.  One of the most prominent wascalled “Community Justice Network in Fighting Against Drug Abuse” with the aim of studying how thecommunity justice model might be successful in the Thai context. Important knowledge and information
were gained from this project. Training courses and materials for justice officials on necessary skills toeffectively work with the community, as well as key mechanisms and processes to develop community
partnerships, were drawn up and were applied by related agencies.
After the success of the concept of community justice in the area of offender rehabilitation and reintegration,
the Ministry of Justice in 2004 decided that community justice may be an appropriate approach to lessen the
problem of violence in the southern border provinces as community justice reduces the gap between thegovernment and the community. Thus, another pilot project was launched in three southern border provinces.
In this new pilot project, the scope of activities with the community under the community justice concept
was not limited to the treatment of offenders but was instead expanded to new areas. It aimed to strengthen
the community, create an environment conducive to reconciliation, and to provide restoration to victims ofviolence. To achieve such goals, communities in the targeted area must be involved and work as partners withjustice agencies. Eventually, the visible outcome of the project was the establishment of community justicecentres, which were used as a hub for community members to work with the justice agencies. Both projects
proved that community justice can respond to complex problems which were not easy to deal with using
conventional approaches.

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The use of the community justice concept in the southern border provinces has made the concept ofcommunity justice widely known to the public as well as within the Ministry of Justice. The scope of theactivities of the community is not limited to rehabilitation and re-entry, as in the past, but also involves
crime prevention, reconciliation of conflicts, legal aid, etc. The Ministry of Justice saw the concept ofcommunity justice as a strategic policy to engage the public to join hands with the government with the aimof providing better access to justice and more effective crime prevention. Convinced of the usefulness of
this policy, the Ministry of Justice in 2005 has made community justice initiatives a major ministerial policy
under the strategy of “Justice for All, All for Justice”.
To prepare for a nation-wide implementation of the policy, the Ministry of Justice launched action researchcalled the “Community Justice Development Pilot Project” in 2005. This research project was conducted in 17
provinces to determine the most effective approaches and processes to strengthen communities and promote
community justice centres that respond to the community’s needs and context. A total of 36 communities
participated in this project and were developed to be model communities of community justice. The outputs ofthe project included producing a curriculum for educating community justice members and justice personnel
in basic knowledge of community justice, community work, community empowerment, and conflict resolution;a manual for working with communities; and research studies on developing approaches and processes forcollaboratively working with communities and justice agencies.
The promulgation of the 1997 and 2007 Constitutions also contributed to the growth of community justicepolicy. In accordance with the spirit of the new constitutions, much progress has been made in the areas ofdecentralization and local governance in Thailand. Local government is expected to show more initiative andprovide more opportunities for public participation. Many duties, including some previously allocated to thecentral government, were transferred to local authorities, such as the Provincial Administrative Organizations(PAOs) and Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAOs). Services directly affecting locals, such as basic
education, development of the quality of life, and public health, are now administered by local administrative
organizations. As decentralization empowers people and communities as well as local government bodies, theMinistry of Justice was confident about implementing community justice at the local levels throughout thecountry.
In addition, government policy on drugs has placed great importance on the role of the community.
While much effort has been made for many years to combat drug problems, the situation of drug abusestill remains serious. Previously, drug abuse, especially that involving methamphetamine (Yaba ), tended
to be concentrated among labourers; however, in recent years it has spread to youth, students, and factory
workers. The presence of drug dealers in a community is a cause of concern as well as a threat to the safety
and well-being of the whole community. The complexity of the drug problem means that state agencies
alone cannot solve it: they urgently need cooperation from the public and private sectors. In this connection,
the government realized that communities can play a vital role in drug prevention and control. Community
justice is undoubtedly an effective means to solving the drug problem and responding adequately to thenational policy on drug control.

IV. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY JUSTICE IN THE THAI CONTEXTThe American Probation and Parole Association offers the following working definition of community
justice: “a strategic method of crime reduction and prevention, which builds or enhances partnerships withincommunities. Community justice policies confront crime and delinquency through proactive, problemsolving practices aimed at prevention, control, reduction and reparation of the harm crime has caused. The
goal is to create and maintain vital, healthy, safe and just communities and improve the quality of life for all
citizens.” This broad definition can be applied to Thai community justice.
However, in the Thai context, the scope of community justice goes beyond problems of crime. Our
experiences in working with the community show that people, especially the poor, feel that community
justice needs to address the prevalent problems of injustice in the community. These may include the lackof legal knowledge which made them susceptible to being abused and taken advantage of, the difficulties
of getting legal aid and services, the violation of their rights by the authorities or the well-to-do, etc. The
framework of community justice in the Thai context, therefore, covers a variety of social problems, such as

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rights violations, inequal access to the justice system, and drug abuse, and aims to create peace and justicein the community.
Given the broader scopes of the definition of community justice in Thailand, the nature of work with thecommunity may cover a variety of activities such as dissemination of legal knowledge, providing legal advice
through “Justice Clinics”, mediating and resolving conflicts, crime prevention and making reparations tovictims.
As the concept of criminal justice views the community as the co-producer of justice with the state,
the keyword for community justice, which may explain its differences from the idea of volunteers, is“partnership.” The key success factor is how to enter into or establish a partnership with the community.
By creating partnership with the community, it definitely does not mean that one can instruct or assign
the other to do things. In other words, this is not a top-down or one way approach. However, before any
activities or projects are initiated in the community, the benefit of such activities should be mutuallyagreed by the community and the government agencies involved. To do that, there must be a great deal of
consultation and interaction between the communities and the government agencies. In our experience,
we adopted our own method of collaborating with the community by using slogans like: “thinking together,planning together, implementing together and gaining together.”This may sound easy but in reality, as in the case of Thailand, it was very difficult to implement. Thai
communities used to have strong bonds and actively participate in public service. However, as a result ofstrong centralization during the past several decades, the community has lost its autonomy, dynamism
and self-initiative. In addition, the government authorities, which are mostly centrally appointed, seemto be accustomed to the command and control approach. This is also true in the context of criminal
justice agencies. Local people seemed to rely too heavily on the police to solve their problems. With suchbackground, the revival of the community justice spirit was quite a challenge for us.
In our pilot project on community justice in 17 provinces and 36 different communities around Thailand,
we found out that the most appropriate approaches in entering into a “partnership” with each particularcommunity were different. Some communities are more active and strongly bonded than the others. This
may result from their common heritage, religious beliefs, shared historical incidents or common concernsof day-to-day problems in their communities, etc. For instance, it would be relatively easier to work in
partnership with a community which had past experiences of fighting floods, fires or other national disasters
together than a peaceful community where its members do not see the need to work together to achievecommon goals. Our trained officers should know the right approach to draw the interest of and create trust
within each particular community. It is thus necessary that government officers be specially trained and havethe necessary skills and the right attitudes to work with the community.
In Suan Aoy Community, Klong Toey District, a slum area, situated right in the heart of Bangkok, wefound that the community justice idea drew great interest from community leaders. The community sharedcommon concerns of fire, sanitation and drugs. They were convinced that if a community justice centre
was established within the community with direct links to the relevant government office at the Ministryof Justice, the drug situation would be better controlled and their sons and daughters would be safer. The
community leaders agreed to set up a “community justice centre” there. The commitment on their partwas that they had to arrange for their own funding for the rent. The Ministry of Justice, on the other hand,provided assistance in securing the premises, organized the panel of community representatives who werewilling to serve the community, and provided the necessary training for volunteer helpers who would be
responsible for running the community programmes.
The training for community volunteers provided by the Ministry of Justice involved: basic legal knowledge;
how to respond to complaints; how to compile data and share it with the MOJ; and in certain instances how
to forward cases to relevant MOJ agencies. The training topics also covered basic mediation skills and otherrestorative justice techniques, including how to organize group meetings for problem-solving at community
level.
It should be noted that each community, with different backgrounds and varying degrees of readiness83

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or resources, requires a specific approach in order to build trust and create an environment conducive to
successful community participation.
For certain villages, like the Suan Aoy Community, whose members share common concerns over certain
issues, such concerns can serve as an entry point for engaging the community members to come up withdesirable programmes to cope with such problems. In other types of communities where traditional beliefs
or customs still exert considerable influence on the people, such values can serve as a solid core aroundwhich the community justice activities can be organized.
On the other hand, in some areas where there is no common issue or strong sense of cohesion, one
possible approach is to try and identify individuals, already recognized by community members as theirnatural leaders, who are interested in expanding their concerns to encompass broader issues. A good
assembly of such strong leaders sometimes is the first step toward building a healthy community justice
network.
All things considered, what matters is the understanding of the complex and diverse nature of each
community, and to come up with approaches with sufficient flexibility to avoid being trapped in a ‘one-sizefits-all’ mentality.

25,00020,09820,00015,252

15,00010,00013,012

13,5552008

2009

11,334

8,057

5,000
0
2005

2006

2007

2010

Figure 1. Number of newly recruited community justice members

250

204

200

100

155

134

150

151
90

81

50
0
2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Figure 2. Number of newly established community justice centres

At present, there are 815 community justice centres with 81,308 community justice members. The
government has realized the importance of the community justice programme and more funds will beallocated to set up community justice centres as well as expand the services provided by them. In addition
to relying solely on budget support from the central government, appropriate linkage between community
justice centres and local governments should be explored to find a sustainable mechanism whereby local
resources can be maximized for a sustainable programme activities in the future.
Community justice members can act in the following way to help their communities.

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Services/Activities provided by Community Justice Centres in 2010

Number of Cases

Receiving complaints

4,336

Reporting crimes and illegal activities

1,284

Providing assistance and counselling service to crime victims

2,337

Conducting conflict resolution services

5,627

Assisting in pre-sentence investigations

3,025

Supervising probationers

578

Rehabilitating offenders

2,331

Providing aftercare service to ex-offenders

2,106

Participating in justice activities

934

Attending meetings conducted by the Ministry of Justice476

Participating in crime watch and crime prevention activities

1,523

Publicizing information on justice matters

5,576

Source: C ommunity Network Sub-division, Community Affairs and Community Service Division, Departmentof Probation

V. COMMUNITY JUSTICE: SERVING OFFENDERS AND THE COMMUNITY’S NEEDS
Unlike the rehabilitation approach conducted by criminal justice agencies, approaches designed andemployed by community justice centres are more localized and flexible. This is because the community has anopportunity to tell justice professionals which factors they see as most closely tied to the quality of community
life. As the community’s needs may differ from one community to another, the programme developed bycommunity justice can be diverse and serve not only the offenders’ needs but also the community’s needs.
The following cases illustrate the different roles of community justice centres which relate to treatment
of offenders and crime control activities.

A. Restoring the Community
The Lat Mayom Canal Cleaning project is an example of a project that serves the interests of the community.
Lat Mayom canal is located in Talingchan District, an outer area of Bangkok. It has been a landmark of
the Talingchan community since 2004 when it was developed as a floating market and eco-tourism spot.
Initiated by Mr. Chuan Chujan, a local farmer, who was concerned about the deterioration of the environment
in his community and wanted to improve it, Lat Mayom canal and surrounding areas were developed as
an environmental conservation area and community-based tourism site. Community members, under theleadership of Mr. Chuan, improved the environment of Lat Mayom Canal by cleaning the area and setting up
a green floating market where they can sell organic vegetables, freshly cooked food and home-made desserts.
Lat Mayom Canal has become a popular tourist attraction. Realizing the strength of this community, theTalingchan Probation Office proposed a community justice project to community members.
When the community justice centre was set up, the Lat Mayom community justice members and theTalingchan Probation Office worked together to draft a rehabilitation plan for probationers that would directly
serve the interests of the community. The Lat Mayom Canal Cleaning project is a part of community service
work for probationers living in this district. Every month, locals, community justice members, and volunteer
probation officers join with probationers to clean the canal and surrounding area. A task that used to be
performed by locals has become part of offender rehabilitation. Offenders contribute to revitalizing an area thatis the heart of the community and are informally accepted by the community.

B. Reintegrating Offenders
The philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, developed by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the
major movement that all sectors in Thailand are applying as a guide to the way of living and behaving

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toward “the middle path.”1 Focusing on moderation and contentment, the philosophy sets out to shield
the people and the country from adverse shocks and acknowledges interdependency among people at alllevels. Because the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy provides guidance on appropriate conduct covering
numerous aspects of life, it is now applied to rehabilitation of offenders under the Kamlangjai (Inspire)
Project initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
In order to maintain the continuity of the project, the community justice centres in the participating
provinces, namely Chiang Rai, Petchaboon, Trat, and Chainat, are taking part in the Kamlangjai Project at
the reintegration stage. Before the offenders under the project are released, the probation office will invite
community justice members to become involved in the pre-release programme. The community justicemembers will get acquainted with offenders and set the reintegration plan with them. Additionally, when theparticipating offenders are released to the community, community justice members will monitor and support
the offenders to continue applying Sufficiency Economy to their lives after release. This means that offenders
will be able to acquire a suitable job, adapt to the community way of life, and develop immunity to offending
behaviour.
As Sufficiency Economy has been extensively linked to the Thai way of life, the application of this philosophy
to offender rehabilitation and reintegration under the Kamlangjai project undoubtedly gives an opportunity
for offenders to seamlessly integrate to the community. Besides, with the support from community justicemembers, reintegration of offenders is more likely to be accomplished.

C. Resolving Conflict
The Panomsarakam community justice centre demonstrates that collaborative work among justice agencies
and local communities can effectively and powerfully improve the community’s capacity to solve problems.
Panomsarakam, a district in Chachoengsao province, located 100 kilometres from Bangkok, set up thecommunity justice centre in 2005. Due to the strength of the community, the centre has conducted various
activities and implemented significant programmes representing the community justice idea. The directorof the Chachoengsao Probation Office introduced the community justice concept to the community and thenworked with the leaders, prominent community members, and other justice agencies. A network has been
set up in the community, which is primarily comprised of a district school, police station, private sector, andprobation office.
After understanding the concept and learning new approaches, the community identified their problems andcollaboratively worked with other local organizations to solve the problems. For example, the Panomadulvittaya
School, the district school in Panomsarakam, applied the restorative approach and probation measure learnt
from the community justice centre and the probation office to solve physical fights and disputes in school.
Although the programme was started by the deputy director of the school, students are the key persons of the
programme. When a dispute occurs, a group of students called a Dispute Resolution Committee will invite thedisputing parties to discuss the dispute and solution in a meeting facilitated by students only. If all involved
parties can make an agreement, the committee will monitor the completion of the agreement which may bein the form of community service. Teachers and students observed that disputes in the school apparently
decreased and positive behavioural change among students increased. The programme has been widely
acknowledged and received a gold medal award for school innovation from the Teacher’s Council of Thailand
in 2006. The restorative approach is also valued by the Panomsarakam Police Station, which has cooperated
with the community justice centre to provide conflict resolution services at the station. The police officers
observed that compoundable offences have been significantly reduced and satisfaction has increased. The
community justice centre at Panomsarakam has continually established conflict resolution centres in subdistricts and provided support to other community justice centres. The Panomsarakam community justicecentre has evidently become a success story of community justice.

D. Promoting Community Safety
The Chaktaduang community located in Rayong province has concerns about drug abuse among youth
in their community and realized that this problem is linked to minor crimes in the community. Young drug
abusers often steal villagers’ property to buy drugs. When the Rayong Probation Office presented the
1 A Buddhist teaching to neither deprive nor indulge oneself to one’s detriment.

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community justice idea, community members agreed that it would help them deal with their concerns. The
probation officers then worked with the community members to develop a Drug Watch Programme. It wassuggested to the community leader and members to classify youth according to drug related behaviour.
Three groups were identified: a risk group, drug abuser group, and drug dealer group. A committee wasarranged to supervise the targeted youth. One committee member was assigned to watch three youths andtheir families. If the risk group shows any signs of drug involvement, the committee will closely supervise
them to prevent drug use. The community member also conducted random urine tests with youth to deter
drug use. Drug abusers were encouraged to get treatment by their families and the committee. Whenthey are rehabilitated, the community will welcome them back. Some ex-addicts joined the Drug Watch
Programme and provided information of drug trafficking in the community to justice agencies.
The Chaktaduang community members admitted that at the beginning, they did not understand the
purpose of community justice. After the community leader and probation officers explained the project andraised concerns about drug problems, which is the critical issue in the community, the community strongly
agreed that this problem should be dealt with urgently. When the Drug Watch Programme proved that it canhelp youth quit using drugs and prevent others from becoming involved, the community entirely supported
the community justice centre and felt that their quality of life was improved and that community ties were
strengthened.

VI. STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Involving the community in justice activities is not an easy task. Some communities may be ready toparticipate but many are not. For justice professionals, communities seem to be new territory outside theirwork. To ensure effective partnership with communities, strategies to promote community involvement areproposed as follows.

A. Building Relationships with Community Members
Based on the assumption that a good relationship will lead to accurate information, justice personnel
should start by building relationships with community members. Approaches for building relationships
include informal methods, such as small talk and greetings, and formal methods, such as inviting community
members to participate in official activities and joining the community’s activities. The relationship between
justice personnel and communities should reflect trust, mutual respect, and genuineness.
B. Understanding Community Needs and Strengths
Understanding communities is an important step. Justice personnel should understand the problems
and concerns occurring in the targeted communities from the viewpoints of local people. Information on
the strengths of the community should be collected. Community mapping is a useful tool to identify key
community organizations, key partners, and resources and skills that exist within the community, as well as
to assess the social and human capital of the community.
C. Serving the Community
To strengthen the relationship with the community, justice agencies may serve the community by setting
up a small project that meets the community’s needs, such as cleaning the cemetery, conducting vocational
training for youth, or arranging a community forum. By working with the community at the early stage before
launching the targeted project, we can help community members develop confidence and build relationships
with justice agencies.
D. Developing a Vision and Action Plans
Justice personnel should assist the community to develop their vision based on their interests and capacity.
After the vision is set, the action plan for the targeted project will be made by the community and officials.
Community members should have an opportunity to generate practical ideas into the plan. Finally, it isimportant that the vision and action plan must gain wider public support.

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VII. LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE COMMUNITY JUSTICE INITIATIVE
The community justice idea has been implemented in Thailand for over five years. However, it is still
evolving. The model that is best suited for Thai society has not yet been found. During the search for thebest practice, some lessons can be drawn up to help in establishing the programme in other systems.

A. Communicating Key Concepts of Community Justice to Justice Officials and Communities
Community justice is about changing the perspectives, values, principles, and assumptions under which
we have traditionally operated. It brings in radical changes to the justice system; from focusing on offenders,
crime control, and caseload to focusing on the community quality of life. As a result, some officials may resist
this change. They may think that approaches based on community justice, such as educating communities
about their rights, victim restoration, and mediation, are not their responsibilities. Some officers may nottrust or believe that communities can deal with their problems. Furthermore, communities may themselves
not believe that they are capable of preventing and controlling crimes. We learned that if the community
justice idea was not well understood, justice officers and community members may resist the programme andits implementation may be unsuccessful. It is recommended that key concepts of community justice should
be communicated to all stakeholders in the programme through various channels, e.g. community forums,
training, and workshops. As the programme continues and shows some impact, staff and community members
will have a clearer vision of what they are doing and participation will be more effective.
B. Equipping Staff with Knowledge and Skills for working with Communities
Justice officials are traditionally trained to be law enforcers. Their characteristics and skills are for dealing
with crime incidents, criminals, and criminal behaviour. Most of them do not have sufficient knowledge
and skills to work with communities. Working with communities requires officers to be sensitive to thecommunity’s needs and problems, more flexible and informal, and open-minded. Before implementing
community justice initiatives, staff working in the programme should be trained on basic subjects, suchas resource management, information gathering, communication skills, conflict management, community
assessment tools and public speaking.
C. Working Collaboratively with Other Agencies within and outside the Criminal Justice System
The goals of community justice, which are enhancement of community quality of life and promotion ofsocial justice, cannot be accomplished by a single agency. Community problems are diverse and requiredifferent approaches and resources. From our experience, we have learned that collaboration of governmental
agencies is essential to the implementation of community justice projects. Responsible agencies must expand
the boundaries of their practice and break down the barriers separating them from other components andorganizations within and outside the criminal justice system.
In this case, the Ministry of Justice created Provincial Justice Offices to be coordinating centres forproviding justice related services and supporting community justice centres throughout the country. The
Provincial Justice Office will integrate work and missions of agencies under the Ministry of Justice, such as
the probation office, prisons, narcotics suppression office, and rights and liberty protection centre, throughthe matrix model. Staff from these agencies are rotated to work in the Provincial Justice Office for a certain
period of time. The director of the office is also selected from the different justice agencies to operate theoffice on a rotating basis. In addition to the Provincial Justice Office, the probation office in each province will
provide assistance to community justice centres by acting as a resource agency for referral and cooperation
with other agencies outside the criminal justice system.

D. Creating Strong and Continuous Support from the Public and Communities
To implement community justice centres nationally, support from public, local communities, local
administrative organizations, as well as central government organization, is necessary. People from thecommunity may lack interest in joining the activities, or local organizations may not financially support the
programmes proposed by community justice centres, if they do not understand or recognize the benefits ofthese programmes. To gain support from the public and communities, we must publicize our programmes andsuccessful results locally and nationally. Since the community justice initiatives were launched in 2003, theMinistry of Justice has publicized the project by conducting seminars and conferences, distributing printing
material, research reports, VDO clips, and presenting information about community justice in a TV drama.
For example, information of the community justice centre and its tasks were presented in a prime-time TV

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VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

drama. By introducing community justice through a famous leading actor, we expect that the message will
attract wider public attention. To make the community justice initiatives sustainable, strong and continuous
support is greatly needed.

VIII. THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE
Since its reintroduction to Thai society through the piloted scheme by the Ministry of Justice almosta decade ago, community justice has proved to be a promising platform where community members canwork in partnership with government agencies toward meeting the needs of the community. Underlying thecommunity justice concept is the guiding principle which treats the community as actor in promoting accessto justice and maintaining public safety for the community. With the ability to identify areas of concern andmobilize local resources, the community has limitless potential to play an active role in both enhancing theexisting activities and expanding the scope of work piloted so far.
Also intrinsic in this new mode of public participation is the recognition that members of a local community,
through the voicing of their concerns and needs, are key actors in the collective effort to address the basic
imbalance in the power structure at the national level – a problem with serious implications for Thai society
as a whole. Such fundamental inequality often manifests itself in the form of inequality in access to justice,and has been voiced on various occasions, including the most recent political protest, which escalated toconfrontation and violence in May 2009. Since then, there has been an urgent call for national reform to look forways to address inequality in key areas, including justice. As part of the new scheme to ‘reform the nation’, thegovernment has set up a number of independent forums tasked with mobilizing various stakeholders acrossthe nation to synthesize a national plan to address the structural problems faced by Thailand.
The National Reform Committee has been formed to mobilize national stakeholders and come up withsuggestions and recommendations for the programmes to be implemented in the hope of providing redress
for the most urgent problems, such as land dispute between the people and state agencies, and to promoteequal access to social justice, as a means of national reform. The NRC views community justice as animportant vehicle where national reform effort can be realized at the most fundamental level. The ultimate
goal of the effort is to equip the members of local communities and individual citizens with the institutional
tools for them to reduce the gap in access to equal justice. With new emphasis added and increased chances
for mobilizing resources, community justice stands a better chance to serve as the local engine of change
toward creating the sustainable local mechanisms where members are empowered through their working
hand-in-hand with other stakeholders, including the government agencies.
Taking a hint from the NRC, the government has recently announced a new policy of focusing on empowering
the citizens in key areas, including access to justice. In this new policy, the community justice network will be thefocus of a national attempt to strengthen the local community in order to promote better access to equal justice.
The government plans to introduce a community justice centre at local districts, or Tambon, across the nation,
hoping to equip people with legal knowledge, provide legal aid, and receive complaints on the problems facedby the community members. I believe that with coordination and strong commitment, the new policy, with its
focus on enhancing visibility and providing adequate budgets to support the activities at community level, will
be further enhanced by the parallel effort by the NRC to support the networking and knowledge-sharing among
local communities across the nation.
In conclusion, community justice in Thailand has come to an important juncture. At the root of the
problem also lies the seed for the solution. With the strong political will from the government, and thecommitment and vision of the NRC which helped promote the shared sense of urgency for equal accessto justice, it can be hoped that community justice will undergo another phase of growth as a forum of true
public participation and public empowerment. This will in turn provide a healthy foundation for the society
through the establishment of effective community forums for dispute resolution and other important areas ofcommunity empowerment and development.

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