Plans to create American-style community justice courts in which judges engage directly with offenders and take charge of their rehabilitation have been dropped.

Three years after the Government outlined proposals for a nationwide network of community courts, ministers have admitted that there is no money to fund them.

Instead, it is to look at cheaper options, including “virtual problem solving” by agencies who would advise on offenders’ treatment.

The community courts, involving a hands-on approach by judges who monitor the progress of offenders, would have been modelled on successful centres in Liverpool and Salford. Based on the Red Hook Community Justice Centre in New York, these courts use a multi-agency approach, referring offenders on the spot to professionals who deal with their specific problems, from housing to addiction. They also involve the local community, seeking their views on particular problems and on appropriate punishment. But the Liverpool court, for instance, cost £5.2 million to set up and costs £1.8 million a year to run.

Tucked away in the recent Green Paper on Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice, ministers say: “In light of the costs involved, we have ruled out as an immediate option the creation of new, purpose-built centres like the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre.

“It continues to be an extremely valuable and successful test bed for the community justice approach as a whole, but we do not believe that the costs involved in building new centres can be justified at present.”

Instead, it proposes to test other models, based on existing magistrates’ courts, involving multi-agency working and “virtual problem-solving teams”. Repeat offenders would go before the same judge, or magistrates, who would review their progress.

The Green Paper also proposes that local people will have a say in selecting judges and in how crimes in their area are prosecuted.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Attorney-General, said that involving the community in the selection of district judges had proved a success in Liverpool.

It could increase people’s confidence in the way that judges were chosen and strengthen links between local judges and the residents served by their courts, she said.

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