RELATED VIDEO CNN's Jim Hill looks at a program designed to help keep the homeless out of legal trouble Windows Media 28K 80K

May 31, 1999
Web posted at: 6:39 p.m. EDT (2239 GMT)

OCEANSIDE, California (CNN) -- In an effort to clear court dockets and give poor people a clean slate, a California judge is leaving his courthouse behind for homeless shelters.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge David Ryan recently convened his court inside Brother Benno's homeless shelter in Riverside, California. Among the dozens of homeless offenders who appeared before the judge was Terry Anderson.

Anderson had four cases against him resolved during the court session.

"OK, this goes back to 1995. Tell you what I'll do: I'll convert this to a $50 fine, community service -- five hours at $10 an hour," Ryan offered in a plea bargain.

Anderson agreed to do the community service by helping out at the homeless shelter.

"It's just a matter of getting these cleared up and getting my driver's license back, and I'll be back in the work force and taking care of business," Anderson said.

In two-days, the judge cleared 492 cases against 141 homeless men and women, many of whom suffer a wide range of personal problems -- from drug addiction to mental illness.

At the shelter-turned-courtroom, defense attorneys helped the homeless arrange plea agreements.

"These are cases that are infractions," said defense attorney Susan Burkland. "But they pile up and they (the homeless) live in fear that they're going to jail for these."

During this special court session, which is one of more than 200 outreach programs in California, all plea bargains avoided jail time.

The state's 1,580 judges are encouraged to develop such innovations in dealing with hard-to-reach offenders.

"Everybody we've seen here today has an aversion to authority figures. They're afraid of their government," said Ryan. "So the government has to reach out to that particular population if we expect to do anything with the number of cases we have here."

Supporters said this new twist in the legal system is not give-away justice.

"They're pleading guilty to traffic offenses, they're pleading guilty to illegal camping and we're getting them to do community service," said Deputy District Attorney Jim Valliant. "They are not getting away with these crimes, by any means."

But the program did help clear some of the 8,000 to 10,000 minor offenses and infractions that are filed in this part of San Diego County each month.

And they gave some of the system's petty offenders a clean slate and a chance to keep it that way.

Correspondent Jim Hill contributed to this report.

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