Patricia Spratt: A judge presiding over a pioneering restorative justice court

As crime and public safety are top of mind across Chicago’s communities, there are people who are working to prevent conflict before it happens and stop it from escalating when it does. Throughout 2025 WTTW will spend a year exploring violence interruption and prevention in Chicago in FIRSTHAND: PEACEKEEPERS.

BUILD partner and supporter Judge Spratt spends most of her week in a traditional courtroom in Maywood. But every Thursday, she turns her attention to healing and reconciliation in North Lawndale, where she leads the neighborhood’s Restorative Justice Community Court. Her role is to transform young lives through restorative justice. The goal is to heal victims, the community, and the offenders themselves.

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