Project Reset diverts people out of the justice system with a proportionate, restorative, and effective response to low-level arrests.
Through Project Reset, participants avoid a criminal record by completing community-based programming. The program’s approach promotes healing, encourages accountability, and strengthens public trust in the justice system by emphasizing procedural justice.
Participants complete programming based on restorative justice principles, avoiding the negative impacts to housing, employment, and education that a court or incarceration could have. Reset operates in a pre-court series of sessions with social workers, mental health counselors, and resource coordinators. Sessions may include restorative discussions, classes with local artists, or individual and group counseling. Reset reduces the chance of re-offending, improve case processing, and pass along a renewed sense of safety, community, and purpose among youth and beyond. we are committed to the ongoing work of making our program anti-racist, trauma informed, and anti-oppressive.
Interested? Click the borough you were arrested in to learn more.
Project Reset is a collaboration between the District Attorney’s Offices in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens, the Center for Justice Innovation, and the New York Police Department. Project Reset is funded by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, New York City Council, and the Mellon Foundation.
From Pilot to Paradigm Shift: The Story of Project Reset
From a small pilot program to a citywide model for reform, Project Reset’s growth stands as a powerful example of how modest experiments can turn into lasting changes.
