Kristina Singleton works on diverting people from court into supportive or educational programming. Among the programs she works with at the Midtown Community Court are Project Reset, which offers those charged with a low-level crime the chance to avoid court and a criminal record by completing community-based programming, and a recently launched youth gun-diversion program for young people who have been arrested on gun possession charges.
Justice reforms often exclude people with charges involving violence, even though these are the same people most likely to be incarcerated and to be in the most need of the programs and treatment reform can bring. But a felony court in Manhattan is offering alternatives to incarceration, regardless of charge. Can a treatment-first approach be brought to scale inside of the same system responsible for mass incarceration in the first place?
This fact sheet is about the Queens Community Justice Center, a program of the Center for Court Innovation, which takes a holistic approach to prevent negative consequences that often accompany contact with the legal system. The Justice Center provides community-based options, such as social services to address underlying issues, to participants charged with low-level offenses mandated by the court.
This fact sheet describes the Queens Community Justice Center (formerly the Queens Youth Justice Center), a program of the Center for Court Innovation, which works with people both in and outside the justice system, providing a range of supportive services and opportunities for civic engagement for people of all ages.
Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) Bronx is part of a network of community-based efforts throughout New York City to end gun violence. S.O.S. was the first among the network to adapt the Cure Violence model to New York. S.O.S. uses public health strategies to respond to incidents and prevent violence before it starts. S.O.S. works closely with local organizations, neighborhood churches and pastors, community residents, and the individuals considered most likely to commit a shooting. Independent evaluators credit S.O.S.
What if you brought together prosecutors and people they may have helped to incarcerate for a college seminar behind bars on the criminal justice system, and asked them to produce a list of policy recommendations? That's the premise of a novel experiment in prison education. On New Thinking, hear from Jarrell Daniels, a program graduate, and Lucy Lang, executive director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution, who conceived of the idea.
Bronx Community Solutions is a team of social service providers, compliance monitors, community service supervisors, and others who seek to improve the quality of justice in the Bronx. This includes offering judges and attorneys meaningful alternatives to bail, fines, jail sentences, and court appearances.
The goal of Neighbors in Action is to build safer and healthier communities for all. Through our programming in the Brooklyn, New York, neighborhoods of Crown
Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, we work to create communities where violence is neither needed nor wanted, neighbors have increased autonomy and decision-making capabilities, and the people who want to lead have the skills to do so.
Columbia University's Bruce Western, a leading expert on the connection between mass incarceration and poverty, discusses his new book, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison, and outlines his vision for a justice system rebuilt to respond to the deep deprivation and trauma fueling much of the behaviour that leads to imprisonment.
The Parent Support Program works with non-custodial parents to help them find employment, increase child support, and engage with their children. In collaboration with the Onondaga County Family Court, the Center piloted New York State’s first parent support program in 2008. Using this program as a model, the Center worked with the New York City Family Court and New York City Human Resources Administration to launch parent support programs in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
