Pathways to Public Safety Division to Use Alternatives to Incarceration Across Manhattan District Attorney’s Office – NBC New York

The Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace introduced the creation of Pathways to Public Security Division to make use of options to incarceration throughout the district legal professional’s workplace.

Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg, Jr. introduced Monday the creation of the division to additional use diversion and evidence-based programming to “guarantee people concerned within the felony justice system obtain mandatory providers to cut back recidivism and improve public security.”

“The Pathways to Public Security Division will safe dynamic, individually tailor-made outcomes which can be confirmed to maintain our communities protected whereas giving our fellow New Yorkers the assistance they want,” Bragg mentioned in an announcement.

“By figuring out alternatives for diversion firstly phases of a case, as a substitute of weeks to months after an arrest, we are able to enhance effectiveness and break cycles of recidivism,” Bragg went on to say in his assertion. “Pathways will present prosecutors with assist and sources from screening by means of sentencing, incorporating options to incarceration into the bedrock of the Workplace’s work. Which means figuring out candidates for programming as early as doable, whereas carefully monitoring a person’s progress all through – guaranteeing accountability as a substitute of a revolving door.”

In accordance with Bragg the restructuring of the district legal professional’s workplace will strengthen its options to incarceration, specialised courtroom elements, pre-arraignment diversion, restorative justice practices, and reentry.

Pathways can even present every of the six current Trial Division bureaus with a selected prosecutor to serve from arraignment to sentencing to determine people who would profit from diversion and programming with out jeopardizing group security.

Pathways shall be lead by Division Chief Sherene Crawford, who served as an Assistant D.A. in Manhattan from 2009 to 2014. In accordance with Bragg, the division will remodel the district legal professional’s practices regarding:

• Specialised Court docket Components, together with the Alternate options to Incarceration Court docket Half, Psychological Well being Court docket, Veterans Remedy Court docket, Human Trafficking Intervention Court docket, the Youth Half, and extra.
• Diversion Alternatives and Alternate options to Incarceration, together with programming by means of Manhattan Justice Alternatives and pre-arraignment diversion packages equivalent to Challenge Reset and Challenge HOPE, in addition to the Workplace’s restorative justice practices.
• New Yorkers Re-Coming into Communities from Incarceration, together with the Reentry Activity Power.

“The brand new Pathways to Public Security Division is an important measure for lowering recidivism and making our borough safer,” State Senator Brad Hoylman mentioned in an announcement.

Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa shared comparable sentiments saying that “the creation of District Lawyer Bragg’s Pathways to Public Security Division will assist proactively determine alternatives for diversion firstly phases of a case, as a substitute of days, even months after their arrest, thereby growing each effectiveness and security.”

In the meantime, Jonathan Lippman, former chief choose of New York State and present chair of the Unbiased Fee on New York Metropolis Legal Justice and Incarceration Reform, mentioned he recommended Bragg for creating the brand new division “will promote consideration of all affordable evidence-based choices to carry individuals accountable and promote rehabilitation.”

After Keechant Sewell questioned whether or not new reforms from the Manhattan District Lawyer would assist or hinder officers and crime victims, Alvin Bragg on Monday defended his vows to hunt options to jail for sure crimes. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst reviews.

“Incarceration is acceptable in sure instances, notably these involving violence. Nonetheless, the very best path to security could be very usually by way of community-based inclinations that intention to deal with individuals’s underlying issues and break the cycle of recidivism. DA Bragg understands this and his creation of the Pathways to Public Security Division very a lot serves that curiosity,” Lippman mentioned in an announcement.

The information is the most recent growth in Bragg’s comparatively new time period as Manhattan’s high prosecutor, a time period that has been marred with controversy.

Just last month, Bragg despatched out a letter to prosecutors clarifying what he referred to as a number of the “confusion” from an preliminary memo relating to prosecutorial tips that had been met with pushback.

Bragg took workplace on Jan. 1 and got here below fireplace nearly instantly for a set of tips he issued to prosecutors, ordering them to not cost sure crimes in any respect and to downgrade others to lesser expenses.

Among the many most controversial of these adjustments was an order to not prosecute some cases of resisting arrest, and one other mandating that felony armed theft be downgraded in lots of instances to misdemeanor shoplifting.

After new Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg revealed a brand new plan to restrict prosecutions of many nonviolent offenses, response got here in quick – and in some instances, livid. Andrew Siff reviews.

His order got here in opposition to a backdrop of sharply rising crime in New York Metropolis. Within the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Manhattan North, main crimes are up 23% this 12 months versus the identical interval final 12 months, led by a 43% enhance in robberies.

Taking pictures incidents have nearly doubled as nicely. The numbers are even greater within the Patrol Borough Manhattan South.

The widow of one of many two NYPD officers killed by a gunman after they responded to a home disturbance name final month additional fueled the firestorm round Bragg, saying in a tear-filled eulogy, “The system continues to fail us. We aren’t protected anymore, not even the members of the service.”

Nonetheless, within the letter Bragg despatched out Feb. 4, his workplace clarified that it’s going to prosecute robberies with weapons as felonies, that gun possession instances shall be default prosecution as felonies, and any try at violence in opposition to police shall be prosecuted.

“Within the final month, I’ve seen, first-hand, your tireless, nice work on behalf of New Yorkers. And I’ve obtained priceless suggestions on the January third Memorandum,” Bragg’s letter, which was obtained by Information 4 New York, learn partly. The January third Memorandum was meant to offer ADAs with a framework for how one can method instances in the very best curiosity of security and justice. Our collective expertise, nonetheless, has been that the Memorandum has been a supply of confusion, slightly than readability.”