Center for Court Innovation wins the 2009 Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation

Good news for our parent organization, the Center for Court Innovation: we've just found out that the Center is the recipient of this year's Drucker Award, a prestigious $100,000 prize for important contributions to nonprofit performance.

"What the Center is doing is a great example of the way Peter Drucker defined innovation: change that creates a new dimension of performance," said Rick Wartzman, executive director of the Drucker Institute. "Through its work, the Center has literally changed the way that the major players in the system -- judeges, attorneys, criminal justice officials -- think about their jobs and the impact they're having. Through its community-court model, the Cetner has been able to take low-level offenders and give them a chance to repair the harm they've done and be reintegrated into the fabric of their neighborhoods. Victims, meanwhile, are given a greater voice in the process and have enjoyed enhanced safety."

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New Harlem Youth Court Members Inducted

On Wednesday, October 28, 2009, the Harlem Youth Court held an induction ceremony for its newest Youth Court members. Special guest speakers included the Hon. Ruben Martino, Presiding Judge at the Harlem Community Justice Center, and Ms. Vanda Seward, the new State-wide Director of Reentry for the NYS Division of Parole.

The Harlem Youth Court engages teenagers who have had minor police contact or who have been truant. These youth "respondents" can have their cases heard and decided by a jury of their peers—other teens from the neighborhood who have been trained to perform the roles of judge, jury and attorneys. Youth Court respondents receive peer-imposed sanctions that are both educational and restorative to the community. Youth Court empowers young people to take responsibility for standards of behavior in their community and to be accountable to each other.

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Miss USA Visits Harlem Community Justice Center

As part of her commitment to fighting ovarian and breast cancer, Miss USA Kirsten Dalton visited the Harlem Community Justice Center today along with the Project Renewal mammogram screening van. Most breast cancers in women can be effectively treated if detected early. Yet in communities of color like East Harlem women are often not accessing the latest screening techniques and treatments. Project Renewal works closely with local doctors and hospitals to provide health screenings and access to free/low cost health care.

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Involuntary Committal for Public Drunkenness

The NY Times had an interesting video this week about a new initiative in Anchorage, Alaska to address public drunkenness. After a number of deaths this summer, the state passed a law that allows police officers to take people with chronic drinking programs to treatment even without their consent. This is a controversial new program -- see the video here.

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New Fact Sheet on Reentry & Employment

The Task Force has produced a new Fact Sheet on the New York State Correction Law Article 23-A. The law includes protections for persons with a criminal record that seek employment in New York State.

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Eve Teasing and Counterinsurgency

This week, we sat down with Atul Goel, who is on leave from his job as an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) for two years as he pursues a Masters in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In his most recent posting, Atul commanded a force of 1,200 police officers in the Kashmir valley, heading up investigations of violent crime, government malpractice, and counterinsurgency-related crimes.

Atul, thank you for speaking with us. To start, can you tell us a little bit about the Indian Police Service and your role with this law enforcement body?

The Indian Police Service (IPS) is not a force itself but a service providing leaders and commanders to staff the state police and all-India Para-Military Forces. IPS officers are recruited and trained by the Indian government, after which they are assigned to police departments in various states to work in key leadership positions.

I have worked with IPS for 5 years, including a training period in which I spent one year in the academy and one year in the field, acting out all of the roles I would later command, from being the most subordinate officer (beat constable), all the way up. It took me 4 years to get into IPS. It is a highly competitive exam that is used throughout the federal government to recruit senior executives in foreign services, administrative service, policing, etc. The position requires somebody who is highly competent but also a generalist – obviously, we are taught law and forensic science as part of the training, but what is stressed is common sense and how not to be prejudiced against certain things. Additionally, we have to know how to deal with politicians, handle the common people's problems, and do personnel management.

Although my family lives in Delhi, I was sent to Kashmir, one of 100 IPS officers sent to that region. I was responsible for 1200 policemen most recently, supervising 7 police stations. Since Kashmir also has paramilitary forces, I also supervised 3 battalions of paramilitary forces (focusing on counterinsurgency problems, not hard crime). My region encompassed roughly 300,000 people, with a middle class population of roughly 40% and a lower income population of about 60%.

It is interesting to hear that you were responsible both for "hard crime" problems and for counterinsurgency issues. Can you give us a sense of what kinds of crime you most frequently dealt with in both categories?

Well, for hard crime, the most frequent issues were burglaries, low-level drugs (not cocaine or marijuana, but usually prescription drugs that people were taking illegally, like cough syrup), and eve teasing.

What is eve teasing?

You know, like Adam and Eve? It means making snide remarks about women -- Indian citizens can be booked for it and prosecuted. In fact, just before I came here, when the elections were happening, there was a case with this guy doing eve teasing from his car. Two girls were walking on a road, this guy was trying to make conversation, and the girls weren't responding to his small talk. So he crushed one of the girls under his car and she died. Also, there is a fair amount of mob violence. Because of certain political circumstances and the insurgency in the area, there are a lot of protests and they are not always peaceful ones.

And what about the counterinsurgency crimes?

Our biggest concern is about bomb blasts. In fact, last July, we had a really bad one, in which a family of people died (among the dead were four small siblings). This is the kind of thing we are always worried about, so we are constantly collecting intelligence, doing paramilitary prevention based on that intelligence, and investigating cases once a crime has happened. When a blast happens, you have to rush in, insure immediate relief, conduct autopsies in case there are any dead, and investigate the case (the level of insurgency-related violence has in fact decreased significantly over the last few years).

Really, the distinction between hard crime and counterinsurgency is not that clear-cut – once an event occurs in a place, it is a crime under your local penal code, so it becomes your duty to investigate. Sometimes, larger federal investigation agencies come in to take the case. Like that blast where four people died, that was investigated locally, but I used a special investigation team at my office level because it was slightly more important than the normal set of events. With counterinsurgency, it becomes really important, especially in terms of intelligence collection, that the officers who are working there at the police station have a good knowledge of the area (they have a good feel of what’s happening). We have an entire branch in the police that is just for collection of intelligence, but we are not going to separate the channels of information if there is relevance for other crime issues.

So what is the murder rate in your area?

It's really pretty low, absent counterinsurgency issues, perhaps two murders registered per year. The murder rate is generally pretty low in India, as compared to other countries. Our crime is mostly for economic reasons, in my opinion. Burglary, for example, people stealing mobile phones. Last year, one murder case was the crushed girl and there might have been one more.

Including the militancy, however, the murder rate is pretty high. As I mentioned, with the mob violence: there was one day when six people died in our jurisdiction. Although gangs are not really a problem -- we don't have the culture of gangs in the same way that US does -- there was a case where a family of five was murdered. The person who did it was 600 miles away, in another state. You know, there are these tribes, groups of people who, under the British system, were classified as professional criminals. Since one is born into this group, the entire male adult population of a village could be part of these "criminal tribes." After independence, the government reorganized this group of people, but the 5 murders I mentioned were committed by a gang of people from these "criminal tribes." I don't agree with this terminology, but just to give you an understanding of the issues at play.

I would imagine that there would be a certain amount of gun trafficking in the area. Is that correct?

Yes, there is a lot of gun trafficking in Kashmir, most of it done from Pakistan. In fact, we had this one murder case in which a son killed his father. So as to divert the attention of the police, he got a hand grenade (which are easily available in Kashmir) and planted it near the dead body, to make it seem like it was a militancy-related crime. There is a lot of shifting between militants and crime. There are some cases in which the guns that are meant for militants go towards committing of routine crimes and in some cases regular crimes have been given the color of militancy. People sometimes go into others' houses to steal stuff, with toy guns, behaving as if they are militants. They don't do any physical harm, but maybe they steal a mobile phone or some other valuables.

What are you hoping to do moving forward?

Getting into the police service is a big gamble, because you might not get through past the test. It's a big stress job with lots of power and perks, but a lot of educated Indians see the opening of the economy and moving are to private sector. A lot of people take this exam because one of best ways to serve the people and change the way the country functions, since you get into a powerful role. I hope that an education at Harvard will give me the skills and the credibility required to contribute meaningfully to the manner in which the criminal justice system in general, and policing in particular, is perceived by people in India.

One of my objectives would be to get rid of the sense of fear or shame that an ordinary Indian feels in approaching the police for a bonafide service. We should be able to project the image that the police is a just like any other public provided service and that it exists to serve the people. What policies will get police to be more people-friendly?

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Unique New Plan to Reverse Violence in Chicago

Earlier this month, Derrion Albert, a young honor role student in Chicago was beaten to death with a wooden plank, apparently after stepping into a massive fight between two groups of neighborhood youths. As we have reported previously on this blog, the murder rate in Chicago is quite high -- and Derrion's death has (unfortunately) provided even more of a galvanizing force to address and quell the violence.

The New York Times recently reported on a new initiative underway in Chicago to use statistics and probability to identify likely victims of gun violence. Funded by the federal government at a price tag of $30 million, this plan involves targeting the 10,000 young people at highest risk of becoming victims to the tide of gun violence in the city's south side. Having conducted a survey of 500 victims of violence, the Chicago Police Department has devised a system of predicting the characteristics of potential victims -- and then flooding their lives with adult attention, giving them paid jobs, and providing a community advocate on whom they could call any time of day or night.

As the Times article reports:

"The students at highest risk of violence, by statistics, are most likely to be black, male, without a stable living environment, in special education, skipping an average of 42 percent of school days at neighborhood and alternative schools, and having a record of in-school behavioral flare-ups that is about eight times higher than the average student.

Attacks have typically happened beyond a two-hour window from the start and end of school — that is, late at night or very early in the morning — and blocks away from school grounds, where neighborhood boundaries press against one another.

Within the three dozen or so schools where 80 percent of the victims in the study attended classes, the plan calls for a rethinking of the security philosophy so that policies favor mental health strategies and prevention over policing and punishment. And officials are becoming more strategic about providing safe passage to school by increasing police enforcement and by keeping tabs on gang and clique activities in real time as their turf wars hopscotch around school catchment areas."

There is, of course, some concern that 10,000 students will be consuming $30 million of resources; and some people from these communities beset with violence are skeptical that anything will work. But Ron Huberman, the new chief executive of the and a former police officer, is convinced that targeting small numbers of students will yield large-scale results.

What do you think? Does this kind of plan represent the best use of crime data in action? What are some of the potential consequences of this initiative -- and do you think it will bring the peace that Chicagoans are looking for?

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Here's another good article from the Chicago Tribune about the young people who were involved in Derrion Albert's death.

And here is a CNN report featuring short video clips of the beating. Please be forewarned: it is quite disturbing.

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Georgia Reentry Effort Mirrors New York's Success

A new jail reentry effort begun by Fulton County, Georgia, is modeled on a similar successful effort pioneered in New York City. Fulton County is about half the size of New York City, but has almost the same amount of jail consumers -- 13,800 -- according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

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Facial Profiling

Here's a really interesting article in Slate about a new kind of scientific prediction about who commits crime. And it's about your face.

Check it out.

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A Nobel Prize in Economics … About Police Departments?

Usually, criminologists don’t pay that much attention to what economists are doing – or vice versa. This week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize for various disciplines, gave us good reason to reconsider the link between economics and policing.

Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to with the Nobel Prize in this category, was recognized for her contributions to the “analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” What does this mean? Ostrom has successfully demonstrated that commonly-shared property (such as fish stocks, grassland, or groundwater basins) is often better-managed by pools of users than by government structures or private entities. The idea is that local systems of users often develop subtle and refined regulations for usage over time, including practices for monitoring and enforcement that protect the resource, even when the benefits to users are only modest.

What does this have to do with policing?

One of Ostrom’s early projects tested the presiding assumption that police departments centralized at the city level created economies of scale that resulted in more efficient policing. To the contrary, Ostrom’s survey of 80 metropolitan areas found that small, locally-controlled forces are more effective than a large, city-wide controlled police force in meeting citizen demands for neighborhood police protection. As Ostrom noted in a later article, “For patrolling, if you don’t know the neighborhood, you can’t spot the early signs of problems, and if you have five or six layers of supervision, the police chief doesn’t know what’s occurring on the street.” This point was made in 1974, and almost twenty years later, police departments like that of Chicago decentralized their organizations to encourage officers to proactively identify and address sources of crime and disorder in their patrol areas. Community-based policing took root and now much of the federal funding provided by the Department of Justice for local crime issues requires locally-based teams of law enforcement agents and community partners to work together at the neighborhood level. (For more on this, check out the Project Safe Neighborhoods website at the Department of Justice.)

The basic idea is intuitive: that the people who own the resource are more likely to shepherd it wisely – this is as important an insight for crime and public safety as it is for environmentalism!

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Fixing the Information Mismatch in Juvenile Justice

Check out this article on the Change.org Criminal Justice Blog about the need for better communication in the juvenile justice system. To be clear, the views expressed are those of the author alone and do not represent any position of Rethinking Reentry.

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Family Life Behind Bars Radio Show

We just found out about a new radio show, available on the web through BlogTalkRadio. Family Life Behind Bars is a venue for discussing those issues that children and families of incarcerated parents face. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, we know that 7 million children in this country have a parent under correctional supervision.

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More on Social Media and Public Safety

As you know, we really like public safety and we really like technology. Here is a great article that gives lots of examples of how Web 2.0 is being used in the service of safer communities.

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"Its not about the gang, it's about the rest of the neighborhood"

By: Christopher WatlerUpper Manhattan Reentry Task Force Coordinator

I am blogging this week from the National Community Prosecution Conference in Los Angeles, sponsored by the National District Attorney's Association and the Center for Court Innovation.

The title quote came from Assistant U.S Attorney for the Central District of California, Chistopher Brunwin, as he described his approach to collaboration. AUSA Brunwin was joined by Kevin Gilligan of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and a representative of the LAPD.

The take down of a major local gang was the main example discussed. For years, the Drew Street gang terrorized local residents through a range of alleged criminal activity, including narcotics trafficking, murder, and extortion. Local residents lived in fear and police patrols were routinely subject to objects being thrown at them. The effort to address this problem included a range of federal and local law enforcement stakeholders led by the Los Angeles HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area).

The strategy involved coordinated surveillance, arrests of major players, sweeps by probation and parole, city public works addressing community conditions like graffiti, demolition of the gang's main house, increased code enforcement, and meetings with community stakeholders. As a result of this effort crime is down and community residents are again able to utilize public spaces without fear, according Brunwin.

A handout provided by Kevin Gilligan of the LA City Attorney's Office highlights key elements of effective prosecutor-led collaborations. They include:

1. Defining the target area or problem using data -- e.g. crime data, resident feedback, etc. Use baseline data to set goals and measure success.

2. Clearly defining the goals. This can include: arrest of key crime actors, crime reduction goals, improved community conditions, reductions in calls for service, and surveys of community perceptions of crime.

3. Based on how success is defined, selecting partners that share your goals and are willing to work with you. Look for partners that have the expertise, skills, and tools you need. Understand what each partner needs to show success in their area.

4. Developing a clear timeline and identifing resource needs. What information can be shared? How much time is needed by each agency to do their part? What data will be collected and how? Pay close attention to sequencing of activities.

5. Developing a strategy with the community to maintain success. Create opportunities for community gatherings and appropriate uses of public spaces.

6. Spread the word and share the credit. Have a press strategy. Make sure each partner’s contribution is recognized.

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New! National Reentry Resource Center Website

The Council of State Governments, in partnership with the Urban Institute, the Association of State Correctional Administrators, the American Probation and Parole Association, and a national advisory board; has just launched a great new reentry resource. Established under the Second Chance Act, the National Reentry Resource Center disseminates information about reentry issues and promotes best practices in the field.

Their goals:

• Provide a one-stop, interactive source of current, user-friendly reentry information.
• Identify, document, and promote evidence-based practices.
• Deliver individualized, targeted technical assistance to the Second Chance Act grantees.
• Advance the reentry field through training, distance learning, and knowledge development.

Why this is helping for you:

The site lists funding opportunities, has a searchable database of program examples, offers research on a number of different topics related to reentry, and provides information about how to start your own reentry initiative. Importantly, there is a set of resources just for people who are returning from prison, many of them created by partners of the Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force.

Check it out!

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Six Degrees of Separation, Guns & Gangs

By: Christopher Watler
Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force Coordinator

I am blogging this week from the National Community Prosecution Conference in Los Angeles sponsored by the National District Attorney's Association and the Center for Court Innovation.

I just left a riveting presentation by Mark Kraft, Deputy Director of the National Gang Targeting Enforcement and Coordination Center (TECC). Mark began by making the point that most criminals are drawn together by the commodities they have in common--i.e. drugs and guns. Law enforcement can use the tight network of criminal relationships to improve their investigations. I was surprised to learn that often, guns confiscated by law enforcement are not traced. It was also interesting to learn that 87% of gangs are local groups, not the major nationally-known gangs.

Mark challenged the audience of community prosecutors to "do more with other people's resources." For example, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms does gun traces that are a free service for local law enforcement and can yield information not just on the original purchaser, but also on prior crimes involving the gun.

Unlike illegal drugs, the bulk of the gun market is legal. Guns are legally manufactured and distributed in the United States. Gang members use this fact to their advantage to engage in trafficking. For example, a large number of illegal gun buys occur with "straw buyers" -- individuals with clean records who are paid to buy a gun for a gang member. These straw buyers receive compensation that can range from $100 to a six pack and a tank of gas. The illegal buyers traveling to "source areas" (states where gun purchases are less restrictive) from the "market areas" (usually urban, high-crime areas with tougher gun laws) can get a group of straw buyers to make individual purchases on one trip. In one case highlighted, straw buyers were a group of single moms from one housing development that received diapers in exchange for purchasing the guns for the traffickers.

Mark offered a few strategies for law enforcement:

1. Trace all guns. Guns can be great "informants."
2. Train cops to debrief every gang members caught with a gun and document these interviews. Information from these interviews may help support probable cause opportunities later on.
3. Document admissions about gang involvement.

4. Take pictures of tattoos.
5. Work to make straw buying as taboo as other major crimes. Illegal guns are used in rapes and murders, but most straw buyers would never engage in these behaviors.
5. Collect ballistics evidence and store it properly for later comparison with guns retrieved from other crimes.

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Community Prosecution and Reentry

By: Christopher Watler
Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force Coordinator

I am blogging this week from the National Community Prosecution Conference in Los Angeles sponsored by the National District Attorney's Association and the Center for Court Innovation.

Community Prosecution is a crime-reduction approach that utilizes the authority of the prosecutor’s office to build problem-solving partnerships that reduce crime and strengthens communities. It has been growing as a philosophy and strategy since the 1990’s when pioneers like District Attorney Charles Hynes in Brooklyn, NY, and Mike Shrunk, Portland Oregon’s DA, began programs to address the underlying causes of crime. Most recently, the Democratic candidate for the Manhattan District Attorney’s seat has embraced community prosecution.

Today the lunch time keynote speaker was Bonnie Dummas, San Diego County District Attorney. Since 2005, her office has coordinated a reentry initiative for San Diego County. The program focuses on non-violent offenders, and identifies potentially eligible cases prior to arraignment. A readiness conference is held involving the defendant and their attorney. The defendant is advised that they must plead guilty to the charge in order to be eligible for the program. If they do plead guilty, probation and DOCS work out a “life plan” with the client. DOCS utilizes the COMPAS risk assessment tool, an evidence-base screening tool. The life plan and assessment information is used to guide the type of programming the client will receive in prison, and is adjusted during the discharge planning phase. This process avoids the 90 day “classification” period all convicted persons are subjected to when they enter DOCS. Instead, work can begin immediately on the life plan goals.

In prison, clients work with a primary counselor to achieve their life plan goals. The plan is regularly adjusted in advance of release to prepare clients for life after prison. Faith-based partners conduct prison in-reach to engage clients prior to release. Community prosecutors also visit clients in prison. A case manager from a treatment provider under contract with the county conducts a treatment assessment six months prior to release. Upon release to parole, clients are picked up and transported to their pre-arranged housing, where they are reminded of their life plan appointments.

The services received by clients once they are in the community are paid for through a voucher program where dollars for services follow each client—i.e. programs are paid if they are successful at engaging clients. Police help to keep tabs on clients in the community.

While a comprehensive evaluation has not been conducted yet, the program has shown some success. Since inception, 500 clients have been enrolled in the program, 223 have been released from custody, and only 32 (14%) have re-offended.

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Guns, Legitimacy, and Social Networks

On average, 14,000 guns per year are recovered from the streets of Chicago.
Let's repeat: 14,000.

Some other facts to consider:

• In New York, the homicide rate is about 9 homicides per 100,000 people. In Chicago, it is roughly 18 homicides per 100,000 people (2008 data).
  
  
• About 80% of Chicago's murders involve an illegal firearm and most are in some way connected to gang-related disputes.

Andrew Papachristos, a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, has begun making sense of these facts by examining social networks and gun offenders' perceptions of legal authority. At a presentation to Harvard Law School today (and in a paper due to be published shortly), Papachristos found the following:

"gun offenders (just like noncriminals) are more likely to comply with the law when they believe in (a) the substance of the law, and (b) the legitimacy of legal actors, especially the police. Moreover, we find that opinions of compliance to the law are not uniformly distributed across the sample population. In other words, not all criminals are alike in their opinions of the law. Gang members -- but especially gang members with social networks saturated with criminal associates -- are significantly less likely to view the law and its agents as a legitimate form of authority. However, those individuals (including gang members) with less saturated criminal networks actually tend to have more positive opinions of the law, albeit these opinions are still overall negative."

What does this mean?

Looking at a sample of 150 gun offenders in 54 Chicago police beats, Papachristos finds that "criminals" obey the law for much the same reasons that law-abiding citizens obey the law: they feel a moral obligation to do so and think that most laws are right, fair, and just. The difference, according to survey data, is about treatment by the police: most gun offenders do not believe that the police treat most people with respect. In fact, Papachristos and his colleagues found that respect for the police is the only predictor of whether gun offenders perceive the law as a legitimate authority. More than deterrence strategies or prosecutorial outcomes, what cops do matters a lot in offenders' perceptions of procedural justice.

Interestingly, gang members are actually more likely to believe in the substance of the law -- Papachristos wisely notes that there is a non-trivial respect for authority among gang members (think of the Sopranos if you need a pop culture reference) -- but their networks have huge influence on their favorable perceptions of the law. The more people in your network who are engaging in criminal behavior, the more you learn from those people about being a criminal. Papachristos' data shows that gang members whose network ties are more than 50% saturated with other criminal actors are more likely to engage in criminal behavior themselves. Additionally, the more you believe in the legitimacy of the law, the less likely you are to carry a gun. There are not very strong effects for social networks in terms of promoting gun carrying, but these effects are strong for specific, non-planned behaviors (like getting into a fight).

The conclusion we can draw here is that government entities seeking to encourage law-obiding behavior among gun offenders would do well to promote their own legitimacy in the eyes of the offenders. Policies targeted toward improving these perceptions (which might involve de-saturating networks of criminal influences or improving the police-community relationship) could have a perceptible impact on gun violence.

So why does this matter for reentry?

One of Papachristos' key conclusions is that successful reentry is really the problem at hand: he notes that two-thirds of the sample participants have prior felony convictions. The City of Chicago and the U.S. Attorney's Office Northern District of Illinois have implemented a Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, which is a federally-funded model for reducing neighborhood crime problems. One of the components of this initiative is regular "roundtable meetings," where returning gun offenders sit down with law enforcement officers, successful reentrants, and representatives of community agencies for a restorative justice conversation. After a message from police officers about the surveillance that will be conducted on them ("We are going to get you if you re-offend, and here's how"), ex-gang members share their turnaround stories and service providers are on hand to offer immediate connections to employment, mental health counseling, and housing opportunities. The results from these forums are promising: Project Safe Neighborhoods evaluations indicate that, as the percentage of active offenders in the neighborhood who attend the meeting increases, the neighborhood-level homicide rate decreases. Additionally, forum participants are less likely to re-offend for several varieities of crime when compared to several different control groups.

In the coming week, we'll be sitting down with Professor Papachristos to get a more detailed picture of gun violence in Chicago and the lessons to be learned for anti-gun violence projects in New York City.

What questions do you have for him?
Send them over and we'll do our best to ask!

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Good News! Task Force Receives Funding from the Second Chance Act!

Today, we learned that the Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force will be receiving federal funding under the Second Chance Act, totaling roughly $700,000. The funding was awarded to the Mayor's Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator, through whom the Harlem Community Justice Center is a subcontractor.

Not only will this enable us to implement an adult reentry demonstration project (in other words, continue to help state and local agencies implement programs and strategies to reduce recidivism and ensure safe and successful reentry through the Task Force), but it will also allow us to add a new mentoring capacity to the Harlem Parole Reentry Court.

We are particularly excited about this because it represents recognition from the federal government that a collaborative and problem-solving approach to reentry is the way to go. Many thanks to our local partners for the work they have done over the years (check out a list of them on the right-hand side of this blog) to help us secure this funding and the opportunity to achieve even greater results for people returning from prison and jail!

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