Rethinking Incarceration News Archive

"For too long, we have relied upon law enforcement and jail to be our primary response to those in mental distress."

In this opinion piece, Courtney Bryan and Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris share better solutions for supporting people with mental health needs. When the legal system, law enforcement, and social service providers work together, we can address health, psychiatric, and housing needs on an individualized basis, and ensure safety for all New Yorkers.

In Los Angeles County, home to the country's largest jail population, the city and local organizations are partnering to create more equity in the legal process by focusing on mental health. The Center is helping to implement the LA-based Rapid Diversion Program, which helps individuals with mental health diagnoses connect with case management, treatment, housing and job services, and cases are dismissed when a participant completes the program. "If we’re able to help one person and change their trajectory, it can have compounding impacts for their families and their communities,” Chidinma Ume, our interim director of policy, says. Brett Taylor, senior advisor of West Coast Initiatives is also quoted.

A coalition of criminal justice advocates and experts, including the Center, are calling on New York City officials to study ways to safely release 70% of the women and gender-expansive people being held in Rose M. Singer Center (“Rosie’s”) on Rikers Island. The plea comes a little over a month after the death of Mary Yehudah on Rosie’s. Recommendations include the city form a “population review team” to examine who would be good candidates for release.

John Jay College senior Shambaleed Nayyer is a winner of the 2021-2022 New York Giants Touchdown Fellowship, which supports year-long internships at leading criminal justice organizations. Through her fellowship, Shambaleed has been working with Center program Manhattan Justice Opportunities, researching felony alternatives to incarceration programs across the country, and exploring new ways to improve our programming.

Providing alternatives to incarceration, the Center's Midtown Community Court's new Misdemeanor Mental Health Court (MMHC) will support individuals suffering from mental illness. Low-level offenses, such as shoplifting and illegal drug use, will now have social services and community service options that are restorative to both the community and participants. The Court's Youth Part has also been expanded to include young adults ages 18 through 25, reducing the risk of recidivism by targeting the root causes for criminal justice involvement.

Using the example of parents and caretakers stealing diapers and baby products, the New Yorker looks at the debate happening in New York about low-level prosecution. The article cites our new report on shrinking New York's misdemeanor system and Michael Rempel, co-author of the study, shares that the harms that jail produces "are criminogenic—leading to higher rates of recidivism than would have otherwise arisen had people been released.” 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City’s court system has seen a backlog of cases, nearly 52,000 criminal cases were pending as of November 2021. The article cites our report on closing Rikers Island that found that improvements to the court backlog and case processing times could lower the city jail population by more than 1,000 people.

Orleny Rojas, who serves as deputy director of Criminal Court Operations, believes sustainable change starts with small acts.

Barry has been arrested approximately 160 times, while facing drug addiction, homelessness, and a lack of job skills and opportunities. As our executive director Courtney Bryan and senior staff say, there are alternatives to the criminal justice system that can address the underlying factors that cause the behavior and find solutions for a new path forward.

Jails across the U.S. are releasing people to stop the spread of COVID-19 behind bars, but a lot of people remain. Julian Adler, our director of policy and research, says that some of the population who remain likely pose little threat to public safety, and that he "hopes the current push to rethink who should be kept inside will change public attitudes in the longer term."