The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and the Center for Justice Innovation on Thursday launched the city’s first Community Care Van, a tool to improve compliance among adults in the city’s Supervised Release program.
The van will bring check-in services to individuals in southeast Brooklyn, a transportation desert, thus making it easier for them to comply with court requirements, officials said.
The van will support an underserved group of New Yorkers on Supervised Release and those who are over the age of 35 that are awaiting trial on criminal charges. The individuals were determined by a judge to be more likely to succeed living in the community, with guidance, than behind bars.
“We’re always looking for the next innovation to make our city even safer,” Deanna Logan, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said in a statement. “In this case, the data identified a problem, and our office identified a solution. Providing check-in services to New Yorkers in a transportation desert will help them better-comply with the terms of their release and less likely to fall into bad cycles while awaiting trial.”
The mobile justice teams are staffed by Community Navigators and supported by case managers, clinicians, and employment and benefits specialists trained to connect the under-resourced participants with voluntary and mandated services that were once out of reach because of their distance from the courts. Participants will be offered help accessing community resources, such as job training, food banks, health clinics and housing assistance.
Participant eligibility will be for supervised adults age 35 and up, who reside in southeast Brooklyn, with a history of non-compliance within the last two years. Compared to younger participants in the Supervised Release program, older individuals in this area have a significantly higher failure rate to appear at court check-ins, often due to minimal transportation options, combined with health issues and family responsibilities, officials said.
The mobile services will allow more parents to spend time with their children and allow all participants to take better advantage of key recourses offered following a missed check-in – both of which have been shown to improve outcomes for individuals in the justice system, officials added.
