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NYC: Where the Police Offer a Free Art Class Instead of Prosecution [citylab.com]

 

By Rebecca Bellan, City Lab, October 22, 2019

In February, Assia, 21, of Queens, was caught trying to steal a shirt from a store on Canal Street in Manhattan—a would-be birthday present for her best friend. By the time she realized she’d been made and tried to put the shirt back, the police had already arrived. She says they cuffed her and slammed her against a wall when she slipped one thin wrist out of the cuff. The encounter was frightening but when Assia was released from booking, the arresting officer gave her a pamphlet to let her know that she might be eligible for Project Reset, an early diversion program that provides individuals arrested on low-level, non-violent misdemeanors an alternative to appearing in court, and a way out of having a criminal record.  

“At first I thought it was a scam, that I was being played by the cop,” Assia told CityLab in a phone interview. “I thought, no, this is too good to be true. I just have to go into a class for three hours and that’s it? It ended up being a blessing in disguise.” Assia’s successful completion of a three-hour class at the Swiss Institute, an art institution in Manhattan, closed out the incident.

Assia’s course was part of Project Reset, a diversion program launched as a pilot for 16- and 17-year-olds in Manhattan in 2015. Now Project Reset offers diversion programs (programs that offer an alternative to the traditional justice system) to people of any age at all precincts in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Assia was lucky that she was arrested in Manhattan. While the city recently approved funding to expand Project Reset to New York’s other two boroughs, Queens and Staten Island, the details have not been finalized.* Even within one city, offering a program that has the potential for systemic long-term effect on lives can be up to the inclinations of the borough district attorney.

[Please click here to read more.]

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