Major Study Finds Lighting Cut Crime by 39%
"In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the New
York City Police Department and the New York City Housing Authority, the
scientific research team Crime Lab designed a six-month randomised
controlled trial involving nearly 80 public housing developments, all of
which had elevated levels of crime. About half of the developments
received new, temporary street lights, and half did not.
The study found that the developments that received the new lights
experienced crime rates that were significantly lower than would have
been the case without the new lights."
View the Full Report
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Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
End of an Era: The Impact of Drug Law Reform in New York City
"In 2009, the latest in a series of reforms essentially dismantled New York State’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of a range of felony drug charges and increasing eligibility for diversion to treatment. To study the impact of these reforms, Vera partnered with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University to examine the implementation of drug law reform and its impact on recidivism, racial disparities, and cost in New York City. The National Institute of Justice-funded study found that drug law reform, as it functioned in the city soon after the laws were passed, led to a 35 percent rise in the rate of diversion of eligible defendants to treatment. Although the use of diversion varied significantly among the city’s five boroughs, it was associated with reduced recidivism rates, and cut racial disparities in half."
View the Report
"In 2009, the latest in a series of reforms essentially dismantled New York State’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of a range of felony drug charges and increasing eligibility for diversion to treatment. To study the impact of these reforms, Vera partnered with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University to examine the implementation of drug law reform and its impact on recidivism, racial disparities, and cost in New York City. The National Institute of Justice-funded study found that drug law reform, as it functioned in the city soon after the laws were passed, led to a 35 percent rise in the rate of diversion of eligible defendants to treatment. Although the use of diversion varied significantly among the city’s five boroughs, it was associated with reduced recidivism rates, and cut racial disparities in half."
View the Report
Can New York City’s Welfare System Be Saved?
Depending on your politics, the term “safety net” might suggest a
government that righteously protects its neediest, or a nanny state that
coddles the undeserving. But for many poor New Yorkers, it’s a
misnomer—more of a tightrope than a net. Because instead of breaking
your fall into poverty, the bureaucracy of the city’s welfare system
shoves you further over the edge.
A new study by the legal advocacy group Urban Justice Center (full disclosure: where the author once interned and volunteered), based on surveys of clients, argues that New York City’s primary public assistance agency, the Human Resources Administration (HRA), has become utterly dysfunctional under the last two conservative administrations. It’s not just a matter of incompetence but rather a so-called “culture of deterrence”: a bureaucratic process that indirectly aims to make welfare so unpleasant even eligible people stop applying (which conveniently serves the agendas of politicians who emphasize “personal responsibility” over public assistance).
Read on...
A new study by the legal advocacy group Urban Justice Center (full disclosure: where the author once interned and volunteered), based on surveys of clients, argues that New York City’s primary public assistance agency, the Human Resources Administration (HRA), has become utterly dysfunctional under the last two conservative administrations. It’s not just a matter of incompetence but rather a so-called “culture of deterrence”: a bureaucratic process that indirectly aims to make welfare so unpleasant even eligible people stop applying (which conveniently serves the agendas of politicians who emphasize “personal responsibility” over public assistance).
Read on...
The Convention and the Damage Done
The
Republican National Convention came to New York City in 2004. The event
was mostly unmarred by chaos or violence, unless you count the damage
inflicted by the New York Police Department to the constitutional rights
of innocent people swept up in mass arrests.
Videos
from a protest on Fulton Street show marchers being peaceable and
orderly. Some hold signs as they shuffle along a Lower Manhattan
sidewalk while officers scream and scold and threaten arrest. The main
reaction from the crowd is bafflement, then dismay. The police cast a
wide net — literally in some cases, with orange netting — and
indiscriminately swept up demonstrators, bystanders, reporters and
photographers. Many were held for hours at a makeshift prison on Pier
57, which was given the nickname “Guantánamo on the Hudson.”
It’s Time to Close New York’s School-to-Prison Pipeline
Incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio does not lack for issues
demanding his immediate attention. Among them are the historic levels of
income inequality
and homelessness, as well as the matter of a militarized police force
and its abuse of power, particularly with regard to communities of
color. So he certainly has his work cut out for him. But if he wishes to
address many of these urgent issues at the same time while also
tackling something of great importance in its own right, a major
priority for his administration should be closing the school-to-prison
pipeline—the name given to a set of regressive, “zero tolerance”
policies that frequently end up pushing students into the criminal
justice system instead of through school.
In May of last year, the New York Times editorial board described the situation as follows: “School officials across the country responded to a surge in juvenile crime during the 1980s and the Columbine High School shootings a decade later by tightening disciplinary policies and increasing the number of police patrolling public schools. One unfortunate result has been the creation of a repressive environment in which young people are suspended, expelled or even arrested over minor misbehaviors—like talking back or disrupting class—that would once have been handled by the principal.”
Read on...
In May of last year, the New York Times editorial board described the situation as follows: “School officials across the country responded to a surge in juvenile crime during the 1980s and the Columbine High School shootings a decade later by tightening disciplinary policies and increasing the number of police patrolling public schools. One unfortunate result has been the creation of a repressive environment in which young people are suspended, expelled or even arrested over minor misbehaviors—like talking back or disrupting class—that would once have been handled by the principal.”
Read on...
Police Union and NYPD Collaborated to Set Arrest Quotas
New York City's police union and the NYPD collaborated to set arrest quotas for officers, confirms an audio recording obtained by The Nation on Tuesday.
In the audio clip, recorded in 2009 by officer Adil Polanco, a union delegate argues for "20-and-1": a monthly quota for each officer of 20 summonses and one arrest. According to several police interviewed by The Nation, some officers are forced to "seek out or even manufacture arrests" in order to meet quotas and avoid department retaliation.
The audio could be used as evidence in Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., a case that opened yesterday in federal district court, whose plaintiffs allege the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy results in racial profiling. From The Nation:
The NYPD has just surpassed 5 million stop-and-frisks during the Bloomberg era. Most stops have been of people of color, and the overwhelming majority were found innocent of any wrongdoing, according to the department’s own statistics. And though the number of stops may have gone down recently—as pressure on the department and increased awareness of the policy has officers and supervisors thinking twice about how they employ the practice—the existence of quotas ensures that New Yorkers will continue to be harassed unnecessarily by the NYPD.
Read on...
In the audio clip, recorded in 2009 by officer Adil Polanco, a union delegate argues for "20-and-1": a monthly quota for each officer of 20 summonses and one arrest. According to several police interviewed by The Nation, some officers are forced to "seek out or even manufacture arrests" in order to meet quotas and avoid department retaliation.
The audio could be used as evidence in Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., a case that opened yesterday in federal district court, whose plaintiffs allege the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy results in racial profiling. From The Nation:
The NYPD has just surpassed 5 million stop-and-frisks during the Bloomberg era. Most stops have been of people of color, and the overwhelming majority were found innocent of any wrongdoing, according to the department’s own statistics. And though the number of stops may have gone down recently—as pressure on the department and increased awareness of the policy has officers and supervisors thinking twice about how they employ the practice—the existence of quotas ensures that New Yorkers will continue to be harassed unnecessarily by the NYPD.
Read on...
New York Celebrates Record Low Homicides in 2012 While Chicago Grapples With Spike
Even though New Yorkers were terrified by news that a woman pushed a
man in front of a train in Queens on Thursday night (a suspect was in custody Saturday)
in what was the second subway fatality of its kind in a month, the
truth is that it was quite a safe year to be a resident of the Big
Apple. Murders in New York dropped to their lowest level in more than 40
years with 414 recorded homicides as of Friday, compared with 515 for
the same period last year, and lower than the previous record low of 471
set in 2009, reports the New York Times.
That is quite the contrast from the early 1990s, when the number of
homicides in a year easily reached the low 2,000s. While murders
decreased, thefts increased, based almost entirely in a soaring number
of robberies of Apple devices, including iPhones.
While New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrated the latest plunge,
officials in the country’s third-largest city have been grappling with
how to make sure 2013 doesn’t see a repeat of what was a very bloody
year. The murder count in Chicago reached 500 last Friday, the first
time it reached that number in four years, when 513 were killed in 2008,
reports the Chicago Tribune.
It marked a 17 percent increase in homicides from last year, in large
part because of gang violence that seems to be increasingly audacious,
points out the Associated Press.
Still, the number of homicides this year pales in comparison to what
the city saw in the early 1990s when around 900 people were killed every
year.
Read on...
Read on...
Who, What, Why: What happened to crime in New York City?
For more than 36 hours
in New York City, no-one was shot, stabbed, or otherwise killed. The
crime freeze began after 22:25 on Sunday, when a man was shot in the
head, and continued until another man was shot at 11:20 on Tuesday.
Though the break in violent crime marked the first time in recent memory such an event had occurred, the figure doesn't surprise criminologists.
"I'm surprised it's just the first day this has happened," says Alfred Blumstein, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Considering, says Blumstein, that there were only 472 homicides in New York last year, with this year on track for even fewer, the odds of a violent-crime free day are favourable.
Read on...
This reminds me of the time crime took a holiday in Milan. Tom
Though the break in violent crime marked the first time in recent memory such an event had occurred, the figure doesn't surprise criminologists.
"I'm surprised it's just the first day this has happened," says Alfred Blumstein, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Considering, says Blumstein, that there were only 472 homicides in New York last year, with this year on track for even fewer, the odds of a violent-crime free day are favourable.
Read on...
This reminds me of the time crime took a holiday in Milan. Tom
Unlock The Box: The Fight Against Solitary Confinement in New York
On the first chilly morning in September, several dozen demonstrators gathered
in front of a limestone skyscraper on Chambers Street in Lower
Manhattan. Some wore orange jumpsuits, and two of them held a broad
banner with the hand-painted words, “Solitary Is Torture.”
The subject of the protest was the abuse of prisoners—not at Guantánamo, Bagram or some distant black site, but on Rikers Island, less than ten miles away. The protesters, members of a new advocacy group called the New York City Jails Action Coalition (JAC), argue that conditions there—particularly solitary confinement—constitute torture in their own backyard. The target of the protest was the New York City Board of Correction, which oversees conditions for the 13,000-odd men, women, and children who inhabit New York City’s jails on a given day, and whose monthly meeting was taking place inside.
According to the City’s own figures, the number of isolation cells at Rikers has risen to nearly 1,000 and is still growing. The JAC also points to the existence of special solitary confinement units on Rikers Island, designed to hold teenagers and people with mental illness.
“This type of treatment is cruel and inhumane to any human being, especially growing adolescents,” said Lisa Ortega, mother of a 18-year-old with psychiatric disabilities who was placed in twenty-three-hour-a-day solitary confinement on Rikers for weeks at a time, amounting to several months, when he was 16. “The damage done is irreversible.”
Read on...
The subject of the protest was the abuse of prisoners—not at Guantánamo, Bagram or some distant black site, but on Rikers Island, less than ten miles away. The protesters, members of a new advocacy group called the New York City Jails Action Coalition (JAC), argue that conditions there—particularly solitary confinement—constitute torture in their own backyard. The target of the protest was the New York City Board of Correction, which oversees conditions for the 13,000-odd men, women, and children who inhabit New York City’s jails on a given day, and whose monthly meeting was taking place inside.
According to the City’s own figures, the number of isolation cells at Rikers has risen to nearly 1,000 and is still growing. The JAC also points to the existence of special solitary confinement units on Rikers Island, designed to hold teenagers and people with mental illness.
“This type of treatment is cruel and inhumane to any human being, especially growing adolescents,” said Lisa Ortega, mother of a 18-year-old with psychiatric disabilities who was placed in twenty-three-hour-a-day solitary confinement on Rikers for weeks at a time, amounting to several months, when he was 16. “The damage done is irreversible.”
Read on...
New York’s Used Police Shells, Reloaded for Sale
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s
attacks on the gun industry are legion, and familiar far beyond the
boundaries of the city he runs. They were heard again just hours after
the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colo., in his calls for tightened gun control.
So it may come as a surprise to some that in June, New York City sold
more than 28,000 pounds of the Police Department’s spent shell casings
not to a scrap metal company, as it has in the past, but to a Georgia
ammunition store. The store, Georgia Arms, routinely buys once-fired shell casings, reloads them with bullets and sells them to the public.
The store sells bags of 50 bullets, at about $15 each; per Georgia’s gun
laws, no questions are asked and no identification or registration is
required. It is a transaction that could not occur in New York City,
where it is illegal to possess ammunition without a license to own a
gun, and where obtaining a license to own a gun is harder than in most
other states.
The sale of shell casings to Georgia Arms is perfectly legal and not
uncommon; other police departments sell their used casings. And many of
its “factory loaded” bullets, as the second-generation rounds are known,
are sold in bulk to police agencies for use on their own firing ranges.
They are less expensive than new ammunition.
NYPD Posts ‘Wanted’ Flyer Targeting Couple That Legally Videotapes Stop-And-Frisks
The New York Police Department has put out a “police advisory” flyer
warning cops and residents to look out for two “professional agitators,”
a Harlem couple who film officers stopping and frisking young New Yorkers of color.
DNAinfo reports that Matthew Swaye, 35, and his partner Christina Gonzalez, 25, came across the poster, complete with mugshots and the official seal of the NYPD’s intelligence division, taped to a podium in the 30th precinct’s public hearing room while attending a precinct council meeting. The flyer listed the home address of the couple and warned:
DNAinfo reports that Matthew Swaye, 35, and his partner Christina Gonzalez, 25, came across the poster, complete with mugshots and the official seal of the NYPD’s intelligence division, taped to a podium in the 30th precinct’s public hearing room while attending a precinct council meeting. The flyer listed the home address of the couple and warned:
Be aware that the subjects are known professional agitators that live at [home address]. Above subjects mo is that they video tape officers performing routine stops and post on youtube. Subjects purpose is to portray officers in a negative way and too deter officers from conducting there responsibilities. Above subjects also deter officers from being safe and tactical by causing unnecessary distractions. Do not feed into subjects propaganda.Read on...
Surveillance City: New Body Scanners Head to NYC
New plans for monitoring people in New York City has civil liberties advocates up in arms.
The International Business Times reports:
In a speech to the New York City Police Foundation Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced the NYPD was working with the Department of Defense to develop a scanner that is capable of detecting concealed firearms.
The device picks up on the heat energy produced by people or objects, measured in terahertz, to pinpoint objects that are blocking that view of energy, like a gun. "If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example, a weapon, the device will highlight that object," Kelly explained. "This technology has shown a great deal of promise as a way of detecting weapons without a physical.
NYPD Pepper Spray procedure
James Fallows on the abusive cops spraying corralled protesters in the face with pepper spray:
[A]ccording to the NYT, the chief police spokesman, Paul Browne, said that the policeman used pepper spray "appropriately." Great. On the video we can't hear what either side is saying. But at face value, the casualness of the officer who saunters over, sprays right in the women's eyes, and then slinks away without a backward glance, as if he'd just put down an animal, does not match my sense of "appropriate" behavior by officers of the law in a free society.This is definitely not proper procedure and it isn't a close call. Here's an excerpt of an NYPD report on the use of pepper spray:
Think about it: If this were part of some concerted, "appropriate" crowd-control plan, then presumably the pepper-spray officer would have talked with the other policemen trying to control the women. He would have stayed on the scene; he had done something dramatic to affect a situation, so -- again, if this were "appropriate" -- presumably he would have talked with the other officers about what to do next. But look at that video and see what seems "appropriate" to you.
Police officers make countless hard decisions every day, often at the risk of their own safety or lives. It's a harder job than I have. But everything about this scene suggests an officer who has forgotten about some of these hard choices. He just zaps 'em and walks away as they scream.
Read on...
Juvenile Detention Reform in New York City: Measuring Risk Through Research
Executive Summary
The January 2006 closure of New York City’s only alternative to juvenile detention brought the city close to a crisis: family court lost its only alternative pretrial supervision option and the population in local detention facilities was at its highest in three years. This situation also presented an opportunity for the city’s juvenile justice system to take stock of how and when it was using detention—equivalent to jail in the adult context—for youth facing
delinquency charges. The Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator in conjunction with a variety of agencies and entities involved with the juvenile justice system seized this occasion to explore new methods for responding to young people awaiting sentencing that would be more effective at producing positive outcomes for youth and enhancing public safety.
They embarked upon a two-phase reform process, with assistance from the Vera Institute of Justice. First, they conducted a research study and designed an empirically based risk-assessment instrument (RAI) measuring the likelihood that a youth would fail to appear in court or be rearrested during the pendency of his/her case. The tool would be used to help inform family court judges’ decisions about pretrial detention for juveniles. Second,
the group planned a variety of community-based alternatives to detention (ATDs) for young people who did not require secure confinement and could be supervised and better served in their own communities.
This report examines the development of both the RAI and the alternatives to detention and presents preliminary outcomes of the reforms. In examining city data, researchers found that certain pretrial factors, such as an open warrant for a previous delinquency
case or a previous arrest, significantly correlated with failure to appear in court or rearrest. However, other notable factors, such as charge type and charge severity, were found to not correlate with failure to appear in court and rearrest. Both types of findings informed the RAI’s composition.
Information from the Juvenile Justice Research Database—the database used to monitor and assess the RAI and ATD programs, once implemented—suggests that the reform effort is contributing to positive outcomes for youth and communities by a variety of measures.
> Family court judges frequently refer youth who score mid-risk on the RAI to ATD programs, reserving pretrial detention for youth who present the highest risk of failure to appear in court and/or rearrest.
> Detention use at arraignment (first court appearance) has dropped from 32 percent to 24 percent since citywide adoption of the RAI and ATDs—a 25 percent decrease. Far fewer low-risk youth (from 24 percent of a 2006 study sample to 9 percent in a post-implementation 2008 sample) are going into detention.
> Overall, there has been a 30 percent reduction in the rate of rearrest for youth during the time their cases are pending, from 26 percent to 18 percent, between 2006 and 2008.
Read on...
This report is from the Vera Institute of Justice. Tom
The January 2006 closure of New York City’s only alternative to juvenile detention brought the city close to a crisis: family court lost its only alternative pretrial supervision option and the population in local detention facilities was at its highest in three years. This situation also presented an opportunity for the city’s juvenile justice system to take stock of how and when it was using detention—equivalent to jail in the adult context—for youth facing
delinquency charges. The Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator in conjunction with a variety of agencies and entities involved with the juvenile justice system seized this occasion to explore new methods for responding to young people awaiting sentencing that would be more effective at producing positive outcomes for youth and enhancing public safety.
They embarked upon a two-phase reform process, with assistance from the Vera Institute of Justice. First, they conducted a research study and designed an empirically based risk-assessment instrument (RAI) measuring the likelihood that a youth would fail to appear in court or be rearrested during the pendency of his/her case. The tool would be used to help inform family court judges’ decisions about pretrial detention for juveniles. Second,
the group planned a variety of community-based alternatives to detention (ATDs) for young people who did not require secure confinement and could be supervised and better served in their own communities.
This report examines the development of both the RAI and the alternatives to detention and presents preliminary outcomes of the reforms. In examining city data, researchers found that certain pretrial factors, such as an open warrant for a previous delinquency
case or a previous arrest, significantly correlated with failure to appear in court or rearrest. However, other notable factors, such as charge type and charge severity, were found to not correlate with failure to appear in court and rearrest. Both types of findings informed the RAI’s composition.
Information from the Juvenile Justice Research Database—the database used to monitor and assess the RAI and ATD programs, once implemented—suggests that the reform effort is contributing to positive outcomes for youth and communities by a variety of measures.
> Family court judges frequently refer youth who score mid-risk on the RAI to ATD programs, reserving pretrial detention for youth who present the highest risk of failure to appear in court and/or rearrest.
> Detention use at arraignment (first court appearance) has dropped from 32 percent to 24 percent since citywide adoption of the RAI and ATDs—a 25 percent decrease. Far fewer low-risk youth (from 24 percent of a 2006 study sample to 9 percent in a post-implementation 2008 sample) are going into detention.
> Overall, there has been a 30 percent reduction in the rate of rearrest for youth during the time their cases are pending, from 26 percent to 18 percent, between 2006 and 2008.
Read on...
This report is from the Vera Institute of Justice. Tom
New York City Wasting $75 Million a Year on Marijuana Arrests
A new study reveals that since 1996 New York City has spent from half a billion to over a billion dollars arresting people for less than an ounce of marijuana.
In 2010 New York City spent $75 million arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
Three members of the New York City Council joined advocates and community members on the steps of City Hall today at a press conference organized by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives. They announced the release of a new report: "$75 Million A Year - The Cost of New York City's Marijuana Arrests."
The report, written by CUNY Professor Harry Levine and attorney Loren Siegel, shows that since 1996 New York City has spent from half a billion to over a billion dollars arresting people for less than an ounce of marijuana.
Each arrest costs at least $1,000 to $2,000 (conservatively estimated), and in 2010 the NYPD made nearly 1,000 arrests a week. The 50,383 people arrested for marijuana in 2010 were all fingerprinted, photographed, and most spent 24 hours or more in jail. In all cases, marijuana possession was the highest charge or the only charge.
Crime by the Numbers
By WILLIAM BRATTON
CompStat originated on my watch as police commissioner, from 1994 through early 1996, and I acknowledge that it was intended to be a tough system, using rigorous weekly reports to refocus commanders on combating crime. Nevertheless, I believe that very few precinct commanders would downgrade crimes under such pressure — and that there wouldn’t have been much effect on overall crime rates even if they had.
Read on...
An editorial in the New York Times. Tom
CompStat originated on my watch as police commissioner, from 1994 through early 1996, and I acknowledge that it was intended to be a tough system, using rigorous weekly reports to refocus commanders on combating crime. Nevertheless, I believe that very few precinct commanders would downgrade crimes under such pressure — and that there wouldn’t have been much effect on overall crime rates even if they had.
Read on...
An editorial in the New York Times. Tom
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