A new concept in criminal justice was initiated in Newark Municipal Court. Newark Community Solutions (NCS) is the brainchild of Mayor Corey Booker, who based the program on a similar one developed in Red Hook, New Jersey in 2000. The object of NCS is to offer Newark’s non-violent offenders a chance to stay out jail. Municipal judges now have an option to sentence those who have been charged with a low-level crime to a more appropriate alternative than incarceration
A sentence can include drug treatment or counseling, coupled with a number of mandated hours of community service. The pilot program, which began in April, has worked with over 240 individuals so far. The community is encouraged to become involved, and share their views, and a community advisory board is in the process of being set up.
Mayor Booker has been vocal in his opposition to turning Newark into a “police state.” Antonella Rao of Southward Patch, reports that Booker demanded that this generation “…be the one that breaks the grip of a justice system that does not serve justice. Let ours be the generation that turns our court systems into instruments of restorative justice.”
Booker is not the only one praising NCS. Kim Ball, a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice Adjudication Bureau of Justice Assistance, was quoted as saying “ This a unique effort to apply problem solving solutions to all court matters.”
Source; Southward Patch June 17, 2011
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