Helps Additional District Lawyer Miriam E. Rocah’s aim to extend diversion, therapy and rehabilitation as a software to cut back violence and mass incarceration
Westchester County District Lawyer Miriam E. Rocah joined advocates and authorities companions in saying at present’s launch of the Westchester Misdemeanor Wellness Court docket (WMWC), which is able to provide eligible people community-based psychological well being therapy and companies as a substitute for typical prosecution.
DA Rocah mentioned: “I’m grateful to the Courts and our companion advocates for heeding our name and serving to us carry to Westchester County a misdemeanor psychological well being courtroom, which is able to function a sensible and humane different for people who commit low-level crimes and are in want of therapy and companies. Along with it being the best factor to do, the WMWC may even be an efficient early intervention software, to assist stop some people from committing extra critical or violent felony crimes sooner or later.”
The institution of the WMWC, working out of White Plains Metropolis Court docket, is the newest step in DA Rocah’s agenda to advance community-based violence prevention and rehabilitation for low-level offenders, like Contemporary Begin, Westchester’s first pre-arraignment diversion program. Launched in 2021, in partnership with the Westchester County Government and the Westchester County Division of Neighborhood Psychological Well being, Contemporary Begin expanded to all 42 police departments countywide in 2022, and has efficiently produced greater than 200 members who obtained rehabilitative companies as a substitute of convictions and fines. Contemporary Begin is being developed to broaden to drug therapy courtroom.
For particulars on WMWC’s eligibility, learn the State of New York Unified Court docket System announcement at: https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/pdfs/PR23_01.pdf
