New York: Whatever has made New York the safest big city in America, that feat has certainly not been accomplished by locking up more criminals.
According to Deputy Commissioner Erik Berliner, of the New York City Department of Corrections, since 1994, the New York City jail population has decreased by 23% during a time when the total jail population in the US increased by 36%. In the same period, the city's total crime, and violent crime, dropped by 52%.
Yesterday (Wednesday, 10 July), Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele toured Rikers Island - the city's main jail complex.
Berliner added: "As the American prison population has doubled in the past two decades, the city has been a remarkable exception to the trend: the number of its residents in prison has shrunk. Its incarceration rate, once high by national standards, has plunged well below the United States average.
"Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) Programmes are an integral part of the strategy that has allowed the city to reduce crime, reduce jail, and prison, populations and help individuals and neighbourhoods. Instead of sentencing someone to jail or prison, ATIs allow a judge to sentence someone to a programme where they receive treatment, education and employment training in the community all the while remaining under strict supervision. And, if people do not succeed in these programmes the court still has the option of sentencing them to incarceration. A recent analysis by the New York City Criminal Justice Agency found that felony ATI participants were significantly less likely to be re-arrested than similar people sent to prison, discharged from a city jail or parole," said Berliner.
Later today (Thursday, 11 July), Minister Ndebele will visit the Delancey Street Foundation in New York - a leading residential self-help organisation for substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others.
The Minister, accompanied by Correctional Services Chief Operations Officer Ms Nontsikelelo Jolingana, Chief Deputy Commissioner for Community Corrections Ms Pumla Mathibela and KwaZulu-Natal Regional Commissioner Mr Mnikelwa Nxele, is currently on a study tour to California and New York to study, and observe, various issues pertaining to the monitoring of offenders, and officials, in order to consolidate a best-practice model for South Africa.
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Logan Maistry
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