2020 Year in Review

OPGV centers its approach on mitigating conflict among communities experiencing increased gun violence. MAP empowers NYCHA residents to address community-wide issues that prolong widespread disinvestment and supports resident-led efforts to build equity and opportunity. At the judicial-level, Atlas, a volunteer pretrial program, aims to ensure that individuals who are released into their communities on their own recognizance return to court for arraignment.

Since 2017, OPGV has been singularly focused on investing in communities most impacted by gun violence. Many of those communities felt additional hardships this year resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and some experienced an increase in shootings during the unprecedented national crisis.

OPGV immediately responded by working with local leaders to address critical neighborhood needs. Thanks to additional investments into the Crisis Management System (CMS) by Mayor Bill de Blasio, community-based partners already committed to reducing gun violence became essential credible messengers in the effort to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from the coronavirus. CMS members hit the streets to promote responsible distancing and distribute free personal protective equipment across the five boroughs.

Photos by MOCJ staff.

As the nation was struck by both a global health crisis and a growing demand for community-driven public safety policies, MAP brought together residents, city agencies, local organizations, and others to bring vital resources to New Yorkers in need. MAP residents across 15 developments were deeply engaged in the local NeighborhoodStat process to identify and vote on community projects and priorities.

Resident leaders and neighborhood partners were able to quickly use the networks they built to address the immediate needs of vulnerable residents affected by COVID-19. Resident leaders and partners with the Center for Court Innovation, Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement, and Los Sures conducted 17,000 individual needs assessments. Using the information gathered, MAP helped deliver more than 7,000 packages of food, personal protective equipment, and cleaning supplies to public housing residents across the five boroughs. MAP also kept communities connected by hosting regular Resiliency Seminars to support resident leadership around rent relief, benefit access, trauma support, violence response, community design and other topics.

In the face of an uncertain summer for youth employment opportunities across the city, MAP worked with both the Office to Prevent Gun Violence and the Young Men’s Initiative to develop a virtual version of OPGV’s Anti-Gun Violence Employment Program. More than 650 teens and young adults from NYCHA developments and neighborhoods received professional development training and a stipend in exchange for working at local organizations within their communities. Another 150 young people were offered stipends for training in public art, dance, media, and music making through MAP’s VIBE program for teens.

For younger New Yorkers impacted by quarantine restrictions, MAP also worked with the Department of Transportation, the Police Athletic League, and Street Lab to bring Play Streets to public housing communities, providing critical access to safe outdoor activities and programming.

Photos by MOCJ staff; Center for Court Innovation; Green City Force; and Uptown Grand Central.

Read Renita Francois’ article in Blavity: Why the Government Should Leave it to Local Communities to Define What Public Safety Means to Them

Read the Norwood News story: New York City Adds “Play Streets” to Nation-Leading “Open Streets” Initiative

Within a year of its creation, the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) immediately mobilized to support communities experiencing hateful and bigoted attacks, engaged young New Yorkers to promote the city’s diversity and tolerance, and convened city agencies to problem solve how to systematically prevent hate.

At the beginning of the local COVID-19 outbreak, Asian and Pacific Islander communities across the City reported an increase in bias incidents and hate crimes. OPHC quickly spearheaded a strategic action plan for partner agencies to reinforce New York City’s commitment to protecting vulnerable neighbors from hate crimes, resulting in a series of virtual town halls for affected communities, as well as the development and distribution of resources on how to report incidents.

As a multi-agency task force charged with addressing illegal short-term rentals, the Office of Special Enforcement continued to protect the City’s housing stock from individuals and companies that violate the law and put New Yorkers at risk. 

OSE litigation resulted in a settlement that permanently prevented Manhattan’s former Imperial Court Hotel from using 227 units of housing as illegal hotel rooms. The office also launched an investigation into Guesty, a platform used by short-term rental hosts to scale up illegal short-term rental operations in New York City. OSE also filed suit and obtained a restraining order that ended an illegal rental operation that spanned nine Brooklyn buildings and generated an estimated $1.4 million over four years for two notorious Brooklyn landlords who were also accused by the City of tenant harassment and unlawful eviction.

Additionally, the office applied its enforcement expertise to the City’s efforts to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The work office played a coordinating and inspection role in the City’s efforts to ensure compliance with executive orders relating to businesses reopening, and it served as the enforcement lead for emergency restrictions on fees charged to restaurants by food delivery service app companies.

The City’s jail population continued its steady downward trend at the start of 2020, thanks in part to bail reform measures restricting its use for misdemeanor and non-violent offenses. Ahead of the COVID-19 healthcare emergency, the City’s jail population was down an additional 4.6 percent since the beginning of 2020.

In the face of COVID-19, the City worked with its partners in the justice system to safely reduce the jail population as much as possible. This led to a nearly 30 percent drop from mid-March to the end of April.

While a number of factors led to a steady rise in the population as the year proceeded, 2020 ended with a year-over-year reduction of nearly 14 percent compared to the end of 2019.

The MOCJ Re-entry team works with a network of nonprofit providers across New York City to support people discharged from custody transition back to their communities. These supportive services include re-entry counseling before a person leaves jail, paid transitional employment, housing assistance, job training, mentoring, and wellness support.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Re-entry team began working closely with partners across the criminal justice system to implement a plan for reducing the jail population, while continuing to provide services for people returning from jail and assisting them with unique challenges precipitated by COVID-19.

In 2020, the re-entry team also worked to advance advocacy and logistics towards providing all New Yorkers leaving city jails with identification and seamless access to the benefits and services needed to reenter the community safely and smoothly. This is key work that MOCJ will advance through 2022.

Photos by Exodus Transitional Community, Inc.

Watch Anna Calabrese and the Exodus Transitional Community in the Vice video: Released From Prison Early Because of COVID-19

Embedded in MOCJ, the Office of Pretrial Justice Initiatives (OPJI) was formed in November 2019 to work with partners across New York City on developing and managing strategies to safely reduce the local jail population. Part of New York City’s success in reducing the population of individuals detained pretrial has come from innovative strategies including the expansion of its nationally recognized Supervised Release program. Findings from an evaluation released in 2020 show that Supervised Release is as effective as cash bail in ensuring people return to court, with fewer unequal outcomes for people in different financial situations. Since its launch in March 2016, Supervised Release has helped divert more than 24,000 individuals from jail.

The onset of the COVID-19 health emergency and several responsive executive actions by both the New York State and City of New York governing offices significantly limited in-person court operations. MOCJ worked quickly with partners across the justice system to call on the broad resources and expertise of city government to navigate these unanticipated challenges. These efforts included:

• Working with courts and the NYC Department of Correction to increase video conferencing capabilities;
• Consulting experts and facility professionals on retrofitting courts and workspaces to make them COVID-safe;
and
• Working with NYC health agencies to clarify screening guidelines and processes for reporting and handling
positive COVID cases in local jails

When infection numbers improved in the jails over the summer, the partners worked together to plan the safe resumption of some in-person operations, including multiple grand juries able to deliberate on felony indictments and a handful of criminal jury trials.

Nearly one year into the pandemic, the working groups continue to meet on a weekly basis, serving as a critical touchpoint for updates, problem-solving, and relationship-building at a time when many of the existing touchpoints of everyday criminal law practice remain unavailable. As the City looks to turn the page on this crisis, MOCJ will work with its partners to evaluate lessons learned and identify which changes to existing practice—necessitated by the pandemic—can lead to a more fair, efficient, and equitable criminal legal system for all New Yorkers.