Brooklyn DA Announces Home-Based Jail Alternative For Female Prisoners
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is joining
advocates for women in announcing a program that will let some female prisoners
serve their sentences at home.
The Justice Home Program is the first of its kind
allowing 45 women facing jail time for non-violent crimes to retain custody of
their children while serving their sentences at home, Hynes said.
“The women will be able to stay home with their kids,
they will plead guilty up front to a charge, that sentence will be held over
their heads while they do things like work and nurture their children,” Hynes
said.
The women will receive intensive supervision and
treatment and spare their children the trauma of watching their mother being
hauled off to jail, WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell reported.
“I think that we can improve public safety by reducing
the likelihood that individuals will commit crime,” said Georgia Lerner, the
director of the Women’s Prison Association. “We think that the person’s real
life is the best place to practice different ways of dealing with situations
and for her to learn how to navigate and reduce her involvement in criminal
activity.”
For women who complete the program, the slate will be
wiped clean, criminal charges dropped, Cornell reported.
Hynes said the program is cost effective, pointing out
that it takes $34,000 a year to keep a mother and two children at home compared
to $129,000 to send a woman to jail and her children to foster care.
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