UNDER PROBATION
Satellite office in central Harlem to help minor offenders
A SATELLITE probation office, designed to connect minor offenders to job training and other programs close to home, is set to open soon in central Harlem.
The W. 127th St. office will become the city’s second Neighborhood Opportunity Network (NeON) branch. The goal, officials say, is to reduce recidivism by engaging people on probation with neighborhood-based services and community projects.
“The NEON redefines where and how we deal with folks on probation,” Catrina Prioleau, a Probation Department official, said at a recent Community Board 10 committee meeting. “If someone’s not involved in the criminal justice system, we don’t want to keep sending them downtown every week to court.”
Instead, a small team of probation officers will relocate to an office in the Dempsey Multi-service Center, on 127th St. between Lenox Ave. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., setting up shop next to several social service agencies. The office is expected to open sometime in the next few weeks, though a date hasn’t been finalized.
City Councilwoman Inez Dickens is cautiously optimistic about the venture. “The NEON could be good. We hope it’s going to be good,” said Dickens’s spokeswoman Lynette Velasco. “But it has to be well-staffed, and closely monitored.”
CB 10 has not taken an official position on the matter, said district manager Paimaan Lodhi.
The NEON plan comes from Probation Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi, who arrived in New York two years ago after overhauling the juvenile justice system in Washington, D.C.
“Probation meets people at a very interesting moment,” Schiraldi said. “They’ve done something bad enough for the court system to say, ‘We need to pay real attention,’ but not so bad that they’re getting locked up. It’s a fork in the road.”
In Brownsville, Brooklyn, where the first NEON opened last December, Prioleau said clients were sometimes confused because the atmosphere is starkly different from the courthouse. There are no metal detectors or long lines, but instead a waiting room with a library and computers, and a jobs counselor in an office next door.
“NEONS don’t look like probation offices,” she said.
Additional NEON offices are set for Jamaica, the South Bronx and East New York.
“We want to reach out to infor- mal supports where our clients live,” Schiraldi said. “It’s a learning curve for us, to work with communities and say, ‘How can we engage with you?’ ”
The NEONS are a key component of the Young Men’s Initiative, Mayor Bloomberg’s $128-million program to improve outcomes for young black and Latino men in education, health, employment and justice. The effort is funded with $30 million from the mayor’s philanthropy and a matching grant from billionaire investor George Soros. The city is kicking in an additional $67.5 million over the next three years.
“It’s a good thing — it will be more convenient, definitely,” noted Benjamin Soto, 21, who said he is on probation and lives near the planned Harlem NEON center. “Now my (probation officer) will be more available if I need to see him.”
Christopher Watler, the program director of the Harlem Community Justice Center, said the new model aligns with his organization’s approach. “This is a big switch for probation officers who are used to being downtown,” Watler added. “Now they are being asked to become part of the fabric of the community in a meaningful way, to work with partners, to identify resources.”