Report: City’s Criminal Justice Reform Act has been a success
The Misdemeanor Justice Project (MJP), which is funded by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, issued a report this week that shows that the NYC Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA), which was passed by City Council back in June 2017, has caused a decline in the number of summonses and warrants issued by the city.
“CJRA was enacted into law to dramatically reduce the volume of warrants issued in criminal court,” says Preeti Chauhan, Director of John Jay’s Misdemeanor Justice Project. “So far it is achieving its goal of reducing the number of people who are receiving a permanent criminal record for a low-level, non-violent offense.”
The biggest change in the law created a presumption that civil summonses should be issued instead of criminal summonses on many low-level offenses with police officers ultimately holding the discretion.