Brooklyn DA unveils plan for criminal justice reform

Brooklyn's district attorney has unveiled what he calls sweeping and groundbreaking reforms, including reshaping criminal justice and reducing mass incarceration.

News 12 Staff

Mar 11, 2019, 9:27 PM

Updated 2,100 days ago

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Brooklyn DA unveils plan for criminal justice reform
Brooklyn's district attorney has unveiled what he calls sweeping and groundbreaking reforms, including reshaping criminal justice and reducing mass incarceration.
The plan is called Justice 2020. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says from now on, prosecutors in his office will take a different approach to their cases than in the past.
For example, they will follow a 17-point action plan, among them is getting rid of a person's past marijuana convictions. They intended to make sure every option is exhausted before sending a person to jail.
"What is different about this approach under Justice 2020 is that before we take an extraordinary step of depriving a person of their freedom, we are going to make sure that we thought through carefully the needs of that individual, the victim and the community, and whether other things will make more sense ," says Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says reform experts, defense attorneys and clergy members met for months on the issues. The hope is to have all pillars of the plan rolled out be the end of 2020.