STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Mayor Eric Adams and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks announced on Thursday that a significant investment had been made toward the future creation of the borough’s first community justice center .
The $5 million capital investment, which was part of the city’s 2025 budget, marks a significant step forward in the plan to bring a dedicated state-of-the-art space to the former criminal courthouse on Targee Street in Stapleton. By offering alternatives to traditional court processes to eligible defendants, community justice centers work to address underlying causes of criminal behavior, rehabilitate individuals and bring about a sense of accountability within the community. Here are four things to know about the project on Staten Island: ADDITIONAL FUNDING NEEDED While the $5 million allotment is a significant step toward the realization of the center, additional funding is still being sought and a potential opening for the center would be years away, a source said.
As outlined in the Adams administration’s “Blueprint for Community Safety,” the center would follow the community justice model of similar centers in other boroughs, rooted in evidence-based practices and emphasizing community engagement and collaboration. “What was once a criminal court will now be transformed into a community-driven center that will focus on giving our youth the tools and opportunities needed to succeed and contribute to our society over their lifetimes,” Adams said. IT OFFERS INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING A project of the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), the center would offer programs for children and adults who have been impacted by the justice system.
Programing at the center would include individual counseling, psycho-educational group programming, youth leadership, mentorship programming, reentry services and workforce development training for youth. The center would seek to prevent the negative consequences that often accompany an experience with the criminal legal system, while addressing clients’ needs to prevent being involved with the legal system going forward. “I am excited to be moving toward the realization of Staten Island’s first Community Justice Center — it’s been a long time coming for our borough,” Hanks (D-North Shore) told the Advance/SILive.
com. “This investment will enhance public safety, provide vital services and aims to reduce crime and incarceration..
.” In 2018, District Attorney Michael E. McMahon led a collection of Staten Island community leaders on a tour of the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn.
(Staten Island Advance) Staff-Shot D.A. HAS BEEN PUSHING SINCE 2018 District Attorney Michel E.
McMahon said he’s been working with CJI going back to 2018, as they partnered to study the feasibility of bringing such a site to the Island. That year, he led a collection of Staten Island community leaders on a tour of the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn. “An absolute game changer for Staten Island,” McMahon told the Advance/SILive.
com last week. “Today we are one step closer to making the dream of a Staten Island Community Justice Center a reality. Critical to addressing recidivism, youth violence and our borough’s public safety as a whole, a Staten Island Community Justice Center would help address the underlying conditions of crime by offering eligible defendants meaningful diversion, restorative and mediation programming, as well as providing the broader community with a central hub for much-needed services.
” The former Criminal Court building in Stapleton is shown in this 2021 file photo. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Soma-Hammel) FORMER COURTHOUSE COULD BE ASSET In 2021, actresses Brooke Shields and Sandra Bernhard, and “Superman Returns” co-stars Brandon Routh and Sam Huntington filmed at the old courthouse for Guy Jacobson’s movie, “Out of Order.” Even then, officials were pushing to repurpose the abandoned courthouse into a community justice center.
“With some care, this beautiful old building could be such a positive asset,” McMahon said at the time. “For many people in the community this used to be a bad place, but now it could be a place where we kind of turn that all around.”.
