Based on his twenty years of experience as a Justice with criminal jurisdiction whose principal remedy to criminal behavior has been incarceration and probation, Judge McKinnis has concluded that those who are sent to prison and / or probation tend to be re-arrested for additional crimes and that the more times that a defendant has been incarcerated in the past, the more dangerous and violent are his or her crimes after each incarceration.
Judge McKinnis has concluded, based on criminal law experience, that there is a need for society to do the following things in revision of our criminal justice systems:
- Remove incarceration as a remedy for appropriate non-violent crimes.
- Remove statutory minimum sentences of incarceration and allow the sitting Justice the freedom to craft a sentence that meets the circumstances of a case and the needs of society.
- Establish a Court supervised system in which criminal defendants who are not hardened recidivists may be ordered by the Court to go through a series of therapies and interventions which are calculated to change the defendant’s behavior for the better.
Judge McKinnis cannot as a sitting Justice deal with the first two recommendations, as they both require legislation. However, he has in fact dealt with the third recommendation and has established in his Bronxville, NY Court a program that is called Community Restorative Justice.
Community Restorative Justice allows the Bronxville Justice Court to establish a program of suitable therapies and interventions that are prescribed by TASC, a Westchester County Organization that is part of the County Department of Mental Health. TASC exists to aid our County Courts in dealing with criminal defendants that have mental or drug or alcohol issues that affect the defendant’s behavior.
TASC interviews defendants that are identified by the Court as Community Restorative Justice candidates. TASC then determines whether there are background and behavioral issues that may have a bearing on the defendant’s criminal behavior that can be adequately addressed by therapies and interventions. TASC will deliver to the Bronxville Court a statement of what therapies and interventions the defendant should go through for a year of supervised participation in a Community Restorative Justice program.
One year of treatment requires that the defendant have considerable encouragement and close supervision. The encouragement and supervision is offered by community volunteers who are unpaid members of the Bronxville Justice Court. Without this support many candidates for a Community Restorative Justice program would be unable to get through a rigorous one-year program. This is why Judge McKinnis’ program is named Community Restorative Justice, as any Court that uses this system will need community volunteers to aid the Court in conducting these one year remedial programs.
This system is further described in the below attachments.
Short Description of Community Restorative Justice
Community Restorative Justice Training Memo