By Julia N.
Last Wednesday at 11AM we visited the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for an interview with three employees in the Crime Prevention Division. Sadie’s contact, Frank Laghezza, let us speak with him along with his colleagues, Mary Hughes and Teri Fabi, about their work. Mary Hughes is the Confidential Assistant District Attorney. She reports to Charles Hynes about the crime prevention division. Frank Laghezza is the Special Counsel to Schools and the Executive Assistant to the District Attorney. He is an expert on gangs and has contacts in schools around the city. Teri Fabi is Chief of the Crime Prevention Unit. During our interview we learned how this DA’s office is different from others in the country and about some of the numerous programs this office has set up. Among the programs are “ComALERT,” which helps people reenter society after being incarcerated through substance abuse treatment, anger management classes, GED classes, job placement assistance etc. and “Legal Lives” which is a program for attorneys to meet with 5th graders once a week, so they are part of the neighborhood community. Part of their job is to be aware and understand what is happening in their lives. The Crime Prevention Unit had opened a school in September of 2011 for teens who were likely to be incarcerated. It is called the Restart Academy at the Brownsville Campus. When it first opened, the school had 15 students, 93% of whom were gang members or wanted to be. All of these students were approximately 14 years old, and at a 3rd grade reading level. From the beginning of the school year to the end, the students’ average grade went from 49% to 85% and the average attendances went from 50% to 95%. What made this school so special was that they had an etiquette teacher who taught them manners, for example, how to set the table and what to do on a date. This gave them more confidence and at the end of the year they all passed. Another interesting fact is that Mary Hughes and Teri Fabi had an enormous hand in creating the Drew House. They were thrilled when they learned that we had enjoyed visiting there and that we were going to volunteer as well.
Mary Hughes said that the remarkable quality that the current District Attorney, Charles Hynes has, is that he studies the crimes of people and tries to figure out what caused them to commit the crime in the first place. If it was a drug problem, instead of sending them to prison, he would send them to treatment because he does not think it is humane to send an addict to prison. Also it saves the state money because crime prevention programs are much less expensive. It costs $260,000 to detain a youth for a year. Prisons have became economic systems. Instead of using so much money keeping the prisons functioning, what if they were converted into treatment centers for people with drug or physiological issues?
A fact that Teri Fabi brought up which stood out to me was when women are victimized and angry, they direct those feelings inwards and harm themselves by using drugs, drinking alcohol, or cutting. Their suffering is more silent while males tend to direct their hurt outward on others. Male crimes get more attention because they are broadcasted over the news and are “louder.” She also said that one way we could help is by spreading the word. Juvenile incarceration is a huge topic, but it does not get a lot of press attention. She suggested we could try to get an article into Seventeen or Teen Vogue. She would help us write it and get it published. However we have about seven fieldworks coming up in the next to weeks, so things will get very busy!
