Community Justice Center picking up support [excerpt]
C.W. Nevius
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Full article
Changing attitudes
But in the past few months, there's been an interesting shift in City Hall. Supervisor Bevan Dufty went to bat for the Community Justice Center, an idea that Mayor Gavin Newsom brought back from New York. The program involves a court designed to target frequent offenders, speed up their process, offer them services, and address problems with people like Miley, who are simply spinning through the system's revolving door.
Under such a program, people like Miley would be offered services, such as job training or drug and alcohol intervention, but would have to agree to accept them. Eventually, he might face stronger measures, such as being assigned a conservator - a court-appointed person who would be in charge of his finances and personal care. Accountability is the key.
"An individual like Mr. Miley is crying out for help," Dufty said, "but he is also a danger to the community. How many more danger signs do we need to see? That's what the Community Justice Center is designed to do, to pull together the pieces so you would not see these kinds of cases fall through the cracks."
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