LOS ANGELES CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

Neighborhood Justice Program

At NJP, we gave nonviolent first time misdemeanor offenders an alternative to incarceration. Participants in the program had the opportunity to work with a team of case managers and community volunteers to devise a way for them to give back to their community and rehabilitate instead of sitting behind bars.

NJP sees astounding success in reducing recidivism (committing another criminal offense). Since its inception, the recidivism rate for individuals who completed NJP is only 5%–meaning that 95% of our participants do not go on to commit another criminal offense.

ROLE: Legal Operations Assistant

As the sole assistant on a team of case managers and a lead attorney, I owned the organization and management of 50+ case files. Beyond backend logistics and administration, I also met with our participants and assisted in creating their rehabilitation plans. When a participant graduated from our program, I owned the data entry and and analysis concerning their recidivism tracking. Since our program is the first of its kind, I also got the opportunity to draft the pilot program manual so that we could share our impact across the state!

IMPACT: Giving participants a chance to give back to their communities instead of getting unproductively spun through an incarceration cycle, reducing repeat crimes in LA neighborhoods, bringing an innovative and efficient pilot program to the LA City government that is now being disseminated to counties across California!

NJP Site