Here’s how we became one of the first Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programs for youth and young adults in the country:
In 1974, Robert Siegal, an NYU student working out of his small apartment near Tompkins Square Park, had vision: to provide the youth on the Lower East Side with a safe space where they could do their homework, get meals, and socialize in a safe, environment. Robert organized basketball games, and provided local youth with meal tickets to get food at the NYU cafeteria.
At a time when the Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) model was relatively new, Robert began working across the criminal justice system to build relationships with the local precinct officers and advocate for court-involved youth to be offered services in the courtroom. Robert befriended an NYPD Police Officer from Harlem, Andrew Glover, who patrolled the Lower East Side and provided afterschool activities for the local youth. A police officer from the 7th Precinct recalled how Officer Glover returned to the Lower East Side, “on his time off to play basketball with the kids in the neighborhood.”
David Smith was working with the newly created New York Urban Coalition when Robert stopped by to ask if the Coalition would provide funds so he could hire an assistant to help him with his growing mission. The assistant he wanted to hire was Angel Rodriguez, who was working as a youth counselor at the local Boy’s Club.
Then in September 1975, one block from our community center at 100 Avenue B, Officer Glover was tragically killed in the line of duty. As Robert began to consider launching a non-profit organization, he asked Officer Glover's family for permission to name it the Andrew Glover Youth Program (AGYP) in honor of the impact he had on neighborhood youth. Sadly, in 1978 Robert’s own life was also cut short due to illness at the age of 28.
It was left to Angel to continue the work that Robert had started. In 1979, Angel incorporated the Andrew Glover Youth Program (renamed in 2016 as Avenues for Justice). A year later, he secured headquarters inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to rapidly respond to youth entering for court dates, advocating before the judges that they receive wholistic wraparound services. In 1982, the organization purchased an abandoned building at 100 Avenue B by Tompkins Square and turned it into our flagship Robert Siegal Center.
In those early days, Angel was joined by neighbors Sandra Vega, Hector Rivera, Jose Monges, and a few years later by Nelson Valentine. Nelson continues working at AFJ as Senior Court Advocate to this day. During the 1980's, Angel also collaborated with (ret.) Honorable Judge Michael Corriero – who currently stars on the CBS court show, Hot Bench – to launch the Youth Part model in Manhattan that prosecutes youth separately from adults and promotes ATI services. Today, this model is used nationwide.
Avenues for Justice’s work proved to be an enormous success. In the 1990's, we began measuring recidivism rates. Currently, only 6% of our Participants are reconvicted of a new crime within three years of enrolling in our program.
What started with a few committed neighbors helping youth in the Lower East Side, has evolved to today where we help nearly400 of New York City’s youth and young adults, ages 13 through 24. AFJ assists our Participants with their legal matters and provides services for job training, educational and academic assistance, mental health wellness services, and much more through our HIRE UP program. Our work today is possible thanks to our Co-founder, Robert Siegal, who planted the roots of our ATI model in the Lower East Side.
We are grateful to Community Board 3 and New York City Council – along with District 2 Council Member, Carlina Rivera – for unanimously voting in December 2021 to honor our 40+ years of service by naming the block by our LES community center, Avenues for Justice Way.
While the criminal justice system seeks retribution for past misdeeds, our program seeks to prevent our participants from engaging in future crime and help them lead successful lives going forward. Validated by neurological and psychological studies that confirm that young adults’ brains do not fully mature until age 25, AFJ’s approach has always been non-punitive because decision making capability in young adults is not fully developed and they have a high capacity for rehabilitation and positive change. AFJ’s results confirm this approach.
AFJ maintains centers in underserved communities where many of our Participants live. If our Participants require specialized support (e.g. mental health or substance counseling) we refer them to providers in or close to the community whenever possible. Most of our Court Advocates are life-long residents of those very communities and know them well, including how to enlist the community in supporting our Participants. In turn, the communities know and trust us with their young people.
Court Advocates perform a variety of functions in our program including intake, program design, case management, mentoring, and advocacy in Court—all of which are detailed in this paper. The key to their success is establishing a consistent, trusting, honest “all-in” relationship with their Participants—a relationship many of our Participants lack when they come to us. Such a relationship is necessary to bring about behavior change.
The Court Advocate co-creates a comprehensive individual action plan (Individual Action Plan) with and for every participant. The Individual Action Plan addresses a person with a specific set of needs, risks and strengths and therefore is more likely to succeed in preventing future crime and changing behavior than a uniform approach. Further, when possible, the Individual Action Plan addresses and enlists the participant’s family as well.
Our Participants are accountable to us and the court. Similarly, we hold ourselves accountable to the court, our Participants, and the community. The foundation of accountability is transparency and honesty. This starts by encouraging our Participants to be honest with themselves and acknowledge the reality of their current situation and their role in creating it. Moreover, if a Participant deviates from the individual plan, we will report it to the court, while developing solutions to get the Participant back on track.
Our program is goal based and risk based, not time based. We want the Participant to remain with AFJ as long as necessary to address the risks facing the Participant, achieve the goals of their Individual Action Plan and maximize the likelihood that their gains will be sustainable. In our experience, the chances such progress will be sustainable increase with longer engagements. Thus, the average length of time Participants stay in the program is 3 years so they can be further along in their development before they leave.
Our core competency is helping justice involved young people, ages 13-24, through a combination of court advocacy, mentorship, and intensive case management. We partner with and make referrals to third party service providers with proven track records in mental health services and drug rehabilitation.
We collect data on our program to measure our performance and effectiveness. However, our Participants are people, not statistics. Our impact cannot be measured solely by data. We collect and disseminate our Participants’ stories to communicate to the public, on a human level, that our Participants face significant challenges but can overcome them with the right support.