America Is the World Leader in Locking People Up. One City Found a Fix
New York’s supervised release program, a national model, is juggling thousands of defendants facing violent felony charges—and the politics of letting them walk free.
Sarah Mitchell manages supervised release cases for defendants awaiting trial in Queens.
Photographer: Andy Jackson for Bloomberg Businessweek
This story is part of Businessweek’s Cities issue, a collaboration with CityLab. Read more here.
Kevin says he scarcely remembers the night that threatens to ruin his life. Toward the end of a boozy evening last fall, he wound up in a basement apartment deep in the New York City borough of Queens. There was a fire there that night, and eventually, police would blame him for it. Four months later, he was in Queens County Criminal Court, facing felony charges of arson and reckless endangerment. (He maintains his innocence.) It would be up to the judge to decide whether to put a price on his freedom, and when Kevin heard the number the prosecution asked for, he wanted to cry. One million dollars, more money than he’d seen in his life. If his family pooled their funds, they wouldn’t come close.