ComALERT PROGRAM OFFERS FORMER PRISONERS A FRESH START

The DA’s ComALERT (Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together) program is an initiative designed to help people on parole or probation to re-enter their communities. It is a collaboration between the DA’s Office and many community-based organizations. The program also targets court-involved youth.

ComALERT’s services include job training and referral, education, substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and housing assistance.

The District Attorney’s Office forms partnerships with various community-based organizations that specialize in job training and substance abuse. These organizations provide services the former inmates need to adjust to life after prison as law-abiding citizens.

Typically, former inmates re-entering their communities face strained or broken families, lost jobs, insufficient housing, lingering substance abuse problems and inadequate education. District Attorney Hynes believes that to break the cycle of recidivism, people coming out of prison must be provided help finding jobs and staying off drugs. He maintains that innovative prevention and intervention strategies reduce crime in our communities as effectively as traditional prosecution and incarceration.

LANCE OGISTE: PROSECUTOR AND MENTOR

Counsel to District Attorney Hynes, Lance Ogiste is a leader in the DA’s Office as well as in Brooklyn’s diverse community, mentoring youth and volunteering with local legal and charitable organizations. Counsel Ogiste oversees the Appeals Bureau, the Community Relations Bureau and the ComALERT Program, which aids ex-offenders by helping them re-enter society after periods of incarceration. 

Born and raised in New York City, Ogiste organizes and attends various events throughout Brooklyn, informing residents of the programs and services that the DA’s office provides. Out in the community, he tries to encourage people to turn to the

District Attorney’s Office for help, if they have been victimized.

Prior to his appointment as Counsel to the District Attorney, Ogiste was in charge of the Civil Rights Bureau, which is responsible for prosecuting bias and hate crimes, and supervised attorneys working on immigration fraud cases. In addition, he has been Deputy Bureau Chief in the Appeals Trial Unit, a Senior Trial Attorney in the Trial Cadre, which handled murder and high-publicity cases; and he was an Assistant in the Law Enforcement Investigations Bureau, which prosecuted police officers accused of crimes.

Outside of the DA’s Office, Ogiste is involved in many professional associations. He is a member of the National Black Prosecutor’s Association, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and the American Bar Association, where he is a Co-Chair of the Committee on Re-Entry, which focuses on issues affecting ex-offenders reintegrating into society. 

Ogiste also devotes his spare time to mentoring minority teens in the YES (Youth Empowerment for Success) mentoring program, operated by the Children’s Aid Society, and is a member of the Board of Trustees at his former high school, Fordham Preparatory School. 

The news articles listed below, courtesy of the National District Attorney’s Association (ndaa.org), may be of interest to you or members of your community.

JURY PRACTICES VARY WIDELY ACROSS THE NATION
 

In South Carolina, voir dire in a civil trial typically lasts 30 minutes, a breeze compared with 16 hours in Connecticut. If you're trying a case in Rhode Island, there's a good chance you will question jurors individually, a rare occurrence in North Carolina. And count on Arizona's jurors to submit questions to witnesses -- but don't waste your time worrying about this if your trial is in Mississippi.

Such differences are among the findings of a new report, the first of its kind to examine jury practices from state to state. Released last week, the report was produced by the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., and the State Justice Institute in Alexandria, Va.

The report included responses to surveys from more than 11,000 attorneys and judges, and court officials in more than 1,500 counties.

The length of the jury-selection process is one of many factors that lawyers may need to be aware of, said Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the Center for Jury Studies in Williamsburg and one of the report's three co-authors.

http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1178541408575

(See “State-of-the-States Survey of Jury Improvement Efforts” at http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/cjs/pdf/SOSCompendiumFinal.pdf)

U.S. HOUSE PASSES LANDMARK FEDERAL HATE CRIMES BILL, SENATE BILL DEBATE PENDING, WEEK OF MAY 10-16, 2007

“The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the ''Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007,'' sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI).

The bill passed with a strong vote of 237-180 last week. As it goes to the Senate for a vote, Conyers lauds the bill as giving strong civil rights protection to an issue with deep roots in the Black community.

''It is one that is supported by more than 230 civil rights, education, religious, and civic organizations, including the NAACP, the ACLU, and the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights,'' Conyers says. ''It is also supported by virtually every major law enforcement organization in the country, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National District Attorneys Association, and the National Sheriffs Association.''

http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=78712&sID=12 

HOUSE BILL OFFERS STUDENT LOAN INCENTIVE

The House voted Tuesday to pay off up to $60,000 in student loans for lawyers who commit to working as public defenders or prosecutors for at least three years.

The bill, which would cap the loan spending at $25 million a year, passed 341-73. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate.

The bill would provide loan repayments of up to $10,000 per year , up to a cap of $60,000 , for law school graduates who work as criminal prosecutors or public defenders instead of taking what are often more lucrative jobs at private firms. The measure, which would expire in 2013 unless reauthorized, has backing from the American Bar Association and other legal groups.

"It is increasingly difficult for public law offices to retain experienced prosecutors and defenders," said Paul Logli, state's attorney in Winnebago County, Ill., and chairman of the board of the National District Attorneys Association. "Most of the young attorneys coming out of law school now are burdened with what most people would consider mortgage-sized debt."