Jumping turnstiles on the Manhattan subway will no longer be an offense punishable by arrest and imprisonment, a New York prosecutor said Friday, a move designed to unclog the city’s courts and prisons.
Defrauding the metro is currently punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1000 fine, according to the city’s penal code.
The threat is not merely hypothetical, with almost 10,000 people arrested in 2016 for the crime in the borough of Manhattan alone, according to a statement by public prosecutor Cyrus Vance.
Around 60 percent of cases land in court while the rest are abandoned, a spokesman for the district attorney told AFP.
Starting from September, the prosecutor’s office along with the mayor and the police envision a “drastic reduction” in the number of cases pursued.
Offenders will instead be offered alternative punishments including educational workshops, psychological care or community work.
“The criminal prosecution of these low-level, non-violent offenses should not be a part of a reformed 21st-century justice system. Absent a demonstrated public safety risk, criminally prosecuting New Yorkers accused of these offenses does not make us safer,” said Vance in a statement.
He added the measures would “further eliminate unnecessary incarceration, and reduce the risks of deportation, loss of housing, and loss of employment that often accompany a criminal prosecution,” while allowing police to focus their efforts on more serious and violent crimes.
In March 2016, Vance and New York police announced a number of measures to reduce the number of arrests following minor infractions like public urination or littering.
Authorities are hoping to reduce the number of misdemeanor cases processed from almost 94,000 in 2009 to 50,000 in 2017.
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