Red Hook Justice - Your Community. Your Court.

The New York Juvenile Justice Corps is off to another great start. We’ve just entered our third year of operation and completed the first week of orientation and training. Established in 2010, the New York Juvenile Justice Corps is an AmeriCorps service program that seeks to prevent young people in New York City from becoming enmeshed in the criminal justice system. The Corps is comprised of 58 members that primarily come from New York City. Members work with hundreds of young people every year and serve at CCI projects including: Harlem, Red Hook, Brownsville, Midtown, Staten Island Ready, QUEST, CCI's Youth Courts, the Attendance Achievement Program and the Youth Justice Board. Members also serve with our partners at the John Jay College Office of Community Outreach and Service Learning , and the Office of Children and Family Services. In addition to serving thousands of young people throughout the five boroughs, the Corps is also designed to give members a...

The Justice Center played host yesterday to two celebrations of the amazing young people that we have worked with this summer. Our first event was the graduation of sixteen interns from our High School Summer Internship Program.  The seven-week program involved two weeks of training at the Justice Center in skills like resume and cover letter writing, interviewing, and other skills necessary to succeed in the working world. For the following five weeks, interns were placed in a variety of sites throughout our catchment area including the Groundswell Community Mural Project , Community Board 7 , The Diamond Law Firm, The Red Hook Star Revue , Youth Made Media , the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation , Fireflies New York, Caselnova Restaurant , Beth Elohim Summer Camp , and SUNY Downstate Medical Center . Family, friends, internship supervisors, and Justice Center staff all came together to congratulate the interns on their hard work. A highlight of the event was hear...

Last week, high school students participating in the Justice Center’s summer youth programs took a break from serving as youth court members and interns at local businesses to spend the day exploring the role of higher education in their futures. Having watched all of last year’s graduating seniors from the Red Hook Youth Court go on to attend a stellar list of colleges and universities, these high schoolers were eager to learn about what the two schools they toured, Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Princeton University , might have to offer towards reaching their goals. As young people already actively involved in their communities, speaking with representatives from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs gave many students a taste of how they could put that experience into practice towards a career by studying public policy. At the end of the day, all students gained a better sense of what the college application process and campus life are ...

On Tuesday, June 19th, the Red Hook Community Justice Center hosted an end-of-season Photography Exhibit for the Spring 2012 JustArts: Photography program, in partnership with the Brooklyn Arts Council . The students showcased their best work based on their perspectives on the “Culture of Brooklyn,” and presented a video about their experiences in the program. The JustArts Photography Program is part of the Red Hook Community Justice Center’s Positive Youth Justice Initiative, which reframes the conversation about juvenile delinquency.  Instead of pathologizing court-involved youth and adolescent behavior, the Justice Center works to serve all young people within a positive youth development framework, drawing on their strengths as well as their potential to contribute to their communities.  Funding is provided by the  New York State Council on the Arts  and the  Robin Hood Foundation . Teen participants create a portrait studio at the...

For the past seven months the members of the Youth Advisory Board have been working with a team of graduate students from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at The New School and a New York Juvenile Justice Corps member from the Red Hook Community Justice Center to explore issues faced by young people in southwest Brooklyn. During this time the members of the Youth Advisory board have been identifying and investigating important questions about high school graduation rates and gang involvement in southwest Brooklyn. Throughout this process they have conducted interviews, handed out surveys, taken pictures and told their own stories. On Tuesday, May 29 th the members of the Youth Advisory Board screened a short video they made about these issues and presented the findings of their research to Justice Center staff, youth programs participants, faculty and administrators from The New School University , and community members. Teen members of t...

Saturday, April 28th marked the opening of the 15th season of the Red Hook Youth Baseball League. The beautiful spring morning began with a ceremony of short speeches and traditional first pitches by honored dignitaries and supporters of the league, including: Kings County District Attorney Honorable Charles J. Hynes, Council Member Sara M. Gonzalez, Felix Palacios, Community Liaison for Speaker Christine Quinn, 76th Precinct Police Captain Jeffrey Schiff, John McGettrick, President of the Red Hook Civic Association, and Honorable Judge Alex M. Calabrese of the Red Hook Community Justice Center. The ceremony concluded with a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem sung by Pat Sones, a Red Hook resident and longtime friend of the League. Immediately following the ceremony, exhibition games commenced in which Hynes' Heroes defeated the Defenders, and Southern Trucking defeated Gibbs' Brooklyn Youth Association Royals. The League rec...

The Red Hook Community Justice Center and the New York Juvenile Justice Corps hosted a high-profile visit last Friday, April 13th, from leaders involved with AmeriCorps at the national and state levels. The Justice Center was chosen as one of only two sites the group visited in New York state. From left: Judge Alex Calabrese, Red Hook Community Justice Center, Rosa Moreno-Mahoney, Acting Director - AmeriCorps State & National Corporation for National & Community Service, Mark Walter, Executive Director, New York State Commission on National & Community Service, and Alfred Siegel, Deputy Director, Center for Court Innovation Visitors, including  Adrienne Hallett, Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate Professional Staff,  Rosa Moreno-Mahoney, Acting Director - AmeriCorps State & National Corporation for National & Community Service,  Mark Walter, Executive Director, New York State Commission on National & Community Service, and...