When minors in Brooklyn get busted in the coming months for misdemeanor offenses like drug possession or fare evasion, they may find themselves in an art gallery rather than in jail.
Artist Shaun Leonardo and SoHo nonprofit art space Recess have teamed up with Brooklyn Justice Initiatives to offer a “diversion program,” in which young people convicted of misdemeanors—in particular those who will be treated as adults by the New York State criminal court—can learn about performing the stories of their lives and about artistic decision-making, after which prosecutors have the option to close and seal the young people’s cases.
“The problem of mass incarceration has so much visibility,” Leonardo said in a phone interview, “that on every level, from the courts to the district attorney, there is a desire to look for solutions.” The US accounts for five percent of the world’s population but a quarter of its jail and prison population. Some 2.3 million were incarcerated in 2016, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
